Lesson Plan #4 of Unit Plan (Thursday)

Grade: 4th
Social Studies Strand: Geography
Submitted By: Kerri Pavalon


EDEL 453: Teaching Elementary School Social Science
Nevada State College Spring 2014
Instructor: Karen Powell

POPULATION MAPS

Lesson Plan #4 of Unit Plan (Thursday)- Geography submitted by: Kerri Pavalon

Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2014 Karen Powell- Instructor page 2
B. Summary of the Lesson Plan:
In this lesson, students will learn about the population in Nevada, where most people live in
our state, and some fun facts about Nevadas population. Students will create maps of
our classroom and represent our class population.
C. Basic Information:
Grade Level: 4
th
grade
Time to Complete this Lesson: Approximately 50 minutes
Groupings: Whole class for
D. Materials:
SMART board
Population Map of Nevada (attached)
http://www.census.gov/schools/facts/nevada.html
Social Studies journals
Construction paper
Art supplies (colored pencils, small stickers, crayons, etc.)
E. Objectives:
o NV State Social Studies Standards
G5.4.4 Utilize different types of Nevada maps, i.e., population and
physical maps, to understand spatial distribution.
o Student-Friendly Standards
I can learn about the population in Nevada, and where the most people
live in our state.
I can learn about population in other locations like my classroom and my
school.
F. Vocabulary
Population distribution- the arrangement or spread of people in a given area and how
the population is arranged according to specific characteristics (age, gender, etc.)
Population density- the number of people living in a specific area. (ex. per mile, per
county)
map key or legend- is used to explain the symbols used in a map
G. Procedure:
Lesson Plan #4 of Unit Plan (Thursday)- Geography submitted by: Kerri Pavalon

Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2014 Karen Powell- Instructor page 3
1. Students will be introduced to the objectives and the key vocabulary for this lesson.
They will copy the key vocabulary terms and their definitions in their Social Studies
notebooks.
The population map of Nevada will be displayed on the SMART board, and we will
have a whole class discussion about the population map of Nevada. I will inform my
students that in this lesson they will learn why some areas in Nevada are more or less
crowded than others.
2. The following questions will guide our discussion:
* Ask students to tell whether their community is crowded or not crowded and explain
why.
* Which two counties have the most people living there?
* Why do you think that other areas of Nevada have less people?
3. Next, students will view the following web page on the SMART board,
http://www.census.gov/schools/facts/nevada.html. It is a fun web page that shows
specific populations here in Nevada, such as the number of 10 year old girls, the
number of 9 year old boys, etc.
4. As a class, we will complete a population survey of our class. (like the list on the
website). Students will record the information in their Social Studies journals as we
explore the populations of our classroom. Together we will find out the following
information:
*How many 9 year old girls are in our classroom?
*How many 10 year old girls are in our classroom?
*How many of a different age? (I would count as one in this category)
*How many 9 year old boys are in our classroom?
*How many 10 year old boys are in our classroom?
*How many immediate family members does each student have? (not including
themselves)
*How many students attend our school? (I will have obtained this information prior, but I
would have students guess).
*How many students are in the 4
th
grade? (I would have this information prior to the
lesson, but I would have them guess).
5. We will create a list on large colored chart paper entitled, Our class population, and
display it in our classroom.
6. Students then will create their own maps of our classroom and include a key of our
population distribution on construction paper. They will represent our class population
somehow in their maps. They will be able to use colored pencils, crayons, stickers,
different colored dots, etc. For example, one student may use pink dots to show how
many 9 year old girls, red dots to represent how many 10 year old girls, blue dots to
show 9 year old boys, etc. The population map will still be displayed on the SMART
board, so that students have a visual of a map key.
Lesson Plan #4 of Unit Plan (Thursday)- Geography submitted by: Kerri Pavalon

Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2014 Karen Powell- Instructor page 4
7. Students will receive my help, as I will be walking around the classroom while they are
creating their population maps.
8. When finished, students will turn in their maps to the Finished Work basket.
H. Assessment:
What will you use to measure student understanding?
To measure understanding, I will check the classroom maps that students created and
determine if they represented our class population correctly.
Explain how you will know students understand the concepts from the lesson.
I will determine if students understood the concepts by evaluating the way they
showed the population of our class. If they did not come up with a way to represent
the different populations of our class accurately, I may have to give extra clarification
of the concept.
I. Closure:
Students who want to share their classroom maps and how they represented our class
population will be able to do so. (We may only have time for two or three students to
share). To make it fair, I may call popsicle sticks with their names on them.
J. Reflection:
1. Which part of the lesson do you think will be the easiest for you to teach?
I think that the easiest part of this lesson will be teaching the students about the
population in our class because they will be able to view the website used in this
lesson before we calculate our own class populations. (It will be a great visual aide
for them).
2. Which part will be most challenging for you to teach?
The most challenging part of this lesson may be teaching the key vocabulary terms
because they may be confusing for some students. Also, it does not help that the
definitions sound so much alike.
3. How will you follow up or extend this lesson?
I can extend this lesson by having students add other characteristics to their maps
or by continuing to allow more students to share their representations of our class
population with their classmates.
4. What can you do for students who dont grasp the concepts?
For students who do not grasp the concepts, I will help them come up with ways
they can represent our class population by suggesting ways to do so.
5. Which part of the lesson, if any, do you think might need to change?
Lesson Plan #4 of Unit Plan (Thursday)- Geography submitted by: Kerri Pavalon

Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2014 Karen Powell- Instructor page 5
I may need to change the wording of the vocabulary terms. These were the most
student-friendly definitions I could come up with, but I may need to go back and
research more. Students may be confused by these terms because they sound so
similar!
6. When you were writing this lesson plan, what was the most difficult part?
The most difficult part of writing this specific lesson plan was thinking of an activity
that students could do that did not involve a boring worksheet. Once I stumbled
across the website used in this lesson, I finally started to come up with some ideas.