Lesson Plan: Latitude and Longitude

Grade: 5
­­­­­­­Time: One class period
NCSS Standards: Standard 3. People, Places, and Environments
NYSS Standards: Standard 3. Geography;
ELA Standards: 1C. Students select and use strategies they have been taught for note taking, organizing, and categorizing information
4C. Students recognize the kind of interaction appropriate for different circumstances, such as story hour, group discussions, and one-on-one conversations.

Objectives: Using a matching game, students will be able to find the latitude and longitude of a place on the globe.
Concept: Latitude and Longitude
Generalization: The system of Latitude and Longitude is one way people use to determine the position of a place on the earth.

Interest Building

Before class, have a matching game set up on the board. Print out 18 pictures, 2 of each picture, for a total of 36 pictures. Arrange them, picture side down, in a 6 x 6 grid in front of the classroom. Label the rows of the grid, 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E', and 'F'. Label the columns '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', and '6'. When students come in, tell them we are going to play a matching game, but this one is a little different. To choose a picture panel, you have to say the letter of the row it is in and the number of the column it is in. Play the game, going around the room and allowing each student a turn.

Lesson Development

1.Explain to students that the purpose of this game was to help them grasp the concept of latitude and longitude. Ask students if anyone knows how sailors can convey their position if they are out on the ocean, or how a pilot can identify where he or she is if they are flying over a desert.

2.On a globe, show students the latitudinal lines and the longitudinal lines. Ask if anyone knows where 0 degrees latitude is and where 0 degrees longitude is. Explain to them that they are called the equator and the prime meridian.

3.As a class, locate your city or town on a globe. Identify the latitude and longitude of your city. Make the connection that finding the latitude and longitude of a place is just like when you played the match game.

4. Give students the mnemonic device that longitude can be remembered because it goes lengthwise on the globe; it is long.

Summary

Ask children why having this system of identifying spots on the globe is important. As a class find which place has the coordinates of 0 degrees latitude, 0 degrees longitude.

Assessment

Pair off students and give each team a list of places to find the latitude and longitude of. Also give them latitude and longitude pairs and ask them to find the place it identifies. Give each pair a map to use.

Materials: Match game (18 pictures, 2 of each picture), globe, worksheets with names of places and latitude/ longitude coordinates, world map with latitude and longitude labeled, one for every two students.

Integration: Math: Students can learn to plot coordinates on a plane.