Western Region: Landforms

COMING SOON

🏞️ From snowcapped peaks to sun-scorched deserts, the Western Region of the United States is home to some of the most extreme and captivating landforms in the country. This engaging geography video for Grade 4 students introduces major features like mountain ranges, volcanoes, valleys, plateaus, rivers, and glaciers. Through stunning visuals and clear narration, students explore how the region’s natural forces have shaped its dramatic landscape.

🌋 Western Region Landforms Video for Kids – From Mountains to Volcanoes

Students will learn how the Rocky Mountains formed, why California’s coastlines are so rugged, and how ancient volcanoes like Mount St. Helens and Mauna Loa continue to influence the land. The video breaks down essential vocabulary like plateau, basin, fault line, and crater, making abstract geography concepts clear and memorable. There’s even a deep dive into Death Valley, the Grand Canyon, and Yosemite’s glacier-carved cliffs.

🌲 This Western Region landforms video for kids also shows how these landforms affect real life — from tourism and farming to wildlife habitats and regional weather patterns. Students will see how elevation, rainfall, and topography influence where people live and how they use the land. It’s a perfect way to blend physical geography with human geography in one accessible classroom-ready lesson.

🧭 Teachers will appreciate how this resource aligns with Grade 4 geography and earth science standards. Whether introducing a new unit, reinforcing key concepts, or offering a virtual field trip across the American West, this video inspires curiosity and builds core knowledge that sticks. It’s ideal for sparking classroom discussion and student exploration.

 

Worksheets

Quiz

Extremes of the West

Land Exploration in the Western Region

Western State Study

Draw A Scene

Universal Resources

National Standards

Topics Covered In This Video

Volcanoes

Mountain Ranges:

– Rocky Mountains

– Cascade Range

– Coast Ranges

– Sierra Nevada

– Alaskan Ranges

Notable Mountains

Pacific Coastline

Rivers:

– Columbia River

– Snake River

– Willamette River

– Colorado River

Lakes of the Western Region (Crater, Great Salt, Tahoe)

Valleys of the Western Region (Central, Yosemite, Death Valley)

Deserts of the Western Region (Mojave, Great Basin)

Rainforests (temperate vs. tropical)

Geysers & Hot springs

Continental Divide

Tour of each National Park in the West as they relate to landforms:

8 National Parks in Alaska (Gates of the Arctic, Kobuk Valley, Denali, Wrangell-St. Elias, Lake Clark, Katmai, Glacier Bay, Kenai Fjords)

2 National Parks in Hawai’i (Haleakalā, Hawai’i Volcanoes)

3 National Parks in Washington (Mount Rainier, North Cascades, Olympic)

1 National Park in Oregon (Crater Lake)

1 National Monument in Idaho (Craters of the Moon)

1 National Park in Montana (Glacier)

4 National Parks in Colorado (Mesa Verde, Great Sand Dunes, Rocky Mountain, Black Canyon of the Gunnison)

5 National Parks in Utah (Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Zion)

1 National Park in Nevada (Great Basin)

9 National Parks in California (Redwood, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Pinnacles, Lassen Volcanic, Death Valley, Channel Islands, Joshua Tree, Yosemite)

Classroom Ideas

Landforms and Bodies of Water

Print out or look at a map of the Region.

Idendify landforms and bodies of water in the Midwest.

 

Cloze Practice

A cloze piece has full sentences used in the video lesson with blanks where students can write in the information that is missing. This task requires close listening in order to complete it.

 

Create Quizzes

Students create a quiz based on the information presented for their peers. This can be used as a review for a test, or jigsaw class activity where students are responsible for teaching other students assigned topics.

 

Visual Learning

Offer videos to struggling learners as another form of creating knowledge and accessing information.

 

Art and Social Studies

Draw a scene from the video you just watched.

 

Classroom Ideas for ALL Videos

Dozens and dozens of ideas that you can use in your classroom along with our videos!

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