Four short community descriptions open this 4-page 3rd grade social studies worksheet. They cover a coastal town, a farm town, a mountain town and a mining town, each with a small picture and two sentences. Students fill a table with the natural resource (fish, soil, trees or coal) and the job (fisher, farmer, logger or miner) for each. Three written questions follow, including one about a fishing town that runs out of fish. Page 4 is the answer key.
“Match a community to the natural resource it depends on and to the job people do there.”
The table on page 2 pairs fish with fisher, soil with farmer, trees with logger and coal with miner.
“Explain how a community is affected when a resource runs out.”
Question 2 asks what happens to the fishing town if the fish ran out.
“Tell a nonrenewable resource from the others and name a resource in your own community.”
Question 3 gives a definition and asks which town uses a nonrenewable resource, and question 4 asks about the student's own town.
Four boxes, each with a picture and two sentences. The coastal town sits by the ocean and sends boats out for food. The farm town has flat land and rich soil. The mountain town has thick forests and workers who cut trees for lumber and paper. The mining town is near deep mines where workers dig black rock to make energy.
A table with the four towns down the side and two empty columns, Natural Resource and Job. A box above it lists the four resources and the four jobs to pick from.
Three questions with writing lines. Students say what would happen to the fishing town if the fish ran out, which community uses a nonrenewable resource and what it is, and which natural resource is important where they live.
The filled table, a sample answer about fishers losing their jobs, the answer Mining Town and coal, and a list of fair answers for the local resource question.
Read aloud and underline
Read the four boxes aloud and have students underline the clue words, such as boats, rich soil, thick forests and deep underground mines, before they fill in the table.
Fishing town talk
Talk through question 2 before anyone writes. The sample answer mentions lost jobs, less food and people moving away, so listen for those ideas.
Local link
Before question 4, ask students to name one thing in their own town that comes from nature. The key accepts water, soil, trees, wind, sunlight and local minerals.
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