| Write the word river on the board. Ask the students to describe a
river they have seen. Ask them what type of human activities did they
see taking place on the river. (Examples might be boating, swimming,
fishing, barges using th rive to transport goods.) Ask them to name any
rivers they may know of or have seen.
|
| Tell the students that a river is a large stream of water that flows
through the land. There are many rivers in the United States. The
largest river can be found on a map of the United States.
|
| Pull down the map of the Unites States. Explain to the students that
a symbol is used to show the location of a river. The symbol is an arrow
blue line drawn on the map. The blue line symbol shows the river flow
from its beginning to it end.
|
| The place where a river begins is the river source. The place where
a river empties into another body of water is the river mouth.
|
| The Mississippi River is the longest in the United States. Show the
students the symbol for the Mississippi River. Using the map-marking
pen, trace the Mississippi River from its source in Minnesota to it
mouth near the Gulf of Mexico. Label river source and river mouth.
Underline the words Mississippi River on the map. (The words Mississippi
River follow the course of the river and can be hard for students to
find. Many features labeled on a map or globe cannot use left to right
reading progression. This makes map reading difficult for your students.
Point this out to the students.)
|
| Ask students to come to the map and locate other rivers. Let them
trace the river on the map and locate the name of the river. After the
river has been identified have another student write the name of the
river on the board.
|
| Continue this procedure for any other rivers the students have time
to locate. |
