Term pack

Grade 6 Geography

Name: ________________________

Skills in this pack

Directions and the compass
Reading a map
Map scale and distance
Mountains, plateaus and plains
The water cycle
A river from source to sea

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Grade 6 Geography · 1 of 6

Directions and the compass

Use the four main directions and the four that lie between them to say where one place is from another, and read the direction arrow on a map.

1.You are outside at sunrise, facing the sun. Which direction is on your left hand?
- a) South
- b) North
- c) Behind you
- d) West
2.Which direction lies halfway between south and east?
3.Tap the north-west point of this compass rose.
Write the number of the part.
4.You are walking east. You turn to your right. Which direction are you walking now?
- a) East
- b) South
- c) West
- d) North
5.A town is north-east of your village. In which direction is your village from the town?
6.The sun rises in the east. You stand outside in the early morning facing the rising sun. Which direction is behind you?
- a) West
- b) South
- c) East
- d) North
7.Match each direction to the direction opposite it.
- North
- East
- North-east
- North-west
- West
- South-east
- South-west
- South
8.Which direction is opposite east?

Directions and the compass · Grade 6 Geography · www.arenapublications.com/learn

Grade 6 Geography · 2 of 6

Reading a map

Find the four things nearly every map carries — its title, its direction arrow, its key and its scale — and use the key to say what a symbol or a color on the map stands for.

1.A physical map shows the natural land — where the mountains, plains and rivers are. A political map shows what people have drawn on it — borders, regions and cities. Which map would show each of these?
Groups: A physical map · A political map
- Where the mountains rise
- Where the plains lie
- The administrative center of each region
- The border between two regions
- The name of every region
- The course of a river
2.Which of a map's four helpers do you need if you want to know how far apart two places really are?
3.This map's key gives blue for water, green for low flat land, and brown for high land. Sort each thing on the map by the color it would be drawn in.
Groups: Blue · Green · Brown
- Flat farmland beside a village
- A mountain range
- A river
- The sea
- A high snow-covered peak
- A lake
- A plain
4.Why does a map use small marks instead of drawing everything as it really looks?
- a) Because a map is always drawn by a machine
- b) There is nothing like enough room on the paper to draw every real thing
- c) Because most people cannot recognize a drawing of a building
- d) Drawing things properly is against the rules of map making
5.A map has no direction arrow drawn on it anywhere. What can you no longer be sure of?
- a) What each of its marks stands for
- b) Which way up the map is meant to be read
- c) How far apart the places on it are
- d) Which place it is a map of
6.A drawing of one single room, with every table and cupboard in it, is drawn far bigger than any map would draw the same room. What is that drawing called?
- a) A plan
- b) A symbol
- c) A globe
- d) A key
7.What is a map?
- a) A list of the places in a country
- b) A drawing of a place as it would look from above
- c) A photograph taken from the side of a hill
- d) A model of the whole earth, round like the earth itself
8.Which part of a map lists what each mark and color on it stands for?

Reading a map · Grade 6 Geography · www.arenapublications.com/learn

Grade 6 Geography · 3 of 6

Map scale and distance

Use a map's scale to turn a length measured on the map into the real distance on the ground, and turn a real distance back into a length on the map.

1.On this map, 2 inches stands for 10 miles. Sort each length measured on the map by the real distance it stands for.
Groups: Less than 50 miles on the ground · More than 50 miles on the ground
- 6 inches
- 4 inches
- 12 inches
- 16 inches
- 14 inches
- 8 inches
2.On a map, 3 inches stands for 12 miles. Two towns are 5 inches apart on the map. Tap how far apart they are on the ground, in miles.
Mark the line with an X.
3.On a map, 2 inches stands for 10 miles. Two villages are 6 inches apart on the map. How far apart are they on the ground, in miles?
4.On a map, 2 inches stands for 6 miles. A road is 18 miles long on the ground. How long is that road on the map, in inches?
5.Every one of these lengths was measured on the same map, where 2 inches stands for 8 miles. Match each one to the real distance it stands for, in miles.
- 2 inches
- 3 inches
- 5 inches
- 10 inches
- 40
- 12
- 20
- 8
6.On a map, 3 inches stands for 9 miles. How many miles does a length of 2 inches stand for on that map?
7.On a map, 5 inches stands for 20 miles. Two wells are 3 inches apart on the map. How far apart are they on the ground, in miles?
8.What does the scale on a map tell you?
- a) What each mark on the map stands for
- b) Which place the map is showing
- c) How much real ground a length measured on the map stands for
- d) Which way north lies on the page

Map scale and distance · Grade 6 Geography · www.arenapublications.com/learn

Grade 6 Geography · 4 of 6

Mountains, plateaus and plains

Tell a mountain, a plateau and a plain apart by the shape and height of the land, and say why people live and farm where they do.

