In order to help the students recall the names of the seven continents, you may wish to teach the students the Continental Clap from the first grade core lessons (x over a word indicates a clap).

The Continental Clap

The continents are seven lands.

We can say them while we clap our hands.

x x

A - sia

x x x

Af - ri - ca

x x x x

North A - mer - I - ca

x x x x

South A - mer - I - ca

x x x

Ant - arc - ti - ca

x x

Eu - rope

x x

and Aus - tral - ia

Using a world map, call on volunteers to point to a continent as you say the name of each. After all seven have been located, direct the student's attention back to the continent of North America. Ask: What is the name of the country in which we live? (the United States) Remind the students that there are two other countries that make up the continent of North America (Canada, Mexico). Ask the students to recall the country to the north (Canada) and the country to the south (Mexico). Call on students to locate Canada, the United States, and Mexico on the map. Ask: What is the area of land that is below Mexico and connects North America to South America? (Central America) Have a student locate Central America on the map.
Explain to the students that we have just been using a map to locate places: continents and countries, but sometimes people use maps for other reasons. Ask: What are some of the things that a person could use a map for? (Accept reasonable answers and be sure to point out that there are many different kinds of maps: maps that show where cities are located, maps that show streets and highways, etc.)
Tell the students that another use of a map is to figure out the distance from one location to another. Explain that since we know what is shown on a map is a smaller version of the actual place, we know that the distance between places on a map is actually much greater than what is shown. For instance, if we were to make a map of our school or classroom on a piece of paper, we would know that those two places take up much more room than is shown on our map.
Tell the students that a map sometimes has something called a scale on it to tell you what the distances on the map represent in terms of real distance. Explain that one type of scale is a bar scale. Tell the students that the bars in the map scale are marked off to show distances on the map. Give each student a copy of the worksheet and a ruler. Have the students find the bar scale on the worksheets and then line up their rulers under the bar scales. Write the word miles on the board. Tell the students that miles measure distance. Write the word inches on the board. Tell the students that the scale tells us that inches stand for miles. Ask: How long is each bar in the bar scale? (one inch) Tell the students to look below the scale to see what each inch stands for. Ask: How many miles does one inch stand for? (1 inch equals 10 miles) Therefore, how many miles would 2 inches stand for? (20 miles) How many miles would 3 inches stand for? (30 miles) Tell the students that they are going to use the scale to measure the distance between points.
Give the students the following directions:
1. Line up the edge of the ruler with the first point.
2. Record how many inches there are between one town and another.
3. Check the bar scale at the top of the worksheet to see what distance in miles each inch represents.
4. Multiply the number of bars you counted times the distance those bars represent. (On this worksheet one bar represents 10 miles, so if the students have not mastered multiplication, they may count by tens the number of bars they have counted.)
5. Record the number of miles there are from one town to another.