Geography-4th Grade

Understand world geography and the effects of geography on society, with an emphasis on the United States. Understand world geography and the effects of geography and religion on society with an emphasis on the United States.

Locate, describe and explain places, regions and features on the Earth. Locate, describe and explain places, regions and features of God’s creation. 

Analyze and explain characteristics and interactions of the Earth’s physical systems. Analyze and explain the moral implications of our interactions with the Earth’s physical systems.

Understand relationships between geographic factors and society. Understand relationships between geographic factors, society and the Church.

Understand the historical significance of geography. Understand the historical significance of geography and the Church.

Describe the location of countries relative to the locations of other countries; identify the religions in those locations.

Locate the principal parallels and meridians on maps and globes.

Create a map containing basic elements (e.g., lines, points, symbols).

Evaluate maps drawn to different scales to determine the one most useful for describing the characteristics of a place.

Locate on maps, major bodies of water and river systems in Illinois, the United States, and the world.

Compare ways the physical environment is used to meet needs of people (e.g., cutting trees, mining, raising food).

Explain how the length of day can influence human activities in different regions of the world (e.g., use of daylight savings time, school schedules in the United States, summer and winter activities in areas north of the Arctic Circle).

Describe your feelings about some element of the physical environment (e.g., forests, beaches, snow-covered hills, your favorite area in the neighborhood).

Interpret a diagram or use a globe to show Earth’s rotation on its axis to explain the causes of day and night.

Recognize that people can work together to preserve and protect the natural resources and environment. 

Explain how people can work together to preserve and protect God’s creation. 

Discuss how different groups of people in the world adapt to the physical and human environment to meet their physical, spiritual and emotional needs.

Compare ways in which people in urban and rural communities meet their needs from the environment.

Explain how environmental problems may result from the use of technology and ways that technology might be used to solve environmental problems. 

Identify resources whose value has changed over time as technology has changed.

Describe changes in the local environment over time.

Compare historical and contemporary perceptions people have of the same place.

Describe the geographic history of a community.

Analyze how the physical features of U.S. regions have affected the settlement patterns; compare the settlement patterns with religions.