Year+1+Geography

GEOGRAPHY Year 1 || =Robot routes=

Information ||

Objectives
• To estimate distances • To use north, south, east and west directions • To use a simple map to identify features and possible routes (e.g. longest and shortest) • To develop a set of instructions to control a programmable floor robot

Prior learning
To benefit from this lesson, children should: • be able to estimate distances using non-standard units; • understand quarter, half and full turns; • understand directional language; • have discussed who lives the furthest away and who lives the nearest to the school; • have identified a clear sequence of features seen on their route to school, and begun to develop an understanding of the significance of landmarks.

Vocabulary
compass directions (north, south, east, west), route, length, distance, direction, estimate, turn, clockwise, anticlockwise, right, left, forwards, backwards, control, instructions, commands, program, sequence, predict, estimate

Resources
• one or more programmable floor robots (in this Example, //Pixie//) • a large-scale floor map • A4 copies of the map or plan for recording instructions. You can ask for a large-scale map of your local area (e.g. 1 : 2000 scale) at LEA planning departments or a local library; you can copy them provided their use is for educational purposes within your school only. Other useful means for obtaining copies of maps are: [|http://www.multimap.com] []

ICT skills needed by teachers
To teach this unit, teachers need to know how to: • use a programmable floor robot.

Preparation for this lesson
Prepare a very simple large-scale map for the floor. Mark north, south, east and west on the map. Any routes should be in one of these directions and at right angles to each other. Refer to the yearly teaching programmes in the //Framework for teaching mathematics from Reception to Year 6// to identify the aspects of shape and space that can be drawn out in this lesson. This will help to make sure that the teaching and learning of mathematics and geography are mutually reinforcing. An alternative lesson with a floor robot is offered in the Year 2 design and technology lesson ‘Controlling a vehicle’.

Lesson extract ||

Main activity
Explain to the class that they are going to take the programmable floor robot for a ‘walk’ (e.g. around the roads on the road layout, like a postman who delivers letters). You may wish to change the character of the programmable floor robot. Demonstrate how the floor robot moves in units, and that one unit is the same as the length of the robot. Show how it can make whole turns, half turns and quarter turns and how these relate to left, right, back, forward and to the four compass points. Organise the class to work in small groups, so that each group has some adult support. Give the groups A4 copies of the floor map. Ask the groups to plan a simple route for the floor robot. Work with the children to move the floor robot along the agreed route. During the activity, question the children using questions such as: Q Where is the floor robot going? (e.g. to the shops, to classroom 2, to the railway station, to deliver letters to the house at the end of Smith Street) Q How will the robot get there? Encourage children to describe the route in terms of distance and what the robot will pass along the way. Ask them, in pairs, to use their A4 copy of the map to make a rough sketch of the route, with estimates of distances. Q Which direction is the robot travelling in for this part of the journey? Encourage children to relate the direction for each ‘straight’ part of the robot’s journey to the directions north, south, east and west. Once one journey has been completed, repeat with different starting points and destinations.

Next steps
When visiting a contrasting locality (e.g. a village or town centre), create a route guide to the main features. You may prefer to develop spatial understanding with fantasy scenarios such as the route that Little Red Hen takes, or similar stories. (The process could be quicker as the plot is already established.)

Notes ||

Links to QCA schemes of work
The lesson links to: QCA Geography Unit 25: Geography and numbers Section 1.3.3 Shape and space QCA ICT Unit 2D: Routes: controlling a floor turtle Section 3 Key idea: that instructions can be sequenced for more complicated tasks

Context of this lesson
This is the third lesson in Unit 1: Around our school – the local area.

Subject links
Links can be made to estimating and measuring distances in the daily mathematics lesson.

Why use ICT?
The advantages of using ICT are as follows: • A programmable floor robot allows children to think creatively about and to test solutions to spatial problems. Children can identify with a floor robot and, through its eyes, visualise movement in space. • The use of a robot helps to develop estimation skills.

