How do numbers help us in Geography? Look through atlases if you have any, look up a major city in an encyclopeadia, look at populations, average rainfall charts, heights of mountains, lengths of rivers, etc.
What's in the news?
As a continuous unit, you could slot this in as a one-off anytime, helps enourmously if you have a current newspaper or access to a TV around the time of a news broadcast, or BBC News online, or a radio (online?) Discuss, and write a summary of discussion:
What is happening in our local area? How and why is the place changing? How will people in the community respond?
What will the weather be like today or tomorrow? How does weather vary around the world?
What is in the local, national or international news today? Where are these places? What is happening there? Why?
What is in the televised news today? What is happening and why?
Connecting ourselves to the world
Another continuous topic (great for supply teacers!), hold discussions, talk about experiences, and write summaries, reports:
Why do people use faxes? Where do faxes in school come from and go to and why? (I think PDFs are taking over personally, and this needs to be re-written!) Why do people use e-mail? Write a questionnaire to be sent by e-mail to twinned school about their locality, would be sent as an attachment.
What is the weather like where you are? Look at weather (met-office.gov.uk or bbc.co.uk) elsewhere in the world/UK, and discuss the impact it has on everyday life.
Where is a place? How will we get there? What will our journey be like? Look at different journeys the children might take that year, possibly through school, compare it to journeys to places they know (swimming pool, local church.)
Plan a holiday in a cold place. Locate on a map, how will you get there, what is it like, what will you take with you, what activities could you do that you couldn't do in a hot place (skiing etc.) Children to then design a tourist leaflet for that place, or invitation to a family member to come with them.
How can we improve the area we can see from our window?
Draw/label what the view from your window (in school?) will be like in the future.
Survey how much paper etc. they think their class throws/wastes in a day, multiply by five for a week, then by 'n' for the whole school to emphasis. Get children to design poster to go up in other classrooms to encourage recycling, using both sides of paper etc.
Village settlers
Draw a sizeable island on the board, river running through, beaches, cave, forestation etc., and ask children to label/describe where they would live if they were stranded on the island. Emphasise close to water, building materials (or cave for shelter.) Why would they settle there? Why do they think early settlers chose to live in their village/town?
A village in India
This is usually Chembakolli. Ask children to draw a table of differences between their locality and Chembakolli - employment, lives of children, buildings, homes, leisure and food. What do they know, what would they like to know, how would they find out as extension.
How and where do we spend our time?
Do a class survey on what leisure activities they did at the weekend. Children to present the results they found. Look at level of exercise on average, and ask children to come up with ways to help children increase the level of exercise, and use of local facilities i.e. park, walks, swimming pool.
How can we improve the area we can see from our window?
Draw/label what the view from your window (in school?) will be like in the future.
Try and chart how much water the children use in a week in their households. Look at how they can reduce their water use, and at why they would need to too!
Should the high street be closed to traffic?
If the high street were closed to traffic, what exceptions would you make to the rule and why? (Ambulances, wagons.)
A contrasting UK locality - Llandudno
How does it feel when you are in a contrasting locality? (City for village dwellers, countryside for city children etc.) Write a poem expressing excitement/daunting thought of going in one verse, second verse while you're there, and third verse reflection when you're back home.
Local traffic - an environmental issue
Give each group of children a role in society (police/environmental activist/head teacher/OAP etc.) and tell them secretly what their opinion is of a local issue (traffic issue, parking, by-pass, one way street, cycle lanes etc.) and give 5 minutes to come up with an arguement. Have a chairperson, and hold a debate. Children to write a summary of views in their books.
Investigating coasts
How will an underground tunnel from this coastline to another affect the economy/environment/tourism etc. Discuss and write report.
