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Earth Science · Earth's Surface

Landforms & Bodies of Water

Use pictures, simple maps, and models to identify landforms and bodies of water, show where features are located, and distinguish liquid water from solid ice.

Teacher workspace

Start with the lesson plan.

40 min~8 min prep5 materialsNGSS verified · 2-ESS2-2 · 2-ESS2-3

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Lesson overview

What students will learn

  • Identify common landforms and bodies of water from pictures, maps, and models.
  • Develop or read a simple map that preserves important shapes and relative locations of land and water.

Key science ideas

  • Maps can show where land and water features are located.
  • Hills, valleys, plains, and islands are landforms.
  • Rivers, lakes, ponds, and oceans are bodies of water.

Lesson at a glance

  • Grade 2
  • 40 min
  • ~8 min prep
  • 2-ESS2-2 · 2-ESS2-3
  • 5 materials

What’s included

  • Lesson Plan
  • Investigation
  • Teacher Slides
  • Printable Worksheet
  • Teacher Answer Key
  • Interactive Activity
  • Vocabulary