Six flow charts trace everyday products back to the natural resource they start from, on this 4-page 3rd grade social studies worksheet. Each chart has three boxes with one left blank, and a word bank on each page gives the answers. Page 1 covers a pencil, bread and milk. Page 2 covers peanut butter, a soda can and a window. On page 3 students draw a chart for something in their own classroom. Page 4 is the answer key.
“Trace a product back to the natural resource it comes from.”
Questions 1 to 6 each start with a resource (tree, wheat, cow, peanuts, bauxite rock, sand) or end with a product made from it.
“Describe the steps that turn a natural resource into a product.”
Each chart has a middle step such as a sawmill, a flour mill or a glass factory, and question 7 asks students to draw all three steps for a classroom item.
Three charts to complete from a word bank of pencil, flour mill and cow. The chains are tree to sawmill to pencil, wheat to flour mill to bread, and cow to dairy to milk.
Three more charts, with a new word bank of peanut butter, bauxite rock and glass factory. The chains are peanuts to factory to peanut butter, bauxite rock to aluminum factory to soda can, and sand to glass factory to window.
One open box. Students choose an object in the classroom and draw its flow chart, labeling the natural resource, where it is made and the final product.
All six chains written out with the missing word in bold. For question 7 it gives examples such as tree to paper mill to notebook and cotton plant to textile mill to backpack.
Guess before the word bank
Read each chain aloud and ask students to guess the blank before they look at the word bank. Bauxite rock is new to most third graders, so say that aluminum is made from it.
Choose the classroom item
Write a short list on the board for question 7, such as a notebook, a chair or a backpack. Every student then starts from an item with a clear natural resource.
Early finishers
Ask students who finish early to add a fourth box to one chart, such as a truck between the mill and the store. It shows that a product travels as well as changes.
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