Texas TEKS 3.3.A
The Standard
describe similarities and differences in the physical environment, including climate, landforms, natural resources, and natural hazards
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students compare two places using maps, photographs, climate charts, and short descriptions. They identify shared features and differences, then support each comparison with evidence.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student accurately names at least one similarity and two differences between two places. The student cites a map, photograph, climate chart, or fact for each comparison.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may call one rainy day the climate of a place. They may sort soil or water as landforms instead of resources. They may assume every part of a state has the same environment.
How to Assess It
- On an exit ticket, show two place cards with photographs and facts about rainfall, landforms, resources, and hazards. Students write one similarity and two differences using specific evidence.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs map and photo cards for two regions, then have them sort evidence into a Venn diagram.
Have students answer: How would daily life differ in these two places, based on the map and climate chart?
Play Environment Match, where teams pair place cards with feature cards and explain each match.
Compare your community with a Texas coastal town using flood maps, rainfall data, resource maps, and landform photographs.
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Printable 3.3.A Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to 3.3.A, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.
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Related Standards
- K.4.A
identify the physical characteristics of place such as landforms, bodies of water, Earth's resources, and weather; and
- 3.3.B
identify and compare how people in different communities adapt to or modify the physical environment in which they live such as deserts, mountains, wetlands, an...
- 5.6.B
describe regions in the United States based on physical characteristics such as landform, climate, and vegetation;
- 1.5.A
identify and describe the physical characteristics of place such as landforms, bodies of water, Earth's resources, and weather; and
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