Identify California's four main geographic regions -- coast, valley, mountains, and desert -- and describe one defining feature of each.
California is so big and so varied that it holds almost every kind of land in one state. Geographers usually describe four main regions. The coast runs the length of the state along the Pacific Ocean, with beaches, cliffs, and coastal mountains. East of the coastal mountains lies the Central Valley, a huge, flat stretch of farmland between two mountain ranges. Further east, the Sierra Nevada mountains rise into snowy peaks, including Mount Whitney, at 14,505 feet the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states. In the southeast corner sits the desert, dry land that includes Death Valley, the lowest and hottest place in North America at 282 feet below sea level.
It is strange to think that the highest point and the lowest point in the lower 48 states sit less than 100 miles apart, both inside California. That single fact tells you something true about this state: it does not have one climate or one landscape, it has many, side by side.
Mastery looks like: They can name and describe all four regions in geographic order and state one real fact (a place or elevation) about each.
Common stumbles: Mixing up which mountain range is the Sierra Nevada versus the coastal mountains; forgetting that the Central Valley is inland, not coastal.