Lesson 3: People and the Environment

Review that the environment changes as the seasons change. Ask your child to explain these changes. Tell him that there are people in the U.S. who live part of the year in one of the northern states and part of the year in one of the southern states. Ask your child why this might be the case and in which seasons he thinks these people live in the north and south. Explain to your child that in parts of the U.S. where the winters are very cold (such as Alaska, North Dakota, and Minnesota) there are fewer people. In other parts of the U.S. where the weather is warm most of the year and does not change much, the populations are larger (Texas, Florida, and California, for example).

On the sheet called "Seasons Change the Environment," look at the average monthly high temperatures in Florida and North Dakota. Ask your child to color the boxes of the summer months red (June, July, August), fall months orange (September, October, November), winter months blue (December, January, February), and spring months green (March, April, May). Then let him answer the questions at the bottom of the page. Review that there are a wide range of climates in the U.S. and that different people prefer different types of environments.

When the first people from Europe settled in North America, they built their homes on the eastern seaboard. As time passed, people began to move westward, and as they moved west, they found that the environment of the land changed. They were no longer near the ocean. The land was flat in many places in the west, and the weather was dryer and warmer. In many cases, larger cities were settled in the areas that had nice environments with pleasant weather, beautiful plants and trees, or land near the mountains or ocean. Let your child think about some of the habitats that can be found in North America — forest, desert, beach, and prairie. On the pages, "Settlement and the Environment," ask your child to draw a picture of each U.S. environment listed on the page. Then ask him to list three advantages and disadvantages to living in each habitat.

Explain to your child that there are three types of communities: rural, urban, and suburban. Tell him that a rural community is a smaller community that is not near a large city. Ask your child what might be the advantages of living in a smaller community that is far from a larger city. Then discuss that an urban community refers to a large city, and a suburban community is a smaller town/area that is right outside of a larger city. Explain to your child that over time, people have moved from rural areas to urban and suburban areas. Many, many years ago most people lived in rural communities in the U.S. As cities grow, the environment changes. (This will be discussed in more detail in the following lesson.) There are some people who might live in one type of community and then decide to move to another. For example, city people might decide they want to interact more with nature and have less noise. These people might move out to the country in a rural area. Or people living in a rural community might be able to find higher-paying jobs in a large city (urban area).

Give your child the page called "Urban, Rural, and Suburban." On this page, he will read the description of each type of "settlement" and then write three things that are unique to each type of community environment. Finally, he will draw a picture that illustrates which type of community he would most want to live and why.