1.Which of these is the best description of a plain?
- a) Raised land with a flat top and steep sides
- b) Land that rises much higher than everything around it
- c) The low land lying between two mountains
- d) A wide stretch of flat, low, level land
2.A river reaches the edge of a plateau and drops over it as a waterfall. Why does the waterfall form just there?
- a) Because rivers can only flow on flat ground
- b) Because a plateau is made of water underneath
- c) Because the water is heavier at the edge than in the middle
- d) Because the land falls away steeply at the edge, and the water goes with it
3.Sort each description under the kind of land it fits.
Groups: A mountain · A plateau · A plain
- Often called table land
- Deep soil, easy to plow, and easy to build a road across
- Raised land with a flat top and steep sides
- A wide stretch of flat, low, level land
- So cold at the top that snow may lie there all year
- Rises much higher than the land around it, with steep sides and a narrow top
4.The low land lying between two mountains is called a ______.
5.Why do far more people live on plains than high in the mountains?
- a) Nobody is allowed to build a house on a slope
- b) Flat, level land with deep soil makes farming, roads and building easy
- c) Plains are the only land where the sun reaches the ground
- d) There is no water anywhere in the mountains
6.Match each word to what it means.
- A peak
- A range
- A valley
- A hill
- The narrow top of a mountain
- Land that rises above the ground around it, but lower and rounder than a mountain
- A line of mountains standing in a row
- The low land lying between two mountains
7.Raised land with a flat top and steep sides, standing above the country around it, is called a ______.
8.Put these three kinds of land in order, starting with the lowest and ending with the highest.
- A mountain
- A plain
- A plateau

Mountains, plateaus and plains · Grade 6 Geography · www.arenapublications.com/learn

Grade 6 Geography · 5 of 6

The water cycle

Name the four stages of the water cycle, put them in order, and explain where rain comes from and why the earth never runs out of water.

1.Rain, snow and hail all fall from clouds to the ground. What is the one word that covers all three?
2.The water cycle has no true beginning — it goes round and round. Starting with evaporation, put its four stages in the order they follow one another.
- Collection
- Evaporation
- Precipitation
- Condensation
3.Why do clouds form high in the sky rather than just above the ground?
- a) The sun burns away any cloud that forms lower down
- b) Water vapor is too heavy to stay near the ground
- c) The air is colder up there, so rising vapor cools and turns back into droplets
- d) Clouds are pushed up there by the wind after they have formed
4.The sea is salty, but rain is not. Why?
- a) The cold high up turns the salt back into water
- b) Rain comes from rivers, and rivers were never salty
- c) Only the water rises as vapor, and the salt is left behind in the sea
- d) The salt falls out of the cloud before the rain does
5.What keeps the whole water cycle going?
- a) The rivers pushing water back uphill
- b) The wind blowing across the land
- c) The weight of the clouds
- d) Heat from the sun
6.Tap the place in this picture where condensation is happening.
Write the number of the part.
7.Water in a lake is warmed by the sun, turns into vapor and rises into the air. What is that stage called?
8.Sort each one by whether it puts water into the air or takes water out of it.
Groups: Puts water into the air · Takes water out of the air
- Rain falling on a field
- A lake warming in the sun
- Vapor cooling into the droplets of a cloud
- A puddle drying up after the rain has stopped
- Snow falling on a mountain
- Water leaving the leaves of a tree

The water cycle · Grade 6 Geography · www.arenapublications.com/learn

Grade 6 Geography · 6 of 6

A river from source to sea

Follow a river from its source to its mouth and name the parts of the journey — tributary, confluence, valley, delta and basin — and say what the river does to the land along the way.

1.The place where a river ends, and its water empties into the sea, is called its ______.
2.Why does a river drop the mud and sand it has been carrying once it reaches low, flat land near the sea?
- a) It slows down there, and slow water cannot carry as much
- b) The sea pushes the mud back up the river
- c) The river is shallower there, so it holds less of everything
- d) The mud dissolves as soon as it nears salt water
3.A smaller river or stream that flows into a bigger one is called a ______.
4.The place where a river begins is called its ______.
5.Which way does a river always flow?
- a) Downhill, from higher land towards lower land
- b) Towards the nearest town
- c) Uphill in the wet season and downhill in the dry season
- d) Northwards, whatever the shape of the land
6.All the land whose rain and streams drain into one river is called that river's ______.
7.The place where two rivers meet and join is called a ______.
8.What is a delta?
- a) New land built at a river's mouth out of the mud and sand it has dropped
- b) The steep valley a river cuts near its source
- c) The rock a waterfall drops over
- d) The place where two rivers meet

A river from source to sea · Grade 6 Geography · www.arenapublications.com/learn

Answer keys — Grade 6 Geography

In the same order as the worksheets.