One day there was a wee child named Mr. Mustard Seed.  Mr. Mustard seed is a seventh grader at Oregon Middle school.  One day, during Mr. Mustard seed’s 7th hour geography class, his teacher, Mr. Howe, told him that he had to write a children’s book about the five themes of geography, and he only had 2 days to finish it.  Mr. Mustard seed felt sick to his stomach.  Then he actually WAS sick to his stomach, and he puked all over his desk.

Class project due in two days.

Mr. Mustard seed was taken home by his mom, only to find out that he had a 105 degree fever.  His mother was concerned

“You should see a doctor,” she said, “I’ll take you over there right now.”  

“UGGGGHHHH,” said Mustard Seed and passed out.  

“Mustard, Mustard, wake up!” Mustard hears a voice above him.  Mustard sits up and groggily opens his eyes. He examines his surroundings and sees a pathway with 5 different branches coming out of it. Each pathway is marked with a sign.  One says Region, one says place, one says location, one says movement, and the last one says HEI.

“Mustard!” says the voice again.  Suddenly, something round drops out of the sky in front of Mustard.  Suddenly, arms and legs pop out of the object and it stands up.  It's a walking, talking globe with eyes on North America and a mouth on The Equator.  “I'm here to help you with your geography project” says the globe.  "Choose a path, each one will teach you about one of the 5 themes of geography." 

"Okay," said Mustard Seed.  I choose location.

 “Then let's go,” says the globe and he trotted off along the path.   Excitedly, Mustard follows him.

HEI

Region

Location

Movement

Place

“This is the theme of location,” says the globe as he and Mustard come to the end of the path.  In front of them is a busy city street with cars everywhere and people on the sidewalks.  

“What does this have to do with location?” asks Mustard seed.  

“Well,” says the globe, “Notice the street addresses on some of the buildings, that is an example of an absolute location.  You see, location is separated into two parts, absolute location is the first. absolute location is describing a specific location, like a street address or latitude and longitude coordinates."

“Okay,” says Mustard “So if I say my house is at 300 Apple Lane, Oregon Wisconsin, that is absolute location.”

“Exactly!”  “The other part of location is relative location.  Relative location is not exact.  Relative location can be described as “giving bad directions” An example of relative location is, if I say my house is down the street from Copps.  I am not describing an exact

place, so the location is relative."  

“This actually makes sense!” says Mustard, “I am totally going to use this on my project.”

“Well, this is all I have to say about location, let's move on to the next theme.” And then Mustard and the globe trotted off along the path, ready to learn more about the wonderful world of geography.

When they came to the intersection, the globe asked Mustard to choose a new theme.  “Okay…” said Mustard, “I choose place.”

“Excellent choice!” exclaimed the globe.  “Let's go!” and they trotted off along the path.  After a short time, the path ended and the duo found themselves in St. Louis Missouri, right next to the Mississippi river.

“What does this have to do with place?” asked Mustard.

“Everything!” said the globe.  “You see, there are two parts to the theme of place, there are human characteristics, which are made by people and affect the environment.  And there are physical characteristics, which are made by the environment."  

“Soo, this river here would be an example of a physical characteristic, because it was made by nature.” said Mustard, “and these buildings around us would be human characteristics because the were not made by nature and they affect the environment.”

“Exactly!” exclaimed the globe “Now you are starting to get it.  All in all, the theme of

place is everything that is on the surface of the Earth.” “This is really cool!” exclaimed Mustard. “Thanks for helping me with my assignment.”

“Well, we’re running low on time, we better get moving on to the next characteristic.” And the globe and Mustard walked away, down the path.

After learning about place, Mustard was very excited to learn more about the 5 themes of geography. The globe brought him back to the 5 paths and said,

“Pick one, any one!”

Mustard replied, “I choose movement!"

“Good choice!” Said the globe. They then started walking along the path and ended up in New York City.

“The first example I am going to show you is movement of people. Do you see that guy riding a bike over there?”

“Yeah,” said Mustard.

“That is an example of movement of people, because the bike is transporting him somewhere.”

“Cool!” said Mustard. He was very excited he was learning about the 5 themes of geography. The globe then brought Mustard to a shoe store.

“Why are we here?” Mustard was very confused.

“We are here because this is an example of movement of goods. Most of these shoes were brought here from different countries.”

“Wow! I never knew the shoes I wear are a movement of goods!”

“Yup, most of your other clothes are too!”

Mustard and the Globe walked out of the shoe store, and starting walking down the street.

“Where are we going next?” asked Mustard. He was excited to go somewhere new.

“Somewhere I think you will like”

“Please Please Pleeeasse tell me!” Mustard pleaded.

“We are going to Us Cellular!”

“Cool!”

When they arrived. Globe then brought him to a Samsung Galaxy 7.

“Why are we here?” asked Mustard.

“Because this is an example of movement of mass communication, the last sub category of movement. From this phone, you can communicate your ideas to other people.”

“That’s all you have to do?”

“Yes, that’s it. Now that we’re done, want to go learn about a new theme?"

"Yes!" exclaimed Mustard.

"Then let's go!" and they walked into the sunlight.