Grade 3
Social Studies
Unit: 04
Lesson: 03
Suggested Duration: 4 days
Características humanas de las comunidades
Lesson Synopsis:
Students study and compare landforms and the need for modifications of landforms. They learn that people adapt to the
environment where they live and make modifications to the physical environment.
TEKS:
3.4
3.4B
3.4D
3.4E
Geography. The student understands how humans adapt to variations in the physical environment. The student is
expected to:
Identify and compare how people in different communities adapt to or modify the physical environment in which
they live such as deserts, mountains, wetlands, and plains.
Describe the effects of human processes such as building new homes, conservation, and pollution in shaping the
landscape.
Identify and compare the human characteristics of various regions.
Social Studies Skills TEKS:
3.17
3.17E
3.18
3.18A
Social studies skills. The student applies critical-thinking skills to organize and use information acquired from a
variety of valid sources including electronic technology. The student is expected to:
Interpret and create visuals including graphs, charts, tables, timelines, illustrations, and maps.
Social studies skills. The student communicates in written, oral, and visual forms. The student is expected to:
Express ideas orally based on knowledge and experiences.
GETTING READY FOR INSTRUCTION
Performance Indicator(s):

Draw a picture of the physical environment of a real or imagined region. Add human characteristics to the picture,
and then write and illustrate a story about an event in the life of a third grader living in the region. In the story, use
academic language to tell about how the environment affects people’s lives, including how people adapt to and
modify the environment. Tell the story to a classmate. (3.4B; 3.17E; 3.18A)
1E; 3E
Key Understandings and Guiding Questions:

Las características físicas del terreno afectan cómo viven y trabajan los seres humanos a medida que se adaptan
al medio ambiente y lo modifican para satisfacer sus necesidades básicas.
 ¿Cómo la gente de distintas comunidades se adapta a su medio ambiente y lo modifica?
 ¿Cuáles son los efectos de los procesos humanos al modificar el paisaje?
 ¿En qué se parecen y se diferencian las características humanas de distintas regiones?
Vocabulary of Instruction:





modificación
características físicas
desierto
llanuras
contaminación

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adaptación
características humanas
pantanos
procesos humanos
región

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accidente geográfico
ambiente físico
montañas
conservación
Materials:

Refer to the Notes for Teacher section for materials.
Attachments:



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Teacher Resource: PowerPoint: Landforms and Modifications
Handout: Landforms Chart
Handout: The Effects of Human Modifications on our Land
Teacher Resource: The Effects of Human Modifications on our Land KEY
©2012, TESCCC
05/01/13
page 1 of 5
Grade 3
Social Studies
Unit: 04 Lesson: 03
Resources and References:

