Lesson Objectives

✓ Describe the relative location of the five regions of the United States.

✓ Identify the United States as a nation in North America.

Vocabulary

• Contiguous

• Region

• Relative location

• Continent

• Population

A Nation of 50 States• 48 of the 50 states are contiguous, next to each

other, and share at least one border with another state.

• Two states, Alaska and Hawaii, are separated from the other states.

• The United States can be separated into smaller regions, areas in which many features are similar.

• The states are separated into five regions. The relative location of a place is where it is compared to other places.

Regions of the United States

A Country in North America• The United States is located in the continent of North

America. There are seven continents, or large land masses, that make up Earth.

• The United States is one of the largest countries in North America.

• You can measure the size of a country in two different ways:– land area – population (number of people)

A Country in North America

• In land area, Canada is the largest country in North America (USA is 2nd).

• In population, the United States is the largest country in North America (Mexico is 2nd).

North America

Canada• Canada is a country located north of the United States. • Canada and the United States share similar histories, as

both were explored by the French and British and were once under British rule.

• Fewer people live in Canada than in either Mexico or the United States.

• Much of northern Canada is very cold for most of the year, and most people live near the southern border.

Mexico• In land area, Mexico is smaller than both Canada and

the United States. However, Mexico has more people than Canada.

• Mexico’s capital, Mexico City, is one of the world’s largest cities.

• Mexico and the United States also share a history. Long ago, Spain sent settlers to live in what is now Mexico and the southwestern US.

Latitude and Longitude

Absolute Location: The exact location of a place

Lines of Latitude: Run along the equator Lines of Longitude: Lines that run north and south along the Prime Meridian

Lesson Objectives✓ Identify and describe the landform regions of the

United States.

✓ Locate the landforms of North America on a map.

Vocabulary

• Landform region

• Climate

• Mountain range

• Erosion

• Prairie

• Environment

Landform Regions

• To better study the land of the United States, we divide our country into landform regions, or regions that have similar landforms throughout.

• Dividing the country into landform regions makes it easier to compare and contrast different parts of the country.

The Coastal Plain• The Coastal Plain is a broad, tree lined plain

along the Atlantic Ocean that stretches from Massachusetts to Florida.

The Appalachians• West of the Coastal Plain lay the Appalachian Mountain Range,

which stretches from southern Canada to central Alabama.

• A mountain range is a group of connected mountains.

• The Appalachians are the oldest mountains in the United States, but their peaks have been worn down by glaciers, rain, and wind. This gradual wearing away of Earth’s surface is called erosion.

• The Appalachians are made up of many smaller mountain ranges, including:– Great Smoky

– Blue Ridge

– Catskill

– White

The Interior Plains• West of the Appalachian Mountains lay the Interior Plains, a large

area of land stretching across the middle of our country from the Appalachian Mountains in the East to the Rocky Mountains in the West.

• The Interior Plains can be separated into two different areas; the Central Plains and the Great Plains.

• In the Central Plains the land is mostly flat or rolling, and is sometimes called a prairie because it is covered by grasses.

• In the Great Plains the land becomes even flatter, and there are few rivers and almost no trees.

The Rocky Mountains and Beyond• The Rocky Mountains are the country’s

largest and longest mountain range, and stretch from Mexico through Canada and into Alaska.

• The Rockies are much younger than the Appalachians and because of this, their peaks appear sharp and jagged due to a shorter period of erosion.

• Part of this land is the Great Basin. A basin is a low, bowl-shaped land with higher land all around it.

Intermountain Region

Great Basin

Death Valley

More Mountains and Valleys• Just inside California is the Sierra

Nevada Mountain Range.

• Along the Pacific Ocean in California, Oregon, and Washington are the Coast Ranges, which are low mountains that give the Pacific Coast a rocky, rugged look.

Beyond the Rockies

Sierra Nevada Mts.

Lesson Objectives✓ Identify and locate major bodies of water in

the United States.

✓ Explain why many cities in the United States are located near rivers.

Vocabulary• Inlet

• Gulf

• Sound

• Tributary

• River system

• Drainage basin

• Fall line

Inlets and Lakes• An inlet is any area of water extending

into the land from a larger body of water.

• The largest inlets are called gulfs, and the largest gulf bordering the United States is the Gulf of Mexico.

• Bays and sounds also shape the coastline of the United States.

• A sound is a long inlet that separates offshore islands from the mainland.

Inlets and Lakes• The Great Lakes are the largest lakes in the United States and

in North America and are located on the border between the United States and Canada. – Huron– Ontario– Michigan– Erie– Superior

• The Great Lakes and the rivers connected to them link the Midwest and the Atlantic Ocean.

• Most lakes are made up of fresh water, except for the Great Salt Lake in Utah, which is as salty as any ocean!

