Keep America Beautiful Month (Grades K-5)

April is Keep America Beautiful Month. You can teach students about the factors that cause populations to settle in a particular place and how a group's culture and activity changes those places over time, both in far-away countries and in their own American communities.

In preparation, read about two or three countries in the CultureGrams Kids Edition (choose countries from different regions and climates). Note factors like location (e.g., island, land-locked, region, etc.), climate (Mediterranean, tropical, desert), history (native inhabitants, colonization, migration, etc.), culture (religion, customs), and natural resources (forests, water, agriculture) that shape how a community begins and develops.

Have students read the CultureGrams Kids Edition texts for the countries you have chosen. Ask students to think, as they read, about why people might have wanted to settle in those particular places.

As a class or in groups, make a list of the factors (for each country) that contribute to the establishment of the community. Discuss the differences. What factors seem the most important?

As a means of discussing what factors make communities grow and change, have students draw a map of their own. Instruct each student or group of students to identify important features (land, bodies of water, other communities or cities nearby, schools, business and agricultural districts, etc.). Display the completed map and its features, and discuss what factors influence how or whether a community grows. Compare what students learn about influences on their community with influences in other communities. What factors are the same? What factors are different?

As an extension activity, have students listen to the news or get help looking through a newspaper to find examples of events that are changing their community for the worse. Assign each student a short presentation to share their events with the class along with their ideas for maintaining the beauty of their communities.