Continents and Oceans Lesson Plan


Name: Carolina Martinez

Date: 4/12/10

Subject: Continents and Oceans

Length of Lesson: 60 minutes

Grade Level: 1st

Short Description/Summary: This lesson is focussed on teaching students about continents and oceans.

Student Learning

Utah K-12 Core Curriculum

Standard 3

Students will develop an understanding of their environment.

Objective 3

Demonstrate how symbols and models are used to represent features of the environment.

d. Locate continents and oceans on a map or globe.

NETS-T Standards

Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments


    3. customize and personalize learning activities to address students’ diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources

Objectives: Students will be able to recognize continents and oceans when asked to point at them on a map or globe individually and in groups.


I will use summative assessment by having students complete the quiz from the following website and grading it: 

Formative assessment will be used throughout the lesson by checking understanding during class discussion and in class and online activities.

Lesson Preparation

Technology Resources Required: Computer, Internet.

Other Materials Required: Quizes, globes, sticky notes, paper, marker and stapler for head bands.

Background for teachers:

Setup: Make head bands with names of oceans and continents, check out globes from the school library, make sticky notes with names of continents and oceans for each group, hang the large map in front of the class, print a copy of the quiz for each student.

Lesson outline
Introduction: 10 minutes

  • I will select 11 students and will ask each of them to wear one paper head band with the name of one of the continents and oceans and stand in the front of the class where everyone can see them.
  • Class discussion: What do you think those names represent on each of the head bands? Remember our lesson about different countries? Are these names of countries? What country do we live in? Where can we find our country? What other things can we find on a map? Can we find water on a map? Are countries all together on a map?  How are they separated? What are oceans? Can you separate those 11 names in two groups?

Content/Activity: 40 minutes

  1. I will explain to the class that we can find other things on the same map where we can find countries and on the globes. As a class we will brain storm about the thing we see on a map when looking at a large one in front of the class.  I will ask them about the large blue areas of the map and if they think they have names.  I will explain that the name ocean is given to massive amounts of water on earth and that there are 4 large oceans that we can find on the map.  I will compare all the first grade classrooms in the school to continents and explain that even though there are many students in a one classroom with different names, all of the students in our classroom are called Miss Carolina’s class because we are all grouped into big groups.  As students are part of a classroom, countries are part of a continent in which there are many countries.
  2. As a class we will visit the following website to learn the names and location of the continents and oceans.

3. Students will play the different game levels according to their learning level at the following websites:, ,

4. Students will work in groups of six to label all the continents and oceans learned on a globe using      sticky notes with the names of the continents and oceans.

Closure: 10 minutes

Students will group the 11 students with the head bands into two groups: continents and oceans.

Class discussion about how many continents and how many oceans we found on a map and how we are part of a continent too.


I will walk around classroom while students label globes and play online games and I will ask them questions related to subject to ensure understanding and thoughtful learning.  The quiz will be collected for grading.


Maps, globes, and students with head bands will help ESL students visualize what they are learning.  The three different online game levels will give the opportunity to learn according to each student’s understanding.

Leave a Reply


You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture


Facebook photo


Google+ photo


Connecting to %s