What is a boundary?
Are there boundaries around me? Where are they?  What do they mean to me?
Where are there boundaries in New Hampshire?
Where am I in relation to the boundaries in New Hampshire?
Why do we have boundaries in New Hampshire?
How can I tell where a boundary is?
How were the natural boundaries of New Hampshire formed?
How have people set manmade boundaries in New Hampshire?
Have boundaries in New Hampshire always been in the same place?  If they have moved, when did they, where did they, who moved them, and why?

K-3 Students should be able to:
Define, describe and locate the boundaries of self, home, school, neighborhood, and town.

1. Give reasons for manmade boundaries and cite examples from the students own world.

2. On a grid system, locate geographic and manmade features in their communities.

3. Create a map showing the relative locations of their community and places within it.

4. Using a New Hampshire map, find and explain the uses of the compass rose, the legend, and grid marks.

5. Locate New Hampshire and its boundaries on a world map or globe, identifying the United States, North America, Canada, Mexico, and Atlantic Ocean.

In addition to the above, 4-6 students should be able to:
Describe and locate the boundaries of New Hampshire and discuss their meaning.

1. Locate the major physical features of New Hampshire and describe how they were formed.

2. Describe relationships between major physical features and New Hampshire boundaries.

3. Identify and compare landform, climate, and natural vegetation regions of New Hampshire. Locate and discuss how New Hampshire divided into the following geographical regions: The Seacoast, The Merrimack River Valley, The Monadnock Region, The Connecticut River Valley, The Lakes REgion, The White Mountains, The North Country.

4. Describe and locate the political boundaries of New Hampshire within the northeastern part of North America; show how and why those boundaries have changes over time, using specific examples from history.

5. Describe the differences between natural and manmade boundaries, and give examples from New Hampshire.

6. Describe and compare Native American concepts of boundaries and land ownership in Era 1 & 2 with European concepts of boundaries and land ownership in the same eras.

7. Sketch and label, from memory, a map of New Hampshire that shows the relative location, size, and shape of important geographic features.

8. Sketch and label a map of New Hampshire that shows counties, the capital, and major cities.

9. Locate cities and towns on a map of New Hampshire using longitude and latitude.

10. Describe basic spatial units of measurement and, on a New Hampshire map use them to:

• calculate area
• estimate and calculate distances between locations in miles, kilometers, and time.

11. Research the origins of place names in the students' own neighborhood, community, county, and the state.  Note any name changes over the years and centuries.

12. Identify significant groups, individuals, institutions, and events in the history of boundaries in New Hampshire; identify and describe the significance of each and place them within the correct historical eras.

Check the Quick Reference Chart for topics that could be used for Focus Question I.  Although particular topics may appear in only one or two eras, many of the topics may actually apply across several or even all of the eras. Please also remember that the chart does not pretend to be complete.  It contains examples of topics to suggest areas of inquiry and questions to explore, and no one is expected to cover all the topics.

Other examples may occur to you and your students.  You could make a topics list of your own!

S = for classroom/students
* = available at the Museum of New Hampshire History Store, Concord, NH
N = available at the Tuck Library at the New Hampshire Historical Society in Concord, NH

Check your school library for
SN*  Burdick, Linda Betts, ed. New Hampshire History Resources for Teachers.  Concord: New Hampshire Historical Society, 1994

Other Sources, some of which may be out of print:

The NH State Department of TRansportation has free roads and tourist maps of the state.

Also try:

The Cartographic Creation of New England
An exhibition of early maps that chronicles the effects of European exploration and settlement in north-eastern North America from The Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education, University of Southern Maine.

Rare Map Collection
Online images of maps from the Hargett Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the University of Georgia. The site has images of more than 20 perent of the libraries 800 historical maps that span 500 years, from the sixteenth century through the early twentieth century.

United States Thematic Maps -- States
Agricultural, income, education, population and county maps.

Color Landform Atlas of the United States
Look at relief maps, county maps, a satellite map, and a map from 1850 for NH.

Geographic Information Center National Digital Map Library: New Hampshire
Maps showing State Boundary, County Boundaries, Major Cities, Hydrography, and National Parks and Forests. From the University of Virginia.

New Hampshire Maps: The Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection at The University of Texas at Austin
State maps and topographic maps of Portsmouth, Derry, and Rochester.

Links to outside Websites are provided for the convenience of New Hampshire educators and students. The NHPTV Knowledge Network and the New Hampshire Historical Society are not responsible for content once you leave this site.