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5th grade · Social Studies · Unit 13 of 13

Mapping the United States

Regions, landforms, rivers and cities

What your child practices

Regions of the United States, landforms and waterways such as the Appalachian Mountains, Great Lakes, Mississippi River, Great Plains and Rocky Mountains, large cities, and why people settle where they do.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 5.6(A); 5.6(B); 5.6(D); 5.7(A); 5.7(B); 5.7(C) · regions and physical features of the United States, and patterns of settlement

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. A region is an area with features that make it different.
  2. Physical features are natural, like mountains; human features are built, like cities.
  3. The Appalachians are in the east, the Rockies in the west. Rhode Island is the smallest state.

Example: Is a mountain range a physical or a human feature? People did not build it. Natural features are physical. Answer: physical

Mapping the United States in Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 13 of 13 in 5th grade Social Studies, after Free Enterprise & Work.

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.

Source: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    What is a region?

    • A single house
    • An area with features that make it different from other areas
    • A type of map symbol
    • A river's mouth

  2. Question 2

    People who live in a suburb live…

    • near a city but outside its center
    • in the downtown center
    • on a farm far from towns
    • on a ship

  3. Question 3

    Which ocean is on the east coast of the United States?

    • The Pacific Ocean
    • The Indian Ocean
    • The Atlantic Ocean
    • The Southern Ocean

  4. Question 4

    Lines of latitude run…

    • North and south through the poles
    • Only in the US
    • East and west, measuring distance north or south of the equator
    • Only along rivers

  5. Question 5

    Why do fewer people live in the deserts of the Southwest than on the east coast?

    • Water is scarce
    • Deserts are too cold
    • Nobody has ever lived there
    • It is illegal

  6. Question 6

    The Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains separates…

    • North from south
    • Rivers that flow to the Pacific from those that flow to the Atlantic or Gulf
    • Canada from Mexico
    • Cities from farms

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