Kindergarten through Grade 2 Geography Standards

Human‐Environment Interaction: Place, Regions, and Culture

Global Interconnections: Changing Spatial Patterns

Geographic Representations and Reasoning

Human Population: Spatial Patterns and Movements

Geography of Alaska

Explain how weather, climate, and other environmental characteristics affect people’s lives in a place or region.

Describe how human activities affect the cultural and environmental characteristics of places or regions.

Identify some cultural and environmental characteristics of specific places.

Global Interconnections: Changing Spatial Patterns

Explain how the consumption of products connects people to distant places. 

Identify ways that a catastrophic disaster may affect people living in a place.

Construct maps, graphs, and other representations of familiar places. 

Use maps, graphs, photographs, and other representations to describe places and the relationships and interactions that shape them.

Use maps, globes, and other simple geographic models to identify cultural and environmental characteristics of places. 

Explain why and how people, goods, and ideas move from place to place.

Compare how people in different types of communities use local and distant environments to meet their daily needs.

Describe the connections between the physical environment of a place and the economic activities found there.

Identify what makes Alaska geographically unique.

By the end of K: With support, describe seasonal weather patterns in the local community.

By the end of 1: Describe local weather and how it affects individuals and their activities.

By the end of 2: Explain how weather, climate, and other environmental characteristics affect people’s lives in the local region.

By the end of K: [standard not addressed at this grade]

By the end of 1: Identify human activities that affect the local environment.

By the end of 2: Describe how human activities affect the cultural and environmental characteristics of the local region.

By the end of K: Name environmental characteristics of the area surrounding the school.

By the end of 1: Identify cultural characteristics of the local community.

By the end of 2: Identify some cultural and environmental characteristics of the local community.

By the end of K: With support, participate in discussions about physical and cultural characteristics of the local community.

By the end of 1: Compare physical and cultural characteristics of the local community to another Alaskan community.

By the end of 2: 1 Describe changes in the physical and cultural characteristics of regions outside of Alaska.

By the end of K: With support, explain that products come from both local and distant places.

By the end of 1: Describe how the consumption of products connects people in the local community to nearby communities.

By the end of 2: Describe how the consumption of products connects people in Alaska to other places.

By the end of K: Identify types of natural disasters.

By the end of 1: Describe types of natural disasters common to the local region. 

By the end of 2: Analyze ways that a catastrophic disaster may affect people living in the local region.

By the end of K: With support, create a map of the classroom.

By the end of 1: Design a map of the school and include a key, symbols, and a compass rose.

By the end of 2:  Construct maps, graphs, and other representations of locations in the local community.

By the end of K: With support, name an important geographical feature of the local community and be able to identify it in a photograph and on a map.

By the end of 1: Identify and name rivers, lakes, and mountains on a map of the local area.

By the end of 2: Use maps, graphs, photographs, and other representations to describe places and the relationships and interactions that shape them. 

By the end of K: [standard not addressed at this grade]

By the end of 1: Use maps of the local community to identify cultural and environmental characteristics.

By the end of 2: Identify broad environmental and cultural characteristics of regions on a globe.

By the end of K: With support, discuss how and why goods travel to the local community.

By the end of 1: Identify people and goods that travel from the local community to another place.

By the end of 2: Explain why and how people, goods, and ideas move from place to place, including into and out of the local community.

By the end of K: Identify different types of communities.

By the end of 1: Describe ways people in the local community use local environments to meet their daily needs.

By the end of 2: Compare how different groups of people in the local community use local and distant environments to meet their daily needs.

By the end of K: With support, describe the physical environment of the local community.

By the end of 1: Describe local economic activities.

By the end of 2: Explain the connections between the local physical environment and the economic activities found there.

By the end of K: Locate the local community on a map.

By the end of 1: Locate Alaska on a map of the United States and on a globe.

By the end of 2: Explain the geographical and cultural features that make Alaska distinct from other places.