Geography
Intent:
The Geography curriculum at Stanford School is unique. It is broad and balanced with a breadth of engaging opportunities. We want to enable children to be secure in their geographical knowledge, as well as having an awareness of being global citizens and an understanding of how we can take better care of our planet by identifying current issues linked to climate change.
Implementation:
The Geography curriculum is purposeful and relevant to the pupils. The knowledge and skills pupils acquire, build on their previous learning, allowing them to transfer key skills, knowledge and concepts to their long-term memories. Geography is carefully planned and sequenced in order to promote progression and development of key skills as children advance through our school.
We focus on learning about human and physical geographical features, introducing children to a wealth of new vocabulary and concepts through a range of meaningful, engaging and relevant contexts. We also encourage enquiry-based learning and use of cross-curricular maths and writing skills through promoting field work as an essential part of geography.
In addition to this, we believe it is important that children are suitably equipped to be able to use and analyse a range of different maps and have secure place knowledge.
In each year group, children focus on important global issues, through their geography, SMSC, RE, science and English lessons, as well as during assemblies and through fundraising.
Impact:
We are proud of the achievements of our pupils in Geography. Our pupils fluently apply their skills and knowledge within Geography and make connections to their existing knowledge and to other curriculum areas. The impact of the children’s learning in geography can be measured not only in their cross-curricular topic work, but also through our outdoor learning and application of language and knowledge in writing and reading lessons.
A parents guide to the new National Curriculum (not Foundation/Seedlngs class). More information can be found on the Rising Stars website
Geographical Features
In year 1 we have been learning about human and physical geographical features. Human features are things around us that have been made by humans and physical features are things which are natural items such as the seasons, the weather, plants and coasts. We then went on a hunt around the school to see what geographical features we could find.
Year 1 Geography Fieldwork Skills
We have been learning about different types of houses, especially those in our village of Laceby. We had a great walk to find all the different styles we had learnt about. Detached, semi-detached, terraced, bungalow and flats. Year 1 children were so polite as they walked around spotting the houses. Take a look at our photos.
When we returned to school, we used a map and an aerial photograph to follow our route and spot the different features we passed on the way.
Year 5 had a great Hook Day, learning all about Wild Weather!
We had a fabulous session finding out lots of facts about weather around the world. A wonderful art session, recreating tsunami art using mixed media and learning about the human impact of natural disasters! A wonderful day, with lots of learning and creative costumes!
Exploring our local area
This week Willow class explored our local area. We looked at Ordance Survey maps using keys. We located the source of Laceby Beck and tracked it through Laceby. We visited where it entered the visit and learnt that it is a chalk stream which is quite rare. It was interesting to find out the creatures that like to live in this habitat. We then followed the map through the village to a public footpath where we searched for the Beck the other side of the village.
As a part of our walk, we conducted a litter survey looking for litter hotspots.
On the whole we found the village to be quite clear of litter with just the occasion piece in a view hot-spots.
Along our walk, we enjoyed the countryside and picked out lots of creatures eg a rabbit and butterflies.
On our return to school, we in need of a rest as our legs were quite tired. We sat in the shade and enjoyed an ice-cream!
In the afternoon we used our litter day to create graphs.
Humber Bridge (Maps & Field work)
As part of their Geography work, the Year 2 children enjoyed a fantastic trip across the Humber Bridge and visited The Humber Bridge Country Park.
The children were able to broaden their fieldwork skills and enjoy studying maps of the area. This enabled them to develop both their map reading skills and locational knowledge of places of interest.
R- We have learnt some new words, like ‘estuary’.
H- I have enjoyed researching facts about the Humber Bridge.
H- Fifty years ago, there wasn’t a bridge across the River Humber, so it would’ve taken people a much longer time to drive to Hull. They would’ve had to drive around the estuary. This would have been expensive too, as they would need to buy more petrol.
A - The Humber Bridge has made life easier for people travelling from Hull to Grimsby. I know that lots of people have to drive to Hull because that’s where they work.
M- Mrs. Brady likes to go on holiday to Scarborough. She drives across the bridge and this makes her journey much quicker.
T- It used to be the largest single span suspension bridge in the world. I am going to find out which bridge it is now!
Rivers
In geography we used an to identify rivers in the United Kingdom.
Year 3 - "Oh we do like to be beside the sea side!"
We had a great day on our fieldtrip to 'sunny' Cleethorpes. Nothing was going to stop our fun....rain, drizzle...we didn't care!
We looked at the differences between the human and physical aspects of Cleethorpes. The changing coastlines with the sand dunes and the vegetation which keeps the sand in place compared with the built sea defences. The children loved exploring the marsh land for creatures, shells and pebbles, trying to guess which types of rocks they were. We explored the sand dunes then we went to the bandstand to shelter from the elements and sketch some local wildlife. The sun finally came out for us so we had a brisk walk to get chips & ice cream! Yum! As the children had been so great we had a little free time on the beach then another walk back to the bus! We were all shattered but everyone loved the adventure we had!
