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Worksheet Grade 1 Social Studies & Civics

The Applegate Town Map: Why the School Sits on the Hill

A grade 1 geography worksheet with a nine-place map list from a fictional town, counting and comparing items within twenty, and questions about high and low ground.

Objectives

  1. Students will sort nine town places into high ground and low ground using a map list.
  2. Students will add and compare two category counts within twenty.
  3. Students will explain why a town puts some buildings above a creek.

Vocabulary

Key words: map, hill, creek, high ground, tank

Teacher overview

Where a town puts its buildings is a geography decision, and water is often the reason behind it. This worksheet gives students a simple map list for a fictional place called Applegate, where a creek runs through the low ground and a hill rises on one side. Five places sit on the hill and four sit by the creek.

Items one through four are counting and comparing within twenty, so the mathematics stays inside first grade. Items five through ten ask students to reason about why the town built where it did. Read the opening lines and the map list aloud before students begin.

The Applegate Town Map: Why the School Sits on the Hill — Grade 1 Social Studies & Civics
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Read aloud: The town of Applegate sits by a creek. One part of the town is low, close to the creek. One part is up on a hill. Big rain makes the creek rise. This list shows where nine places sit. Read the list. Then answer the questions.

Place Where it sits
School On the hill
Firehouse On the hill
Library On the hill
Post office On the hill
Town tank On the hill
Ball field By the creek
Picnic tables By the creek
Boat dock By the creek
Garden plots By the creek
  1. Count the places on the hill. How many are there?
  2. Count the places by the creek. How many are there?
  3. There are 5 places on the hill and 4 places by the creek. How many places are on the list in all?
  4. There are 5 places on the hill and 4 places by the creek. How many more sit on the hill?
  5. Big rain makes the creek rise. Name the four places that get wet first.
  6. Why is the school a safe spot in a big rain?
  7. The town tank sits up on the hill. Water runs down from the tank to the homes. Why does the tank need to be up high?
  8. Name one place on the list that stays dry when the creek rises.
  9. Suppose the town builds a new food store. Would you put it on the hill or by the creek? Tell why.
  10. The garden plots sit by the creek. Write one good thing about that spot.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key
  1. Answer: 5 places. The school, firehouse, library, post office, and town tank are all marked on the hill.
  2. Answer: 4 places. The ball field, picnic tables, boat dock, and garden plots are all marked by the creek.
  3. Answer: 9 places. Putting the two groups together gives 5 + 4 = 9, which matches the nine rows in the list.
  4. Answer: 1 place. Comparing the two groups gives 5 - 4 = 1, so the hill has one more place than the creek side.
  5. Answer: The ball field, picnic tables, boat dock, and garden plots. Those four sit by the creek, so rising water reaches them before it reaches anything on the hill.
  6. Answer: It sits on the hill. The school is above the creek, so water that rises out of the creek does not reach it.
  7. Answer: So the water can run downhill. Water in a tank on high ground flows down through the pipes to the homes below, which is why towns put tanks and towers on the highest spot they have.
  8. Answer: The school. Accept the firehouse, library, post office, or town tank as well, since all five sit on the hill.
  9. Answer: Answers will vary. Accept either choice with a reason, such as putting the store on the hill so rain will not flood it, or by the creek so people at the ball field can reach it.
  10. Answer: Answers will vary. Accept any sensible advantage, such as water for the plants being close by, flat ground for rows, or an easy walk from the picnic tables.

Differentiation

Support

Give students two colored crayons and have them mark every hill row in one color and every creek row in the other before counting, so the sort is finished before the arithmetic starts. Provide a ten-frame for items three and four. Accept one-word answers for items five through eight.

Extension

Ask these students to draw the Applegate map from the list, placing the creek, the hill, and all nine labels, and then to add one new place of their own with a written reason for its spot. A second task is to write a sentence explaining what the town would lose if it moved the ball field up the hill.

ELL supports

Pre-teach hill, creek, rise, and dry using a tilted book and a strip of blue paper to show water climbing the low side. Post the nine place names with a small icon beside each. Allow students to answer items five and eight by pointing to rows in the list before writing.

Extensions

Bring out a local street map or a satellite image of the school's neighborhood and ask students to find the lowest spot they can see, then predict where a puddle forms after a storm. Check the prediction on the next rainy day and compare it with the Applegate pattern.