None identified
Advance Preparation:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Become familiar with content and procedures for the lesson.
Become familiar with human modifications within the local community.
Refer to the Instructional Focus Document for specific content to include in the lesson.
Select appropriate sections of the textbook and other classroom materials that support the learning for this lesson.
Preview available resources and websites according to district guidelines.
Create posters of landforms for Day 1.
Prepare materials and handouts as needed.
Background Information:
Teachers research human modifications within the local community. Landforms are features of the Earth’s surface. They
include plains, mountains, deserts, hills, and canyons that exist in the physical environment.
GETTING READY FOR INSTRUCTION SUPPLEMENTAL PLANNING DOCUMENT
Instructors are encouraged to supplement and substitute resources, materials, and activities to differentiate instruction to address the needs of learners.
The Exemplar Lessons are one approach to teaching and reaching the Performance Indicators and Specificity in the Instructional Focus
Document for this unit. Instructors are encouraged to create original lessons using the Content Creator in the Tools Tab located at the top of the page.
All originally authored lessons can be saved in the “My CSCOPE” Tab within the “My Content” area.
INSTRUCTIONAL PROCEDURES
Instructional Procedures
ENGAGE – Our Community Modifications for Night
Notes for Teacher
1. Facilitate a discussion where students think about the
differences in their community during the day and during the
night. Questions could include:
 Do people modify the community in any way to cope
with the dark of night?
 Is there a difference in the community in the day and
in the night?
 At night, who runs the community? The hospitals?
Who are the first responders at night?
 What kinds of things do communities do to make the
community safer when it is dark?
2. Continue the discussion to help students understand that
people who live in a community make modifications so that the
community is safer in the dark of night. Guide students to
provide summarizing statements such as:
 Ways people change the environment, such as
putting up streetlights, are called modifications. The
landscape is no longer the same because people
have changed it; they have modified it.
NOTE: 1 Day = 50 minutes
Suggested Day 1  10 minutes
Materials
 Paper for T-Chart
TEKS: 3.4B, 3.17E
Instructional Note:
Partial list:
 Street lights
 Glow in the dark stripes painted on road ways
 Night shift personnel in hospitals, police
departments, and fire departments.
 Information campaigns to get people to
voluntarily be inside their homes by a certain
time (curfew.)
3. Facilitate a discussion to help students understand the term
adaptation. Ask questions such as:
 What do we do when it is very cold outside? (Put on
coats, turn up the heater, build a house with a heater,
etc.)
 What do we do when it rains? (Use umbrellas people
have invented to protect us, etc.)
4. Help students understand that the ways people change to fit
©2012, TESCCC
05/01/13
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Grade 3
Social Studies
Unit: 04 Lesson: 03
Instructional Procedures
Notes for Teacher
the environment are adaptations.
 People adapt to the environment when they change
themselves or what they do to match the
environment. People modify the environment when
they change the environment to fit their needs.
5. Students brainstorm a list of changes – either adaptations or
modifications - they can identify.
EXPLORE – Modifying Landforms
Suggested Day 1 (continued)  25 minutes
1. Continue thinking about modifications. Review the term
landform from previous learning and turn the discussion to
ways people modify the physical environment of the
community as a result of landforms.. For example,
 People build tunnels through mountains, modifying,
or changing, the landform. They build dams to
harness the power of water to provide electricity and
to control flooding. The dam is a human characteristic
that modifies the environment.
Materials:
 photo illustrations of: deserts, mountains,
wetlands, plains
 information on landforms (from textbook,
websites, other classroom and library materials)
 chart/butcher paper (4 pieces)
 paper for students to create graphic organizer
2. Display pictures of four types of environments: Deserts,
Mountains, Wetlands, Plains. (See the Teacher Resource:
PowerPoint: Landforms and Modifications.)
Attachments:
 Teacher Resource: PowerPoint: Landforms
and Modifications
 Handout: Landforms Chart (1 per student)
TEKS: 3.4B, 3.17E
3. Post pictures of types of physical environments on chart paper
around the room (1 type of environment per chart.)
4. Provide information for students to research the landforms and
environments (textbook, websites, other classroom and library
materials).
5. Group students into four.
Instructional Note:
 Conduct and internet search for visual examples
of land modifications such as terracing and
irrigation, bridges and roads.
 Depending on class size, multiple groups may
be needed to research each
environment/landform
6. Student groups research one of the four environments and
write the important descriptive information on the chart under
that picture. They include a definition and describe ways
people in a community modify the landform.
7. The teacher monitors each group, ensuring understanding and
checking for accuracy of the students’ information.
