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Grade 6The Great Lakes

The Great Lakes — Geography and Shipping Worksheet

Drills Grade 6 students on naming all five Great Lakes, identifying the states that border each one, and explaining the role of Great Lakes shipping routes.

18 questions · Matching · Multiple choice · Fill in the blank · Short answer · Analysis

The Great Lakes form the largest freshwater lake system in the world, lying along the border between the United States and Canada. This Grade 6 worksheet builds on that geographic foundation through four sections, moving from identification toward analysis. Students match each lake to a defining feature, then answer multiple-choice questions about drainage and state borders. Fill-in-the-blank statements require students to recall key terms without a word bank, reinforcing independent vocabulary retrieval. Three short-answer questions ask students to compare lakes and trace how waterways shaped industrial cities like Chicago and Detroit. This sheet works best when paired with a physical map of the Great Lakes region and a discussion of the St. Lawrence Seaway.

The Great Lakes — Geography and Shipping Worksheet — Grade 6

Use what you have studied about the Great Lakes to complete each section. Read each part's directions carefully before you begin.

Remember

  • The Great Lakes — Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario — form the world's largest system of freshwater lakes by total area.
  • The lakes drain from west to east through a series of connecting rivers, carrying their water to the northeastern coast of North America.
  • A seaway completed in 1959 created a navigable route between the Great Lakes and the open ocean, allowing large vessels to reach inland ports.

Part A — Match each Great Lake to its defining feature

Write the letter of the matching description from the right column next to each Great Lake name in the left column.

Choose from

  • A. The smallest Great Lake by surface area
  • B. The only Great Lake bordered entirely by the United States
  • C. Bordered by the state of Michigan and the Canadian province of Ontario
  • D. The largest Great Lake by surface area
  • E. The shallowest of the five Great Lakes
  1. 1.

    Lake Superior

  2. 2.

    Lake Michigan

  3. 3.

    Lake Erie

  4. 4.

    Lake Ontario

  5. 5.

    Lake Huron

Part B — Choose the best answer for each question

Circle the letter of the best answer for each question.

  1. 6.

    Which Great Lake is the only one bordered entirely by the United States?

    1. A.Lake Michigan
    2. B.Lake Erie
    3. C.Lake Huron
    4. D.Lake Ontario
  2. 7.

    Which U.S. state shares a border with more of the five Great Lakes than any other state?

    1. A.Michigan
    2. B.New York
    3. C.Wisconsin
    4. D.Ohio
  3. 8.

    Which Great Lake is the largest by surface area?

    1. A.Lake Superior
    2. B.Lake Michigan
    3. C.Lake Huron
    4. D.Lake Erie
  4. 9.

    Into which Great Lake does Lake Erie drain?

    1. A.Lake Ontario
    2. B.Lake Huron
    3. C.Lake Michigan
    4. D.Lake Superior
  5. 10.

    Which Canadian province shares a border with four of the five Great Lakes?

    1. A.Ontario
    2. B.Quebec
    3. C.Manitoba
    4. D.British Columbia

Part C — Fill in each blank to complete the statement

Write the missing word or phrase on the blank to complete each statement.

  1. 11.

    The five Great Lakes drain into the ____ River, which flows northeast to the Atlantic Ocean.

  2. 12.

    Lake ____ is the only Great Lake that lies entirely within the United States.

  3. 13.

    Lake Erie is the ____ of the five Great Lakes, which makes it prone to freezing in winter.

  4. 14.

    Lake Superior is the ____ of the five Great Lakes by surface area, covering more water than any other.

  5. 15.

    Great Lakes ports gained ocean access when the St. Lawrence ____ opened in 1959.

Part D — Answer each question in two to three sentences

Answer each question in two to three complete sentences, explaining your reasoning with specific details.

  1. 16.

    Explain why the Great Lakes were important to industrial cities such as Chicago and Detroit during the 1800s.

  2. 17.

    Compare Lake Superior and Lake Ontario. How do they differ in size, and which U.S. states border each one?

  3. 18.

    The Great Lakes drain west to east into the St. Lawrence River. How does this flow pattern support shipping to the Atlantic Ocean?

