| Activity: Notice How You Control Your Surroundings |
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Everyone controls his or her surroundings. Look at the way you arrange furniture in your home. You place tables and chairs in places that suit the shape of the room and the position of windows and doors. You also arrange the room according to how people use it.
- Make paper cutouts of
furniture and arrange them on a map representing your home (graph paper
works well for such a map). By cutting out paper to represent different
pieces of furniture, children can begin to learn the mapmaker's skill in
representing the three-dimensional real world.
- Ask your children to
consider what the yard might look like if you did not try to change it by
mowing grass, raking leaves, or planting shrubs or trees. You might add a
window box if you don't have a yard. What would happen if you didn't water
the plants?
- Walk with your children
around your neighborhood or a park area and help them clean up litter. Talk
about different kinds of waste disposal (e.g., landfills, dumps, recycling)
and how they affect the environment.
- Take your children to
see some examples of how people have shaped their environment: bonsai
gardens, reservoirs, terracing, or houses built into hills. Be sure to talk
with them about how and why people create such things.
- If you live in an urban area, try to visit a nearby farm. Some cities and states maintain farm parks for just this purpose. Call the department of parks or recreation in your area to find out where there is one near you. Talk with your children about how farmers use natural resources--soil, water, and sun--to grow crops and raise livestock. How do they keep livestock from wandering off? How do they prevent crops from being eaten by birds or destroyed by disease?
~Table
of Contents~
~Location~Place~Relationships~Movement~Regions~
~Glossary~
Courtesy of Education Publications Center
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