Identify major landforms such as valleys, mountains, hills, coastlines, and deserts, and name the landforms found in California and in the family's own region.
A landform is a natural shape on the surface of the Earth -- something you could point to and say, "that shape was made by nature, not by people." Mountains, valleys, hills, coastlines, and deserts are all landforms, and each one looks and feels different to stand on.
California is famous for having almost every kind of landform in one state: tall mountains (the Sierra Nevada), a huge flat farming valley in the middle (the Central Valley), a long coastline next to the Pacific Ocean, and dry deserts (like the Mojave) in the south and east. Whatever region your family calls home, it has its own mix of landforms, and that mix shapes almost everything about local life.
Mastery looks like: They can name at least three landforms, describe what each looks like, and identify the landform closest to their own home.
Common stumbles: Confusing a landform, a natural shape, with a place people built, such as calling a city or a farm a landform.