GEOGRAPHY Year 1 || =Our streets=

Information ||

Objectives
• To recognise some of the physical and human features in their locality • To see that information is all around us in a variety of forms

Prior learning
To benefit from this lesson, children should: • have undertaken some work on the school grounds; • have identified where the school is, where they live and how they travel to school.

Vocabulary
routes, leisure, buildings, names of observed features

Resources
• digital camera • suitable software into which digital pictures can be imported, or suitable interactive whiteboard software package • scanned or downloaded large scale map of the locality (normally available from the planning department of your LEA, ask at the public library for the contact). Alternatively, download and print a 1:10,000 map from [|http://www.multimap.com] using the school postcode, enlarge if necessary. • mapping software package • data projector or interactive whiteboard • single computer or computer suite

ICT skills needed by teachers
To teach this unit, teachers need to know how to: • take photographs with a digital camera; • download digital images into a computer and store them; • import digital images into suitable software for presentation and simple manipulation on screen; • use an interactive whiteboard or data projector; • access the Internet.

Preparation for this lesson
Plan a short route around the local area, which will provide some variety in the types of features that the children can recognise. Decide where the stopping points will be so that photographs can be taken. If no digital camera is available, take photographs in sufficient time to allow development to a CD-ROM (about 7-10 working days)

Lesson extract ||

Main activity
Explain where the local walk will be, what will be looked for and that photographs will be taken. If you have more than one camera allow the children to take some photographs. Once in the street ask, at each stopping point: Q What features can we see here? (e.g. shops, houses, pavement, signs) Q Are these human or physical features? (e.g. built or put up parts of the environment or natural long term features) Q What is this building used for? How do you know? (e.g. Adults working in the building; no curtains at the windows; sign above the building showing the name of the shop; people with shopping bags.) Using a digital camera, take photographs of particular features, both usual and any distinctive features of your local area (e.g. bus shelter, street furniture, identifiable trees, such as monkey puzzle, cedar, and include detail such as date plaques as well as old and new features). If the children take photographs, then their choice of subject is an indication of their particular focus. Back in school, print off the photographs postcard sized or larger and label for use later. Put the photographs into a slide show to discuss with the class what they have seen.

Plenary
Q What does this photograph show? (Name the feature) Q Where did we see this feature? (Encourage the use of positional language – near or far, next to, after the, behind the……) Using an interactive whiteboard or a data projector, project a scanned image of a large-scale map of the local area. Ask the children to identify where some of the features were seen. It will be helpful to put or emphasise one or two major features on the map, in addition to the school. e.g. the library, community centre, surgery, local church. Import the map of the local area into the mapping software package. In small groups, get the children to sort the postcard-sized photographs into sets and sequence them along the route. Help the children add text to each photograph. This can then be projected to the whole class for discussion.

Next steps
The process is applicable to all geography topics, which require visual evidence to be collected in the field and then discussed, in any format, in class. Teachers could take photographs with a digital or analogue camera of changes taking place in the local area for children to discuss and compare with old photographs of their area from earlier last century. All the photographs should be saved onto a CD-ROM for future use with other forms investigating the local area.

Notes ||

Links to QCA schemes of work
The lesson links to: QCA Geography Unit 1: Around our school – the local area

Context of this lesson
This is part of a series using investigative tasks to introduce children to the idea of looking at their local area, and focussing on distinctive features, land use and environmental quality. This allows for later development in smaller topics, such as making the area safer. This lesson is concentrating upon understanding the variety of features that form part of their local area, for example in the nearby streets, developing vocabulary and sequencing.

Why use ICT?
The advantages of using ICT are as follows. • Use of the interactive whiteboard or data projector allows a class group of children to view a large-scale map of an area easily and ensures accurate focus on geographical features. • The teacher can add information to the map or show changes on the whiteboard effectively with ease and save for future use. • The digital camera provides readily available photographs cheaply, identifying geographical features in the field, which can be reproduced at a range of scales, and very quickly after returning to school. Once saved to file the images can be projected, annotated, printed and used for further ICT or foundation subject work.