MRS. HOFFMAN’S
G.R.A.P.E.S of
Me Project
GEOGRAPHY
LOCATION : 33.8147° North Longitude and 92.4144° West Latitude for Fordyce Arkansas –
My Hometown!
PLACE (Physical Characteristics): My hometown and the area surrounding it has mainly flat land with a few
hills and quite a few rivers. This is the perfect area of the state for HUNTING deer! A lot of pine trees are
grown and harvested there too. The county I grew up in has a tremendous amount of land with no homes at
all! This land is used simply for hunting and growing trees!
HUMAN ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION:
 How do we depend on the environment? We eat veggies that were grown in my Grandma’s garden, and eggs from the
chickens in her coop outside. We bought our milk at the grocery store, but Daddy went hunting a lot for deer and turkeys!
(YUM – my favorite!)
 How do we adapt to the environment? Air-conditioning, cars, and insulation or dealing with Natural hazards/disasters
 How do we modify the environment? My family had a small farm just for us!
MOVEMENT: How do we travel, move ourselves and ideas from one place to another? We all had
vehicles, but we also had a four-wheeler and a go cart to get around on the dirt roads.  My mom’s dad
even had a tiny plane they used to go on vacation! (Mom said she got sick EVERY time. )
REGION (city, county, state, country): Fordyce, Dallas County, Arkansas, United States of America
Five Themes of Geography
Geography is more
than names, dates,
capital cities and
remote locations on
maps.
Geographers organize space on a map in ways like historians
organize time.
Five Themes of Geography
There are five themes of geography that help geographers organize
space. These themes answer the questions: Where is it? Why is it
there? and What are the consequence of its being there?
Five Themes of Geography
Location
Place
Human/Environment Interaction
Movement
Regions
Five Themes of Geography
The first of the five themes is Location.
Just like it sounds, when you talk about location, you mean a point or
an area somewhere on the surface of the Earth.
Absolute location can be a street
address or the latitude and longitude
of a place. It’s very specific.
The absolute location
of New York City is:
40° 42' 51" N longitude
74° 0' 23" W latitude.
Five Themes of Geography
The Relative location describes the location of a
place with respect to other places and the
environment.
New York City is on the eastern seaboard of the
United States.
The City was built where the Hudson River flows
into the Atlantic Ocean.
The Big Apple is in the southeast corner of New
York State.
Five Themes of Geography
The second of the five themes is Place.
Place refers to the physical and human characteristics in a location.
Physical characteristics refer to mountains, rivers, animals, plants,
forests, beaches,
grasslands, bodies
of water, soil and
topography of a
spot.
Five Themes of Geography
Human characteristics refer to the cultural features that people bring to an
area. This includes the architecture, religion, food, population density,
language patterns, politics, transportation and types of occupations.
One of the more unique locations in the United States due to its cultural
features is New Orleans.
Five Themes of Geography
The theme of Place helps to flesh out the information you have from
Location.
Your school may be located at 1426 Main Street. That’s the Location.
But, Place gives you the personality of the school. You learn about the
number of classrooms, diversity of the
population, what’s in the
broom closet, the kind of
clothing students wear, the
smells in the back of the
kitchen, the football team’s
record and the test score you’d
rather forget.
Five Themes of Geography
The third of the five themes is Human/Environment Interaction which
includes three key concepts.
• Humans depend on the environment. Your environment is made up
of everything around you. It includes both living and non-living things.
No matter where you live, you depend on your environment for food,
shelter and clothing.
*From the beginning of time, people migrated to find
places with enough food, water and shelter for living.
Five Themes of Geography
• Humans modify the environment.
People learned a long time ago how to modify the environment to
better their lives. Tools from stone, bone and later metal were used
to plow fields and irrigate crops.
People continue to this day
to build homes, construct
dams, farm with larger
tools, and interact with
the environment in
both positive and
negative ways.
Five Themes of Geography
• Humans adapt to the environment.
People have managed to find ways to live in almost every corner
of the planet. Some people have built their homes on poles to
protect them from flooding.
If you live in a cold location, most likely you
have some kind of heating in your home.
If you are in a hot spot, you adapt with a fan,
air conditioning or maybe some refreshing
iced tea.
Five Themes of Geography
The fourth of the five themes is Movement.
Humans move a lot. And, it isn’t just people. Our ideas, products, fads
and resources move around the planet.
The process of Movement
continues to change.
Consider how long it must
have taken Vikings to
cross the ocean and
how quickly it is done
today.
Five Themes of Geography
Yes, it is impossible to comprehend, but it wasn’t so long ago that there
were no smart phones, tablets, lap tops or even computers. Yikes!!! The
Movement of communication continues at a rapid pace making it easier
and faster to keep in touch with family and friends all around the world.
Five Themes of Geography
The fifth of the five themes is Regions.
