Warm up
• Find the historical figure on your card.
• Write 3-5 bulleted facts about your person
in your journal.
• When you finish find yesterday’s stopping
point
Put your signed
syllabus sheet on
your desk for a
ticket!
Good Morning, Scholars!
How did the FIRST settlers get to America?
Look at the map on your desks and decide as a group the route
you believe they took. Draw the route with a dry erase marker.
Be prepared to share and defend your answer!
• In your table of
contents, under the
heading “Exploration”,
write the title
“Geography of the
United States”.
Table of Contents
Unit 1 – Exploration
• Geography of the United States
• Turn to the first page in the “Exploration” section.
• Write “Geography of the United States” at the top of the left
and right hand pages.
Geography of the United States
Geography of the United States
Geography of the United States
Geography of the United States
THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE
UNITED STATES
“Sea to Shining Sea”
Why start our year with GEOGRAPHY?
Types of Maps
Political Map
• Focuses on state and national boundaries
• Shows cities
Physical Map
• Shows physical features of an area
• Mountains and elevation changes
• Rivers and lakes and water is always
shown with blue.
• Elevation changes are usually shown with
green as low areas and brown higher
elevation.
Historical Map
• Focuses on an event or theme
• Examples…
– Battle maps
– Movement of people over time
– Trade routes
Bering Strait Land Bridge
• How did humans get to North America??
• During the Last Ice Age, the water levels of the oceans
was lower, exposing land that today is covered.
• One piece of exposed land connected Asia to North
America between modern day Russia and Alaska. It is
now covered by the Bering Strait.
• Most archeologists agree that it was across the Bering
Strait Land Bridge, also called Beringia, that humans first
came to the Americas.
Features of the United States
• As we go through the features of the
United States, trace/and or label
them on your map.
• Remember that anything you have
to write will be in RED.
RIVERS AND BODIES OF WATER
Great Lakes
Missouri
River
Mississippi
River
Pacific
Ocean
Ohio
River
Atlantic
Ocean
Rio Grande
River
Gulf of
Mexico
Ohio River
Rio Grande River
Missouri River
The Mississippi River:
America’s Great River Road
The “Big Muddy”, “Mighty Miss”
2,350 miles.
Draining all or part of 31 states & 2 Canadian
provinces.
Covers 40% of the U. S.
The Great Lakes: Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario. They form the
largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth.
Mountains & Plateaus
Appalachian Mountains
Initially created a natural barrier
which kept early explorers from
settling further inland.
Rocky
Mountains
WASHINGTON DC…OUR NATION’S CAPITOL
Washington DC