Landmarks Worksheet

A landmark is a place people use to find their way and to say where they are from, and the first thing a geographer asks about one is whether nature made it or people did. This landmarks worksheet puts that question to work: eight famous American landmarks go into two columns, Natural or Man-Made, and then three clues send students looking for landmarks the word box never names. Sorting places this way is how students start to read a map as a record of both the land and the people on it.

This 3rd grade community worksheet has two parts. Part A prints a word box of eight landmarks — Gateway Arch, Golden Gate Bridge, Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Niagara Falls, Old Faithful, Rocky Mountains, and Statue of Liberty — above two labeled columns, and each one belongs in exactly one column. Part B gives three short clues about landmarks from around the world and asks students to write the place and its kind on the answer lines. Print it for a geography lesson, a social studies center, morning work, or homework. A complete answer key fills page two.

What’s Included

• 1 print-ready PDF worksheet
• Part A: an 8-landmark word box and a two-column Natural / Man-Made chart
• Part B: 3 landmark clues with a place line and a kind line for each
• Every landmark belongs to exactly one column, so the sheet is fully keyable
• A complete answer key

Three reasons this resource helps children learn about landmarks. First, sorting eight real places forces a decision about each one instead of a vague sense that landmarks are simply famous. Second, pairing a canyon with a bridge and a waterfall with a dam shows students that natural and built features often sit right next to each other on the same map. Third, Part B reverses the work: students read a description and supply the name, which is what a reader does with any unfamiliar place in a social studies text.

Teachers and parents can extend this landmarks worksheet in a few easy ways. Ask students to name three landmarks in their own town and sort those the same two ways. Pull up a map and find each of the eight landmarks, then talk about which state each one sits in. Have students pick one landmark and write two sentences about why people travel to see it. Add a third column for places that are a bit of both, like a park built around a waterfall, and talk about why that column is hard.

Related Resources

• Map Skills Worksheet
• Community Worksheet – Word Bank
• Community Workers Worksheet
• Community Song