GLE-GeoK
COLORADO MODEL CONTENT
STANDARDS FOR GEOGRAPHY
Kindergarten Grade Level Expectations
Standard 1:
Students know how to use and construct maps, globes and other geographic tools to locate and derive information about people, places,
and environments.
1.1 Students know how to use maps, globes, and other geographic tools to
acquire, process, and report information from a spacial perspective.
Kindergarten students will:
a. understand what maps, globes and other geographic tools represent
and how they are used;
b. understand that the same features can be represented by maps made
to different scales;
c. understand what the different colors on a topographic map mean.
1.2 Students develop knowledge of Earth to locate people, places and
environments.
Kindergarten students will:
a. identify major topographic features such as rivers, lakes, mountains, valleys;
b. recognize the shape of, and locate the seven continents on a map or a globe;
c. locate the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans;
d. locate the North and South Poles;
e. locate North America (the continental United States, Alaska, and Hawaii).
1.3 Students know how to analyze the dynamic spacial organization of people, places and environments.
Kindergarten students will:
a. describe their home in relation to the location of the school, the park,
the grocery store, the place where his/her parents work, etc.;
b. demonstrate awareness of where his/her out-of-state relatives live;
c. begin to understand the relationship between climate and
human/animal lifestyles.
Standard 2:
Students know the physical and human characteristics of places, and
use this knowledge to define and study regions and their patterns of
change.
2.1 Students know the physical characteristics of places.
Kindergarten students will:
a. explain why one place is better than another to build a house on;
b. differentiate between natural and human characteristics of places;
c. understand the existence of, and describe areas such as deserts, rain
forests, plains, mountains, bodies of water, urban areas, etc.
2.2 Students know how and why people define regions.
Kindergarten students will:
a. begin to understand why some regions are populated by many people,
and others - by few, or none;
b. begin to understand how human activities (such as deforestation, the
building of dams, irrigation, etc.) can change the nature of regions.
2.3 Students know how culture and experience influence people's perceptions of places and regions.
Kindergarten students will:
a. understand that peoples have adapted to living in their parts of the world;
b. begin to identify characteristics of the lifestyles of peoples who live in
particular regions;
c. begin to understand why peoples like living in places that others find
inhospitable (the Eskimos, the Bedouins, for example).
Standard 3:
Students understand how physical processes shape the Earth's
surface patterns and systems.
3.1 Students know the physical processes that shape Earth's surface patterns.
Kindergarten students will:
a. identify and describe some of the Earth's physical elements - air, land
water, plants and animals;
begin to understand the nature of the Solar system and how the Earth-
Sun relationship affects climate;
3.2 Students know the characteristics and distributions of physical systems of land, air, water, plants, and animals.
Kindergarten students will:
b. tell where some plants, animals and people live, and where they do
not live and why;
c. begin to understand how climate influences vegetation patterns, and
how that, in turn, influences animal and human life;
d. describe the environment of the area where they live.
Standard 4:
Students understand how economic, political, cultural, and social
processes interact to shape patterns of human populations,
interdependence, cooperation, and conflict.
4.1 Students know the characteristics, location, distribution, and migration of human populations.
Kindergarten students will:
a. differentiate between small and large human settlements;
b. speak about the migration of the members of their own families;
c. identify some cities with large populations in this country;
d. identify some countries with large populations.
4.2 Students know the nature and spacial distribution of cultural patterns.
Kindergarten students will:
a. understand some of the elements of culture: food, clothing/adornment
of the body, tools and weapons, housing/shelter, modes of
transportation, languages, customs, etc.
4.3 Students know the patterns and networks of economic interdependence.
Kindergarten students will:
a. identify what kind of economic activity their parents participate in to
earn a living;
b. identify some economic activities in areas of Colorado (agriculture,
mining, resorts, etc);
c. describe some economic networks used in daily life, such as
transportation.
4.4 Students know the processes, patterns, and functions of human settlement.
Kindergarten students will:
a. discuss stories about far-away lands and people and compare their
lives with that of their own community;
b. discuss their parents' occupation and how it relates to the part of the
country where their family lives.
4.5 Students know how cooperation and conflict among people influence the division and control of the Earth's surface.
Kindergarten students will:
a. discuss stories about the native Americans and conflicts among the tribes;
b. discuss stories about the first Europeans in America and their search
for gold and silver (for some), and for freedom and living space (for others).
Standard 5:
Students understand the effects of interactions between human and physical systems and the changes in meaning, use, distribution, and importance of resources.
5.1 Students know how human actions modify the physical environment.
Kindergarten students will:
a. discuss various types of human housing - from caves to high-rise apartments;
b. begin to understand that some regions are populated by many people,
and others - by few, or none;
5.2 Students know how physical systems affect human systems.
Kindergarten students will:
a. understand why people can build housing in some places and not in
other;
b. understand the need to keep the environment clean.
5.3 Students know the changes that occur in the meaning, use, location, distribution, and importance of resources.
Kindergarten students will:
a. compare the size of settlements they know today, with their size years ago;
b. understand why all human settlements are located near rivers;
c. begin to understand that resources are necessary for human existence;
d. begin to understand what kinds of resources are necessary for human
existence.
Standard 6:
Students apply knowledge of people, places, and environments to understand the past and present and to plan for the future.
6.1 Students know how to apply geography to understand the past.
Kindergarten students will:
a. compare the housing of people from different historical periods and
point out the influence of geography on it;
6.2 Students know how to apply geography to understand the present and plan for the future.
Kindergarten students will:
a. describe their own home, where it is located, and what is in its vicinity.
b. describe what kind of home/world they would like to live in, in the future.
