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Welcome to Kid Learn with Professor Bananas!
Tour the Continents - Section 1 - North America
Lesson 1 -
Finding Our Place on the Earth
Lesson 2 -
The Hemispheres & Continents
Lesson 3 -
North America -Facts & Bodies of Water
Lesson 4 -
North America - Countries & Regions
Lesson 5 -
North America - Landforms - Mountains & Deserts
Lesson 6 -
North America - Landorms - Lakes, Rivers, & Ice Sheets
Lesson 7 -
Coming Soon!
Lesson 8 -

Coming Soon!

Tour the Continents with Professor Bananas - Lesson 1

Tour the Continents
Lesson 3 - North America - Basic Facts & Bodies of Water


So far, we have learned about measuring the Earth with latitude and longitude, meridians, parallels, the Equator, and Prime Meridian. We have learned the Earth can be divided into four hemispheres, and that the seven continents - Africa, Australia, Antarctica, Asia, North America, South America, and Europe - are in those hemispheres, sometimes in even in more than one hemisphere! Today, we are going to start looking closer at the continents themselves, and we are going to start with North America!

Let's take a look at the map below:


Some Basic Facts about North America

The map above is North America. North America is a large continent - in fact it is the third largest continent with 9,361,791 square miles of land!
North America starts above the Arctic Circle, almost reaching the North Pole at the top of the Earth. Can you find the North Pole and Arctic Circle on the map above?


North America is in the Western Hemisphere, and also in the Northern Hemisphere.

North America extends southwards, crossing the Tropic of Cancer about halfway through the country of Mexico. North America connects to South America on it's long skinny end. It comes within 10° latitude of the Equator. North America is about 5,347 miles long from top to bottom, and is about 2,582 miles wide at it's widest point. North America takes up 16.5% of the land mass of Earth ... that is like having a cake and dividing it into 6 slices ... one of those slices would be North America!

North America also has many people living on it, in fact, almost 523 million people call North America home! North America is home to two of the largest cities in the world, Mexico City, Mexico with a population of about 21 million people, and New York City, United States with a population of about 18.5 million people!

North America is made up of 23 countries and many small territories. A territory is an area that follows the rules and government of another country.


Oceans and Seas

North America is also surrounded almost entirely by oceans and seas. These include the Pacific Ocean on the west, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the Caribbean Sea to the south, and the Arctic Ocean to the north. Many smaller seas, bays, and gulfs also surround the coastline of North America. Starting in the northwest are the Beaufort Sea, Bering Sea, and Gulf of Alaska. Traveling down the coast is the Gulf of California. Starting on the north east side of North America, we have Baffin Bay, Hudson Bay, the Labrador Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico. There are many other much smaller bodies of water, too, but we will concentrate on these major ones. How do we know what sea, gulf, or bay is? Let's watch a video about some different water landforms and find out!

Let's watch a video!

Now, see if you can spot all four major bodies of water surrounding North America, and the 8 minor seas, bays, and gulfs on the map below! Look close, you might see two of the largest cities in the world, too!




Ocean Storms & Cycles

North America experiences weather conditions caused by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Hurricanes form between the Equator and the Tropic of Cancer in the Atlantic Ocean during the warm summer months. These tropical storms can affect the island countries in the Caribbean, as well as many coastal regions of North America.

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation is a pattern of warming and cooling of the ocean water and air between the International Date Line and 120 degrees longitude. It occurs very near the equator. The change in water and air temperatures at this location in the Pacific Ocean can effect North America by making the weather warm and wet or cold and dry. When the waters are warm, they are called "El Nino" which is Spanish for Little Boy. This can bring warm, wet weather to certain parts of the North America. When the waters are cool, they are called "La Nina" which is Spanish for little girl. This can bring dry, cool weather to certain parts of the North America.
The oceans are very important to the overall climate of North America.

Let's watch a video!


What We Learned in This Lesson:

* North America is the third largest continent.
* 523 million people live in North America.
* North America is made up of 23 countries and many small territories.
* North America is surrounded by 4 main bodies of water: the Pacific Ocean, the Arctic Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Caribbean Sea.
* North America also has smaller bodies of water surrounding it in the form of bays, gulfs, and seas.
* The oceans can effect North America's weather with hurricanes from the Atlantic, and El Nino & La Nina from the Pacific.


Downloads For Your Workbook:

Map
- Download the map, title it "Oceans of North America" and label the oceans and seas around North America.
Also, label the North Pole, Arctic Circle, and Tropic of Cancer. Fill in the fact area with the help of the information you just learned above.
You can use the map legend to help label the oceans by using different colors and putting the map key in the legend.

Info Sheet - Answer the questions on the info sheet for your book, and put both papers into your Tour the Continents notebook.




Banana Peels

Some regions of the world treat North and South America simply as one giant supercontinent called the Americas.

 


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