This post is an amazing landforms unit study for homeschoolers that you can use to teach your elementary to middle school-aged children. Simply use the guide below along with the suggested resources for a full week of learning all about landforms!
Psst… this post is part of a free resource train with 9 other bloggers who are also providing unique studies and resources. Read to the bottom to hop on the train!
Landforms Lesson Plan Idea
I’m big on writing my own lesson plans and using free or inexpensive resources to make it happen. Below is a lesson plan idea using the information found in this post. Keep in mind that this topic doesn’t have to take up much time. Carve out about 15-20 per day to teach it.
Monday
Introduce the concept of landforms, what they are, what they look like, and the like. The common landforms are:
- mountains
- hills
- plateaus
- plains
- canyons
- valleys
- oceans
- rivers
- lakes
- glaciers
- deserts
Use flashcards, pictures in books, and/or short educational videos to show what they look like. Also ask your children what they know about landforms and if they can identify some before seeing pictures of them.
Tuesday
Emphasize what was taught the day prior by adding in a few books to read, more educational videos, and at least one hands-on activity. This can be in the form of a STEAM activity like building a volcano that erupts, drawing different landforms on paper, or making a sensory bin of sediments that can be found on different landforms (sand, rock, grass, etc.).
Wednesday
Play landform games. You can use the flashcards from my free landforms printable pack, go on an I Spy adventure, or play a guessing game similar to Guess Who. The idea behind using games is to make learning fun and to help concepts stick even more. Continue discussing where different landforms can be found. Older students can write a short report about their favorite landform and younger students can create a landforms lapbook.
Thursday
Squeeze in another hands-on activity or two. These can be in the form of more experiments like making your own landforms, heading out on a drive to locate different landforms where you live, or reading more books and pointing them out in illustrated pictures.
Friday
Use this day as a review day. Go over the landforms your children learned about and look over the activities, reports, and projects that were completed. If you like to do tests and quizzes in your homeschool, this would be the day to do that. You can also continue with this lesson plan for another week depending on the resources you want to use.
Resources for a Landforms Unit Study for Homeschoolers
Educational YouTube Videos about Landforms
We love to use videos to help teach a variety of concepts and topics in our homeschool. These can come in handy for both teaching, learning, and activities. My younger children can watch and learn while my older children can watch, learn, and take notes. Below is a roundup of good videos to include in your landforms unit study lesson plans:
- Learn About the 4 Types of Landforms
- Landforms of the Earth
- Exploring Landforms and Bodies of Water
- Types of Landforms
- Earth’s Land Formations
Books About Landforms
One way to save money is to check with your public library. Although I’m listing books you can purchase online, run these titles through your public library’s database and see if they have them available for checkout.
- Land and Water: Landforms and Bodies of Water
- U.S. Landforms: What You Need to Know (Fact Files)
- How to Make a Mountain
- U.S. Landforms: A True Book, The U.S. Regions
- Introducing Landforms (Looking at Earth)
Hands-On Landform Activities & Projects
Below is a roundup of craft activities and projects for children of all ages. You can also check out my Landforms Unit Study Pinterest board here.
- Landform diorama craft
- Landforms paper art
- Free landforms interactive notebook
- Edible landforms craft
- Building landforms
- Diorama waterfall
- Volcano model
Free Landforms Worksheets & Flashcards Pack
Easily introduce several popular landforms using this Landforms Worksheets & Flashcards Pack. This pack comes with 3 printable worksheets and 8 printable flashcards (with beautiful watercolor images).
Make Teaching Landforms Fun!
Use this unit study post to help making teaching (and learning) landforms in your homeschool lots of fun. No matter the age, grade, and development level of your students, landforms is something that can be taught any time. Not to mention, this is an observable and repeatable concept that can be seen all around us! What are some ways you teach landforms in your homeschool?
Add Even MORE Unit Studies to Your Lesson Plans
I’m super excited to link arms with several other bloggers to provide you with more unit studies for your homeschooling lesson plans! Now that you’ve read all about landforms, hop over to my friend from Our Crazy Adventures in Autismland for a Pirates of the Caribbean Unit Study and free resource!
By the end of the resource train, you will have collected 10 amazing unit study resources. There are all types of studies like landforms, pirates, solar system, dinosaurs, fruit of the Spirit, and more!