8. Groups report their findings to the rest of the class and teach
them about the physical environment and associated
landforms.
9. Distribute the Handout: Landforms Chart.
10. Groups report on the environment/landform they studied,
including descriptions and ways people have modified the
landform/environment.
11. While groups are reporting, the rest of the class takes notes in
the appropriate section.
Suggested Day 1 (continued)  15 minutes
EXPLAIN – Modifying Landforms
©2012, TESCCC
05/01/13
page 3 of 5
Grade 3
Social Studies
Unit: 04 Lesson: 03
Instructional Procedures
Notes for Teacher
1. On the back of the student Handout: Landforms Chart,
students draw a picture one of the environments/landforms
being modified. Students include themselves in the picture
(they can be observing from a “safe” distance.)
Materials
 Students’ Landforms Chart from Explore
section
TEKS: 3.4B, 3.17E
2. Students include a caption for the picture that explains the
human process being employed in shaping the landscape.
3. Student partners tell each other a story about the change
taking place in the picture. Tell the story from the point of view
of a third-grader (in the picture) who lives in the community
being changed.
EXPLORE – Effects of Modification
Suggested Day 2  35 minutes
1. Facilitate a discussion where students extend their thinking to
consider the effects of the modifications. Choose several
modifications to discuss. (If desired, use the Handout: Effects
of Human Modifications on our Land and the Teacher
Resource: Effects of Human Modifications on our Land
KEY.)
Attachments:
 Handout: Effects of Human Modifications on
our Land
 Teacher Resource: Effects of Human
Modifications on our Land KEY
TEKS: 3.4D
2. Model thinking, then lead students in their thinking and guide
note-taking on the handout listed above or a graphic organizer
of the teacher’s choice. Include questions such as:
 What problem were people trying to solve, or what
need were they trying to meet, when they made the
modification to the environment?
 Was the problem solved or need met?
 What were the consequences of the modification?
 What were the positive consequences?
 What were the negative consequences?
 Do the changes continue to affect the community?
How?
Instructional Note:
Make sure students understand the terms below as
ways of understanding social studies.
 Political
 Economic
 Geographic
 Social
3. Student pairs continue to discuss the effects of modifications,
adding information to their graphic organizer (Handout:
Effects of Human Modifications on our Land.)
4. Teacher circulates, probing with questions, clarifying and
correcting information, and providing additional information as
needed. (See Teacher Resource: Effects of Human
Modifications on our Land KEY.)
5. Student pairs share their information with the rest of the class.
6. Teacher clarifies and corrects information.
EXPLAIN – Effects of Modification
1. Students write and tell the story of one of the modifications. In
the imaginary story, the student encounters a problem, goes
through the decision-making process to consider whether to
modify the environment or not, and then explains the effects of
the modification.
Suggested Day 2 (continued)  15 minutes
Suggested Day 3 – 20 minutes
TEKS: 3.4D, 3.18A
2. Students tell their story to a partner.
©2012, TESCCC
05/01/13
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Grade 3
Social Studies
Unit: 04 Lesson: 03
Instructional Procedures
Notes for Teacher
ELABORATE – Responding to Elected Officials
Suggested Day 3  30 minutes
1. Summarize the learning from this unit (Human Characteristics
Instructional Note:
Concerning the written letters, students use their
best handwriting, complete sentences and correct
grammar.
of Communities) by considering the Key Understandings and
guiding questions.
 Physical features of the earth impact how humans live
and work as they adapt to and modify the
environment to meet basic needs.
 How do people in different communities adapt to
or modify the physical environment?
 What are the effects of human processes in
shaping the landscape? (building new homes,
conservation, and pollution)
 How are human characteristics of various regions
the same and different? (address the physical
environments studied: deserts, mountains, wetlands,
and plains)
 Communities have human characteristics of place
that help people meet their needs.
— How do people in communities meet their needs
for government, education, communication,
transportation, and recreation?
 How have individuals, events and ideas changed
communities?
 Who/what are the individuals, events, and ideas
that have helped to shape communities?
 How have individuals, events, and ideas
contributed to the expansion of existing
communities or to the creation of new
communities?
2. As a class, students summarize the discussion by writing a
letter to a community leader expressing an idea or suggestion
of modifications that would improve the community and solve
a problem.
EVALUATE
Suggested Day 4  50 minutes
1. Draw a picture of the physical environment of a real or
imagined region. Add human characteristics to the picture,
and then write and illustrate a story about an event in the life
of a third grader living in the region. In the story, use academic
language to tell about how the environment affects people’s
lives, including how people adapt to and modify the
environment. Tell the story to a classmate. (3.4B; 3.17E;
3.18A)
1E; 3E
TEKS: 3.4B, 3.4C, 3.4D; 3.17E; 3.18A
©2012, TESCCC
05/01/13
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