NATURAL FEATURES Standard 1 Objective 1 Determine the

NATURAL FEATURES Standard 1, Objective 1: Determine the relationships between human settlement and geography

Objective: By the end of this lesson, you will be able to identify natural features on a map.

ESSENTIAL QUESTION: How can I identify natural features on a map?

What are natural features? Natural features are things that exist naturally on the earth. Natural features that have water in them include rivers, lakes, and oceans. Natural features on land include mountains, canyons, deserts, valleys, forests, plains, and hills.

Let’s watch a movie about natural features on a map.

How do maps show natural features? Lakes and rivers are shown by blue area and wavy blue lines.

How do maps show natural features? Mountains are shown by map colors that imitate mountain shadows.

Look at the map. Find the Rocky Mountains. What two things helped you find the Rocky Mountains?

How do maps show natural features? Wetlands may be shown by blue symbols that look like plants in water.

How do maps show natural features? Deserts may be shown by dots that look like grains of sand.

What are cultural features? Cultural features are made by people. Some examples are boundaries, roads, cities, trails, buildings, place names, benchmarks, cemeteries, churches, schools and much more.

How do maps show cultural features? Boundaries are shown by red lines between different colors.

How do maps show cultural features? Highways may be shown by thin red lines with red numbers.

How do maps show cultural features? Cities are shown by red dots and red names.

How do maps show cultural features? State capitals are cities that are shown with red stars.

How do maps show cultural features? This map has the largest cities in the U. S. labeled. Which of the largest U. S. cities is nearest to your home?

Which natural features can you find on this map?

LET’S REVISIT OUR ESSENTIAL QUESTION: How can I identify natural features on a map?

Credits Photos by Nystrom, National Geographic Content from Nystrom Video by Cartoons Time