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A Backyard Blanket Atlas

Compare three feature maps to find patterns in mountain, volcano, and earthquake locations and support claims with map evidence.

Grade 4ScienceInteractive · Printable

Aligned to4-ESS2-2

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What’s included

Single worksheet
Auto-graded online
1 NGSS standard
Printable answer key
14 questions
Classroom-ready

Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 4
Subject: Science
Question types: Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Circle the answer, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students compare maps to identify patterns in mountain, volcano, and earthquake locations.
Students use map evidence to support claims and recognize exceptions to geographic patterns.
Students predict where an additional feature location would fit a mapped pattern.

How to use

Read the passage together and review the map key. Keep all three maps visible as students compare locations and explain their claims.

Curriculum

NGSS standard covered

4-ESS2-2

Read maps to find patterns in Earth's features, such as mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes.

Preview

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A Backyard Blanket Atlas

Compare maps to uncover patterns in Earth's features.

Two Maps on the Blanket

Read the passage. Compare the mountain and volcano maps. Choose one answer unless a question says to select more.

An Atlas Afternoon

Ari spreads a blanket in the backyard and opens a practice atlas. The atlas shows an imaginary region called Alderland. Its maps use made-up locations to practice looking for patterns like those scientists study on real maps. Ari lays three map cards side by side: mountains, volcanoes, and recorded earthquake locations.

Each card shows the same square region from above. North is toward the top, and east is toward the right. The western coast follows the left edge, where the eastward number is 0. Ocean lies beyond that edge, outside the maps. All the space inside each map is land. The maps use the same scale, so matching positions represent the same place.

Read a position as two numbers in parentheses. The first number tells how far east to look. The second tells how far north to look. For example, (6, 3) means 6 spaces east and 3 spaces north. In this atlas, the western part has eastward numbers below 5. The eastern, inland part has eastward numbers above 5. Letters identify the features: M means mountain, V means volcano, and E means recorded earthquake location.

A mountain rises above the land around it. A volcano is a place where melted rock has reached Earth's surface. The earthquake card marks places where ground shaking was recorded during one year. A place gets just one earthquake mark even if shaking happened there more than once. Ari compares the cards by looking for groups, matching locations, and places that do not fit a larger pattern. Ari must use evidence from the maps rather than guess.