Regions are areas that have similar, unifying characteristics that can be
physical, human, cultural or natural. And, it’s easy to contrast regions with
other areas that may have different characteristics.
Regions may be determined by physical
characteristics such as mountains, plains or deserts.
The Louisiana Bayou
is known for its swamps, bald
cypress trees and ‘gators.
Five Themes of Geography
Regions can be determined by their human characteristics as well. The
densely populated East and West Coasts of the United States are very
different from the lesser populated parts of the Prairie States.
Some regions are determined by both their physical and cultural
characteristics.
The Deep South, in the United
States, is very different from
the rest of the country. In the
same way, Mediterranean life is
not at all like life in northern
Europe.
RELIGION/BELIEFS
For the purpose, of our class we are defining religion as a common set of beliefs, values,
morals, or practices. This year we will be investigating beliefs and values of civilizations
and how they impact the lives of the members of that civilization. For this project, I want
you to tell me about the beliefs of your family. They could be connected to an organized
religion or it could be a set of beliefs your family lives by. I would also like you to give
an example of how this impacts life in your family.
MY FAMILY’S BELIEFS:
-My family believes that spending time together is more important than anything. Our holiday gatherings
are not as big as they used to be since all of my cousins have grown up and have their own families;
however, we still get together at least once a year. There are well over 100 of us now!
-We believe in treating others the way we would like to be treated. You do not have to like someone to
treat them with respect. That is something that makes you a bigger/better person!
-I was raised to believe that hard work pays off, and that learning never stops. You can never “know it
all” and there is always room to improve yourself.
OUR FAMILY MOTTO:
You will choose a motto from the list you are given or one that you have heard at home that you think best
describes your family. Then give at least three examples that demonstrate how the motto applies to your family.
“I am who I am because of those who came before me.”
My family treasures our elders/ancestors and what they did to help us become who we are today. I have
a lot of antiques, photos, and simple treasures from my grandparents, great-grandparents, and greataunts and uncles all over my house. My wedding ring even has my great grandmother and great aunts
diamonds in it! I treasure it so much because of the sentiment of it even more than its beauty.
ACHIEVEMENTS
DIRECTIONS: Below, please list any achievements you or family have made. You may define achievements in any way
you like. Some great examples can be big like awards, inventions, and discoveries or small like my aunt makes the best
chocolate cookies in the world! It is whatever you and your family consider an achievement.
*My Peepaw (Mom’s dad) was the FIRST person to install and complete a
telephone system in the U.S. to make a long distance phone call without going
through a big operator switchboard! He did that in our little hometown. 
*My Uncle Clyde (who is only 9 years older than me) was the first one in our
family to have a 4 year degree. He graduated from U of A in Fayettville with a
computer engineering degree and now is the runs all of the computer systems for
St. Jude’s hospitals in Memphis, Tennessee.
*I am the first person in my family to have multiple degrees. I have one
undergraduate and two (and ½) master’s degrees.
POLITICS AND ECONOMICS
POLITICS: How does your family make decisions? What type of political system do you have, such as
democratic/laissez faire, authoritarian/dictatorship, and anarchy/disorder? Who has the power, and
how did they get it? Please provide an example to strengthen your explanation. Growing up in my
family, my mom, dad, step-dad, and Grandma made decisions. It really just depended on whose
house I was at and who was home with me.  My step-dad was democratic because everyone got
a say in how things went. Everyone else was more of an authoritarian or dictator… what they
said… WENT. They had this power simply because they were the adults!
ECONOMICS: How does your family get the things that they need? How do you get the things you
need? Do you use direct trade? Do you use a currency to represent value? Provide examples of how
supply and demand, specialization or scarcity are apparent within your home and family. Growing up
we grew a lot of the things we needed or my Grandma would sew us clothes. My mom’s parents
usually took us shopping at the mall for stuff, which was awesome! My step-dad ALWAYS traded
things. We used to laugh at how he could start out with something inexpensive and keep trading
with people until he ended up with something really nice! We only bought what we need if we
could help it to conserve money.
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
Draw a diagram below illustrating the social structure of your family and how it is
organized. Feel free to draw a family tree or more than one if necessary. Once your tree is
drawn and your family members are listed, label each of them based on role/characteristic
they represent such as, leader, cheerleader, fighter, peacemaker, comedian, authority figure,
caretaker, helper, and any other labels that work for your family members.
DESCRIPTION: Describe the roles and/or jobs in your family. Are there certain jobs that each person does? Chores?
Everyone in my family takes care of each other. My daughter Emma keeps everyone laughing with her silly behaviors
and constantly messes up the house with her toys. My husband always makes sure that we are okay. He takes out the
trash, puts the laundry in the washer, mows the yard, and sets the alarm every night. I clean the house, cook dinner, and
take care of everyone, since I am the mom!