Materials

• Political and physical maps of the world
• Photographs or slides that reflect the characteristics of the physical regions

Instructional Activities

1. Review the information from the previous sessions.
   
   
2. Ask students to explain how their state and nation are divided. Students may suggest physical or cultural divisions. Ask students why these divisions occur. Prompt discussion by suggesting that the divisions help us to understand different areas.
   
   
3. Ask whether the boundary lines between these divisions (regions) are visible or imaginary. Ask if the region boundaries change. If the students agree that they may change, ask what may cause such change.
   
   
4. Explain that the Earth is divided into regions based on common unifying characteristics. This division into regions assists in studying and understanding the world. Regions may be defined by physical or cultural characteristics. These regions are found in the various parts of the world: Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, United States and Canada, North Africa and Southwest Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Russia and Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, Australia and the Pacific Islands, and Antarctica.
   
   
5. Display the following terms on the board or overhead:
   • Sahara
   • taiga
   • rain forest
   • great plains
   • low countries
   
   Instruct students to define these terms. Make sure they understand that these terms are regional labels that have been given to world regions based on unifying physical characteristics of these regions. Distribute an unlabeled outline map of the world, and instruct students to identify these regions on the map.
   
   
6. Ask the students to identify the specific physical characteristics of the regions they defined.
   
   
7. Assign a teacher-selected reading, worksheet, or other reinforcement activity, using available teacher resources.