Virginia SOL 3.2.a

Social Studies3rd Grade

The Standard

locating and describing the seven continents and the five oceans

Virginia Standards of Learning for History and Social Science

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students identify all seven continents and five oceans on maps and globes. They describe each place using hemispheres, nearby land or water, and relative location words.
What Mastery Looks Like: Students correctly label the continents and oceans on an unlabeled world map. They can explain locations with statements such as, “Africa is south of Europe and between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.”
Common Misconceptions: Students may confuse Antarctica with the Arctic Ocean or treat Europe and Asia as one continent. They may also mix up the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans or assume every flat map shows the same ocean placement.
How to Assess It: Give students an unlabeled world map and ask them to label all continents and oceans. Then have them write one accurate location sentence about Africa or the Pacific Ocean.

Lesson moves

Build a floor map with continent cutouts and blue paper oceans, then have students place and name each piece.
Ask students to explain which continent they would cross when traveling from Africa to the Pacific Ocean.
Play map bingo using continent names, ocean names, hemispheres, and location clues read aloud.
Plan a pretend cargo route between two continents, naming the ocean crossed and the direction traveled.

Free download

A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to 3.2.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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