3rd grade · Social Studies · Unit 1 of 10
Needs Around the World
Homes, food and clothes everywhere
What your child practices
Everyone needs food, water, shelter and clothing. How people in different places meet these needs using what the land and climate offer, and why caring for the land matters.
Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards benchmark: 3.3.15.1 · where people live in relation to natural resources in different parts of the world
How we explain it
Children can open this short lesson before they practice.
- Everyone needs food, water, shelter and clothing.
- People meet their needs with what their land and weather give them.
- When people can't grow or make something, they trade for it.
Example: Why do people in very hot places often wear loose, light clothes? Clothing is a need, and it has to suit the weather. Loose, light clothes let air move and keep people cool. Answer: to stay cool in the heat
Needs Around the World in Minnesota
In the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards, this is unit 1 of 10 in 3rd grade Social Studies, before Communities Around the World.
Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.
Sample questions
A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.
Question 1
Which of these uses the land to meet a basic need?
- 🥕growing vegetables on a farm
- 🎮playing a video game
- 🎬watching a movie
🥕 growing vegetables on a farm
Hint: Farms use soil, water and sunlight from the land to grow food.
Question 2
How are people all over the world the same?
🤝- everyone needs food, water and a safe home
- everyone lives in the same kind of house
- everyone eats the same food
everyone needs food, water and a safe home
Hint: People meet their needs in different ways, but the needs themselves are the same everywhere.
Question 3
How do the land and weather of a place affect the way people live?
🏡- they only change people's names
- they shape the homes, food and clothes people use
- they don't affect people at all
they shape the homes, food and clothes people use
Hint: People use what the land gives them and build homes and wear clothes that suit the weather.
Question 4
Why are some homes built up high on stilts?
🌊- to stay dry in places that flood
- to get closer to the clouds
- to make the house easier to paint
to stay dry in places that flood
Hint: In places near rivers or the sea that sometimes flood, stilts keep the house above the water.
Question 5
Would you need it more in a hot place or a cold place?
Sort into: ☀️ hot, sunny place · ❄️ cold, snowy place
- 🧤mittens
- 🧴sunscreen
- 🩳shorts
- 🩴sandals
- 🧥warm parka
- 🥾winter boots
☀️ hot, sunny place: sunscreen, shorts, sandals · ❄️ cold, snowy place: mittens, warm parka, winter boots
Hint: People choose clothes that suit the weather where they live.
Question 6
Families in a community beside the ocean might get food by…
- 🐪herding camels
- 🌵picking cactus fruit
- 🎣fishing
🎣 fishing
Hint: People use what is nearby. The ocean is full of fish and seafood.