Maps
This morning in year 1 we looked at maps to plot the journey we took to The Deep. We looked for key locations such as; Laceby, the Humber Bridge, and The Deep. We enjoyed recalling things we had seen on our journey!
Year 3 - Geography
In geography we have been learning about the UK. Today we used our map reading skills to find different cities around the UK. After that, we took our learning outside and learnt about the 8 compass points. We then used these skills to complete a treasure hunt to find cities around the UK using compass points.
Creating bar charts of weather data linked to Rainforest learning in geography
In our computer lessons we have been learning all about spread sheets, and how to make a bar chart using the information we input into 2 Calculate.
We thought it would be interesting to create a bar chart using the data we have found out in our geography lessons exploring the climate in Manaus and London.
We are going to use the bar chart to compare and analyse the information.
Chinese New Year
We have started our learning about Chinese New Year in foundation stage. We have read the story of 'The Great Race' and learned that there are 12 animals which different years are named after. This year is the year of the rabbit, but most of us will have been born in the year of the dog or the rooster. We have enjoyed exploring Chinese food in our takeaway role play area, as well as trying on some traditional Chinese clothing. We have also tried writing and painting some Chinese words and numbers. We have made some Chinese dragons using a concertina effect with card - next week we will be making a big dragon and taking part in a dragon dance. Happy Lunar New Year to all those who celebrate it!
Year 3 & 4 local fieldtrip
Following on from Remembrance day we decided to go and look at the cenotaph and reflect on the people of Laceby who died in the line of duty.
First we looked at Laceby using ordnance survey and aerial maps then the children plotted the best route to get there.
To ensure road safety we word hi-viz jackets and ensured that we walked safely and carefully through the village.
When we arrived at the cenotaph the children were interested to read the names of the people who had died for their country. We had a minutes silence & reflection then the Year 3 children laid a wreath they had made and the Year 4 children recited poems they had written.
Year 1 have been explorers in Geography!
We walked around school to see if we could identify human and physical features. We learnt that human features have been put there by someone and physical features have always been there. We had clipboards so we could draw what we had identified.
Geography Field Trip
Despite it being a very rainy day, Pumpkin Class enjoyed their visit to Tattershall Castle and climbed right to the top! Not only did they learn about the history and uses of the different areas of the castle, they also identified important land features.
S- There was a forest near the castle, that’s where the people would get the wood for their fires.
M- The moat around the castle, kept the people safe inside because it would make it harder to get across.
I-The lake nearby would have given people water to drink and fish to eat.
A-The people could hunt for animals to eat in the forest.
T- The forest would have grown fruit and berries to eat. Sustainability
E- It’s important to look after castles, so they don’t fall down and injure people.
H- I think we should look after our castles and old buildings, so people can visit them, learn about history and enjoy finding things out.
R- It’s so good that people looked after Tattershall Castle, so we can enjoy it. I hope it is still there in hundreds of years!
Who do we trade with? 🌍
As Geographers, Year 6 pupils learnt about UK’s trade links with other countries and investigated what we import and where from. We used trading cards and world maps to find the answers.
Year 3 - Being a geographer
We were set the task to find Egypt on a world map. We have a huge map on display in our corridor which the children loved looking at. First we named the continents, then we looked for Egypt. We found out that it is in Africa.
Year 1s are Geographers
Today we have been learning how Geographers use aerial photos and maps to locate places. We became Geographers and located our school, some roads, houses, fields, trees and the church on maps and photos of Laceby. We learnt some new vocabulary as well:
locate which means to find
Aerial which means from up above
We had great fun using new skills. Look at our photos. Next week we plan to do some fieldwork and find different houses in Laceby.
Ordnance Survey Map Skills
In our Geography lessons this week, we have been enhancing our map reading skills by looking at an Ordnance Survey map of North East Lincolnshire.
We cross-referenced against the OS symbol key to identify landmarks in our local area of Laceby. It was great fun to try to find different areas on the map and to calculate the distance using the scale!
J - I can’t believe how detailed this map is, it’s helped me to see where different places are and how far away from each other they are.
L - I really enjoyed looking at the real map and not just on google. I’ve never seen a paper map before and didn’t understand what the symbols and diagrams meant before today!
A - I recognised seeing some of the symbols on road signs, I didn’t realise there were so many. It’s been really interesting to see what the whole of Grimsby looks like.
Juniper Class- North America 🇺🇸
In Geography we were locating the 22 countries that make up North America. We used a range of resources, from atlases, globe and IPads to locate them successfully. We then created a kind map to help us remember
Year 3- Can I find Italy on a world map and identify its different regions?
As we are learning about the Romans we are also finding out about Italy .
The children thought it was funny as the country looks like a boot. They labelled the different countries surrounding Italy then identified the Italian regions by using a colour coordinated key.
Exploring Scandinavia 🇳🇴🇸🇪🇩🇰
In Juniper class we have been using a world atlas to find out which countries make up Scandinavia and the cities, seas etc that are around these countries.
