Consumer Information Center Helping Your Child Learn Geography Place Physical and Human
Consumer Information Center: Helping Your Child Learn Geography - Place: Physical and Human
Characteristics
Helping Your Child Learn Geography - October 1996
Place: Physical and Human Characteristics 
Every place has a personality. And, just like people, places may have a
lot in common, but no two are exactly alike.
What makes a place special? What are the physical and human
characteristics of your hometown? Is the soil sandy or rocky? Is the
temperature warm or is it cold? Did important historical events occur
there? Is it near a river or lake? What physical characteristics are most
important or unique?
What about the people? How are they affected by the characteristics of
place? Their language, style of government, architecture, industries--all
define the special character of a place.
Activities
- Walk around your neighborhood and look at what makes it unique. Point
out how it is similar to other places you have been and how it is
different. Talk about what animals and plants live in your neighborhood.
Look at the buildings and discuss their uses. Are there features
designed to meet weather conditions, such as window shutters or sun
rooms? Do the shapes of some buildings tell us how they were used in the
past or how they are used now?
- If you live near a park, a lake, a river, a stream or a creek, take
your children there and spend time talking about its uses. If you live
near an historical site, visit it and talk about what happened there and
why it's important. Look for other points of interest in your town and
learn more about them.
- Read stories and books about distant places with your children. Many
children's books provide vivid images of different places and a sense of
what it would be like to live in them. A Country Far Away, Heidi,
and Going for Oysters are examples of books about other parts
of the world that have inspired many young readers. There is a list of
resources at the end of this booklet, and your librarian will have
additional suggestions.
- Use songs to teach geography. ``Home on the Range,'' "California,
Here I Come," and "This Land Is Your Land" are all songs
about place. Teach your children folk songs of different countries like
``La Cucaracha,'' ``London Bridge,'' and ``Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel.''
- With your children, see a movie or video which is set in a different
land such as "The Lion King," "Treasure Island," or "A
Little Princess."
- Talk with your children about the places these books, songs, and
movies celebrate, find them on a map or globe, and discuss their mental
picture of these places.
Climate very much affects the character of a place. The amount of sun
or rain, heat or cold, the direction and strength of the wind, all
determine such things as how people dress, how well crops grow, and the
extent to which people will want to live in a particular spot. Join your
children in observing weather conditions.
- Watch the weather forecast on television or read the weather map in
the newspaper. Save the maps for a month or more. You can see changes
over time and compare conditions over several weeks and seasons. Reading
the weather map helps children observe changes in the local climate.
- Use a weather map to look up the temperatures of cities around the
world and discover how hot each gets in the summer and how cold each
gets in the winter. Compare these figures with your town. Ask your
children if they can think of reasons why different locations have
different temperatures. Many children enjoy finding the place that is
the hottest or the coldest.
- Make simple weather-related devices such as barometers, pinwheels,
and wind chimes (check at your local public library for how-to books of
experiments). Watch cloud formations and make weather forecasts for your
hometown.
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[Location: Position on the Earth's Surface]
![[Table of Contents]](http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/cic_text/family/geography/up.gif)
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Relationships Within Places: Humans and Environments]
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