Lake Superior

Lake Michigan

Lake JordanApex, NC

Rivers• Rivers are bodies of fresh, moving water. Every river begins at

a source and ends at a mouth, where it empties into a larger body of water.

• A tributary is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or river.

• A river and its tributaries make up a river system. A river system drains, or carries water away from, the land around it. The land drained by a river system is its river basin.

Drainage Basins in the United States

Rivers in the East• Many rivers cross the Coastal Plain and flow into the Atlantic

Ocean.

• Many cities have been built where rivers flow into oceans (New York City, Boston). Living near a river made it easier to travel and to transport goods.

• Some cities lie inland along the Fall Line, which divides the Piedmont and the Coastal Plain. A fall line is a place where the land drops sharply, causing rivers to form waterfalls and rapids.

Rivers in the West• The Continental Divide is an imaginary line that runs north

and south along the highest points of the Rocky Mountains.

• This line divides the major river systems of North America into those that flow into rivers leading to the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean and those that flow into the Pacific or Arctic Oceans.

• Rivers that begin east of the Continental Divide eventually reach the Atlantic Ocean. Most rivers that begin west of the line empty into the Pacific Ocean.

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Lesson Objectives✓ Identify the factors that affect climate and

vegetation.

✓ Describe the climate regions of the United States.

Vocabulary• Elevation

• Natural vegetation

• Arid

• Tundra

Climate• Climate – the weather conditions, including temperature,

precipitation, and wind, that occur in an area over a period of time.

• There are factors that affect the climate of an area: – Distance from the equator– Distance from oceans and other large bodies of water– Elevation (height of the land in relation to the sea level)

Climate• Areas that are closer to the equator (Southern United States)

are warmer than places farther away. • Areas that are close to water can be warmed by water in the

winter and cooled by the water in the summer. • Areas with high elevations are cooler than areas with lower

elevations – for every 1,000 feet above sea level, the temperature drops about 3° F.

Earth and the Sun• Earth’s orbit around the sun causes changes in seasons –

summer, autumn (fall), winter, and spring.

• Because the earth is tilted on its axis, places get different amounts of sunlight and heat at different times of the year.

• Some places have four seasons, while other places it is mostly warm all year or mostly cold all year.

Vegetation• Weather in the 48 contiguous states generally moves from west to

east. • Earth is covered with different kinds of natural vegetation, or plant

life that grows naturally in a place. • The types of vegetation that grows in places depends on several

factors including: – Soil conditions– Temperature– Precipitation

• The amount of precipitation in a place is the single most important factor affecting where different kinds of natural vegetation grow.

Vegetation Regions• Most of the United States can be divided into four main

vegetation regions: Forest, Grassland, Desert, Tundra

• Forest regions extend across large areas of both the eastern and western United States.

• The larger grassland region in the United States stretches across the middle of the country.

• Only plants that can grown in an arid, or dry, climate can grow in deserts. These plants include short grasses, low bushes, and cactuses.

• A tundra is a cold, dry region where tress cannot grow. Tundra regions are covered by snow more than half the year.

Vegetation RegionsGuess the RegionForest

Grassland

Desert

Tundra

Lesson Objectives✓ Explain how physical features affect human

settlement patterns.

✓ Describe ways that people use the land and affect the environment.

Vocabulary• Land use

• Natural resource

• Renewable resource

• Nonrenewable resource

• Modify

• Irrigation

• Efficiency

Patterns of Settlement

• 300 million people live throughout the United States in different areas.

• The physical features of an area, such as climate, soil, water, and landforms, can affect how people move, travel, and where they settle.

• Today, people live in areas that were once considered not desirable places to live because of inventions and irrigation.

• People live in cities that spread out over large areas, which are often found along transportation routes such as rivers, lakes, or a coast.

Patterns of Land Use• Landforms, bodies of water, climate, and

vegetation can influence land use, or how the land is used.

• In the United States, about half of the land is used for farmland, which makes up areas in the Coastal Plain, on the Interior Plains, and in valleys in the West.

• Much of the mining in the United States takes place in the mountain regions.

• Cities also take up large areas of the United States, where most of the land is used for housing, transportation, and business.

Natural Resources• A natural resource is something found in

nature that people can use. Natural resources include soil, plants, water, and minerals.

• There are two kinds of natural resources: – Renewable resources – resources that can be

made again by people or nature (water, trees, and sources of energy such as light and wind).

– Nonrenewable resources – resources that cannot be made again by people, or resources that would take thousands of years for nature to replace (ores, minerals, oils, and gas).

Changing the Environment• Americans modify, or

change, the land they live on. They modify the land so that they are able to live on it and meet their needs.

• Irrigation is the use of canals, ditches, or pipes to move water.

• Irrigation allows farmers to grow crops in dry areas, such as the Southwest.

Changing the Environment