Answer key

Part A — Match each Great Lake to its defining feature

  1. 1.The largest Great Lake by surface area
  2. 2.The only Great Lake bordered entirely by the United States
  3. 3.The shallowest of the five Great Lakes
  4. 4.The smallest Great Lake by surface area
  5. 5.Bordered by the state of Michigan and the Canadian province of Ontario

Part B — Choose the best answer for each question

  1. 6.Lake Michigan
  2. 7.Michigan
  3. 8.Lake Superior
  4. 9.Lake Ontario
  5. 10.Ontario

Part C — Fill in each blank to complete the statement

  1. 11.St. Lawrence
  2. 12.Michigan
  3. 13.shallowest
  4. 14.largest
  5. 15.Seaway

Part D — Answer each question in two to three sentences

  1. 16.Example: The Great Lakes provided a connected waterway that allowed factories to receive raw materials such as iron ore cheaply and ship finished goods to eastern markets. Because water transport was far less costly than overland routes, cities on the lakes could grow quickly into manufacturing centers. This combination of affordable shipping and access to resources helped Chicago and Detroit become leading industrial cities.
  2. 17.Example: Lake Superior is the largest of the five Great Lakes by surface area, while Lake Ontario is the smallest, so the two represent opposite extremes of the system. On the American side, Lake Superior is bordered by Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, whereas Lake Ontario is bordered only by New York. Despite their difference in size, both lakes drain eastward through the same system and eventually empty into the St. Lawrence River.
  3. 18.Example: Because the lakes drain continuously from west to east and connect through rivers to the St. Lawrence, ships can travel from deep inside the continent all the way to the Atlantic Ocean on a single connected waterway. This natural corridor allows bulk cargo such as grain or steel to move efficiently from midwestern ports to overseas markets without crossing land. Without this eastward flow, shippers would have to rely on overland routes, which are slower and far more expensive.

What this sheet teaches

  • Identify each of the five Great Lakes by name and match it to a defining geographic feature.
  • Explain how the St. Lawrence Seaway connects the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean for shipping.
  • Compare two Great Lakes and analyze how waterway access shaped industrial growth in the Midwest.

Notes for the adult

  • Students often confuse Lake Michigan and Lake Huron; stress that Michigan alone shares no border with Canada.
  • To correct the drainage sequence, have students trace the water flow on a map from Superior to the St. Lawrence River.
  • A student ready to advance can explain unprompted why shallow Lake Erie freezes more readily than deep Lake Superior.

What is on the page

The Great Lakes — Geography and Shipping Worksheet is in four parts and comes to 18 exercises in total. Matching, multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank and short-answer work, in that order, so a student who has understood the material has to show it in more than one form before the page is finished.

Part A Match each Great Lake to its defining feature sets five items against five lettered options, one lettered option per item, which means the last pair can be reached by elimination. Part B Choose the best answer for each question asks five multiple-choice questions with four printed options each. Part C Fill in each blank to complete the statement gives five sentences with a blank each and no word bank, so the wording has to come from the student. Part D Answer each question in two to three sentences is three short-answer questions with nine ruled lines between them, which is the part of the sheet that takes the longest.

Nine ruled lines are printed for written answers on The Great Lakes — Geography and Shipping Worksheet, which decides how long it takes more than the question count does. The answer key prints on its own page at the end, so the sheet can be handed out without it.

What it asks of the student

The Great Lakes — Geography and Shipping Worksheet puts about 416 words of reading in front of the student — the fact box, the directions, every question, and every printed option. That is the number worth checking against a class before it goes out, because a sheet that is pitched right on the history and wrong on the reading fails for the same child either way. The longest single prompt on it runs to 23 words.

Writing runs the other way on The Great Lakes — Geography and Shipping Worksheet: nine ruled lines for three of the 18 exercises, and the full answer key comes to 273 words. Everything else is answered in a blank, in a box, or on the map itself, which is why the sheet takes a lesson rather than a homework slot.

Where this one sits

The Great Lakes — Geography and Shipping Worksheet is one of ten US Geography sheets on this site and one of 16 written for grade 6. two of them share its topic, the great lakes, which is worth knowing before printing two that overlap.

The closest things to it are US Territories Practice Worksheet (grade 5) and US Territories — Geography and Status Worksheet (grade 8). If The Great Lakes — Geography and Shipping Worksheet lands well, those are the ones to reach for next; if it lands badly, the analysis sheets a grade either side are usually the adjustment rather than a different topic altogether.

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The Great Lakes at other grades

This sheet: Grade 6, 18 questions — matching, multiple choice, fill in the blank, short answer. The same topic is also written for:

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