The Five Themes of Geography

• Theme 1: Location

• Location answers the question, “Where are we?”

• Location can be Absolute or it may be Relative.

• Absolute Location

• An Absolute location is an exact location (latitude and longitude point or a street address).

• Paris, France is 48°51’ North latitude and 2.20’ East longitude

• 6150 Old Jenks Rd. Apex, NC 27523

• Relative Location

• Relative locations are in comparison with other locations.

• They might be described by landmarks, time, direction or distance from one place to another.

• The Galapagos Islands are …

• Norway is ...

• Theme 2: Place

• The characteristics that describe a place.

• Places have both cultural and physical characteristics.

• What do you imagine when you think of Russia? Or Brazil?

• Cultural Characteristics

• Cultural characteristics describe people.

• They include languages, buildings, roads, religions, sports, _______, and _______.

• Physical Characteristics

• Physical characteristics are the natural features of the Earth, not created by humans.

• They include mountains, soil, wildlife, and…

• Theme 3: Human/ Environment Interaction

• People modify and depend on our environment

• People depend on the Atlantic Ocean for ...

• People modify the beach by…

• How do humans and the environment affect each other?

• Theme 4: Movement

• People interact with each other through movement.

• People, animals, goods, and _______ all move.

• Theme 5: Region

• A region is the basic unit of study in Geography.

• A region is a group of places bound together by one or more characteristics.

5 Themes of Geography summary paragraph

Compose a paragraph that summarizes the 5 Themes of Geography. Your paragraph should include the following sentences:

• Topic Sentence (Introduce what you will be talking about in your paragraph).

• Explain absolute and relative LOCATION.• Explain cultural and physical PLACE.• Explain HUMAN/ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION.• Explain MOVEMENT.• Explain REGION.• Closing Sentence (Summarize what you have said in your paragraph).When you are finished, your paragraph will be 8-10 sentences long, and

should demonstrate what you know about the 5 Themes of Geography based on your notes.

Geography v. History

• What is history?

• How is studying geography different than studying history?

• Which do we study in 6th grade social studies?