Virginia SOL S.3.b

Social Studies3rd Grade

The Standard

applying geographic skills to identify and understand geographic features and connections

Virginia Standards of Learning for History and Social Science

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students use maps, globes, legends, symbols, and compass roses to locate places and landforms. They explain how features such as rivers, roads, and mountains connect or separate places.
What Mastery Looks Like: Students accurately locate a named place or feature and describe its position using direction words. They use map evidence to explain one connection between places.
Common Misconceptions: Students may confuse map symbols with the actual size or appearance of a feature. They may reverse east and west or assume every map places north at the top without checking.
How to Assess It: Give students a simple map with a legend and compass rose. Ask them to identify two features and write how one feature connects two places.

Lesson moves

Build a classroom floor map with tape, then place labels for rivers, roads, mountains, and towns based on oral directions.
Show a local map and ask, “How do roads, rivers, or landforms affect where people travel or build?”
Play Map Symbol Match by pairing feature cards with symbols, then placing each card in the correct map location.
Trace a familiar trip to school on a map and identify the roads, waterways, landmarks, or boundaries crossed.

Free download

A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to S.3.b, 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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