Year 6 - Geography

Introduction

At Eastfield we aim for our children to develop an understanding and curiosity for the world. We use Collins Connected Geography scheme to ensure children receive a structured but ambitious curriculum. Vocabulary and talk play a central role within geography teaching and learning so our pupils' can talk like geographers.

Autumn 1 - How do volcanoes effect the people living on Hiemaey?

By the end of the unit, they learnt:

Geography

Identify, recognise and describe, using appropriate subject vocabulary, where Saethor takes his dog Tiry for a walk each day;
Identify, describe and and compare and contrast the countries of Europe;
Recognise, describe and explain the key geographical features of the Westman Islands region of Iceland and the island of Hiemaey in particular;
Compare and contrast, using appropriate geographical vocabulary, the physical and human geography of Vestmannaeyjar with that of the local area/region;
Explain and reach a judgement, using appropriate and specialised subject vocabulary, why there are so few trees on Hiemaey;
Explain how volcanoes form, observe the global pattern of volcanoes correctly and suggest plausible geographical reasons for this distribution

Keywords we used:

Landscape, precipitation, volcano, evacuate, archipelago, glacier, geothermal, fjord, growing season, tectonic plate, remote,

Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Children used maps and images to make comparisons between the UK and Iceland. They thought about human and physical geography and considered the similarities and differences between the two countries.

We also found out that the Vikings had had a large impact on the physical geography of the island of Hiemaey. When they settled there, they cut down the trees for fuel, building materials and so that there was pasture land for their sheep. Trees have not grown since as the sheep eat any trees that start growing and the winds are too strong for any plants to grow to tall.

Children then learnt about the location of the plate boundaries around the world and matched these up with the location of major volcanoes and earthquake zones, e.g. the Pacific Ring of Fire. They then looked at the impact of a volcano on the Icelandic island of Hiemaey.

We used our map skills to locate the countries of Europe and work out how far away they are from Iceland's capital, Reykjavik.

We focussed on the Icelandic island of Hiemaey. This island is a part of a group of islands and so it is an archipelago. We then identified other archipelagos that are located around the world.

We made comparisons between our local area and the human and physical geography of Hiemaey.

Hiemaey is a volcanic island and its last major eruption was back in 1973. We looked at images, watched news sources and interviews with local people and read a diary account of a teenage girl who lived there at the time in order to understand more about the changes in human and physical geography that took place after the eruption of Erdfell.

Throughout the unit, we wondered, "why would people still live on a volcanic island? Surely they know its dangerous."

We then found out that Hiemaey is a major Icelandic fishing port and that many people are employed in the fishing industry there. We learnt about the variety of roles that people have within the industry, including the people who process the fish and transport the fish. Incredibly, some of the fish is dried and sent as far as Nigeria for sale.

Summer 2 - How is Climate Change affecting the world?

By the end of the unit, they learnt:

Identify, describe and explain why communities in The Gambia are being affected by changes in weather patterns associated with climate change and evaluate the impact on people;
Evaluate a range of evidence, reach a conclusion and make judgements as to the impact on people of changing weather patterns in Victoria in Southeast Australia;
Understand why some coastal communities are having to make flood resilience plans in order to cope better with changes that are occurring in weather patterns and to sea levels and make judgements about what should be included in them;
Reflect upon and evaluate different viewpoints and reach a personal judgement about the implications of changing weather patterns on the people of Greenland;
Identify, describe, compare and contrast and explain how global warming is affecting weather patterns around the world and evaluate its impact in different places;
Understand how and why countries around the world have acted to reduce global warming and reach a judgement about how effective this might be;
Understand how as individuals, members of families and communities such as schools they can make a contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions;
Describe and explain how each of the main renewable sources of energy works, evaluate their advantages and disadvantages and make a judgement regarding which would be most suitable for the poorest countries in the world.

Keywords we used:

Landscape, renewable, conservation, estuary, hazard

drought, mitigation, atmosphere, emission

During this unit, the children learnt about the impact climate change is having on different parts of the globe. To begin with, the children learnt about Elhaji, who lives in The Gambia. The children discovered that Elhaji's country is experiencing huge droughts which are causing the crops. This is then causing people to migrate from the rural areas to the cities.

In the second lesson the children focused on a case study about Olivia who lives in Australia. She was struggling to pay her home insurance because the cost had risen dramatically. This is due to the climate becoming warmer and the risk of bushfires increasing.

The children created a bar graph to show the relationship between the increase in heatwaves and the increase in bushfires from 1921- 2015 in Australia.They discovered that as the average temperature has increased so has the number of heatwaves and bushfires. They were then able to use this data to explain why the insurance companies had increased the prices of home insurance in the areas effected by the bushfires.

In lesson 4, the children learnt about how the climate in Greenland is changing and the impact this is having on people's lives. The children learnt that some people that live in Greenland think it is positive that the snow is melting and other people think that the melting snow is having a negative impact on their daily life.

Finally, the children learnt about why different parts of the world are experiencing climate change. The children drew diagrams to show the how greenhouse gases are creating a thick layer of gas around our planet which is causing the temperature rise. This is then resulting in global warming and climate change.

The children then produced bar graphs to show the increase in CO2 in out atmosphere and they were then able to explain what impact this was having on our planet. They were also able to show how signs and effects of climate change vary around the world.

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