Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to Geography.

I'm Mr Hutchinson, and we're learning all about settlements.

We're learning about villages, towns, and cities, where we live.

And recently we've been thinking about the settlements that we live in.

And in our last lesson, you drew a map of your local settlement.

I went out into my local area and drew a map of the street and the things that are near to where I live as if I was sort of a bird flying above and getting all of the human and the physical features.

In today's lesson, we're going to be developing that map.

And we're going to be seeing if we can add symbols and a key to the map because maps includes symbols and a key.

So I can't wait to get started with today's lesson, and here's what we're going to be doing.

First of all, we're going to think about what symbols on a map show.

Then I'm going to share how I can add symbols and a key to my map.

And then you'll have a chance to add some symbols and a key to your map.

And we'll finish off with our end of lesson quiz as usual to lock in all of that new knowledge of the different symbols.

So, first of all, what does symbols on a map show? What do I mean by symbol? What does a symbol on a map show? Well, take a close look at this map that's on the screen now.

You'll notice that there are these lines, these roads, but you might also notice that there are these little, almost like little pictures around the map.

And these maps are symbols.

Maps are covered in symbols, and every symbol has its own special meaning.

And what it means is it represents something in real life.

So we don't draw an exact picture of the thing.

We just use a symbol to represent something.

There are symbols for human features, and there are also symbols for physical features.

So whenever there's a common human feature, for example, a museum, there's a museum in lots of towns and cities, then there will be a symbol that's always used in a map to show here's a museum.

There are also symbols for physical features, for example, rivers.

When rivers run through settlements, then there's a symbol that shows what a river is rather than a picture like you might see with a close drawing, like if you were doing a painting or something.

We use symbols instead in a map.

So can you see the symbols in that map? Can you point to them? What are the different symbols that you can see? And what do you think they might represent? So let's take a look now.

I'm going to show you some common symbols.

Now, depending on the map that you're using, the symbols might vary a little bit, but they're quite similar across different maps.

So whichever map you pick up, you've got a good idea of what the symbol represents.

Here are some common ones that you might see in lots of different maps.

The first one looks like this.

That's a symbol.

So what do you think that might represent? What could that show? What is that representing in real life? What do you think? Well done if you said trees.

It looks a little bit like a tree, doesn't it? It's green.

It's sort of got these branches coming off it.

So this symbol shows that there's trees in the area in the map, and it could be a wood or a forest.

We wouldn't usually just put one single tree on a map, not usually, although we might if it was a small map.

But it's representing woods or woodland or forest.

What about this symbol? What do you think this symbol might mean? A pink or a red line running through the map? Usually quite thick.

What does this show? Well, this is when there's a road.

We use this pink line to show that there's a road on the map.

What about this? This one, it's a symbol, but it's just two letters.

P O, what could that stand for, do you think? What's that showing? Well, this is for a post office.

Now there are post offices in all sorts of settlements because if people need to send a letter, they don't want to have to travel a long distance to be able to get to the post office.

There's lots of post office dotted around different settlements, and P O means post office.

What about this symbol? This symbol may look a little bit like from the sky.

This symbol shows a railway line.

So railway lines often run through settlements and between different settlements.

And we show them on a map by drawing a symbol that looks a little bit like this.

That's a railway line for trains to run on.

What about this? It's another letter one, S C H, sch.

What could that stand for? What could that be short for? Something that's often in lots of settlements.

It's a school.

Excellent.

Well done if you guessed school or if you knew that that was school.

So there are usually schools in settlements because all children need to go to school.

And so, S C H on a map tells us there's a school there.

What about this? If an area is shaded in green in a map, what do you think that might mean? Well, this will tell us that there's a field or some grassland or sometimes called just green space where there's lots of grass or fields.

So this is green spaces, fields, or parks or grassland.

What about this one? What could this show? What might this symbol mean on a map? What do you think? This is for a place of worship.

So that could be a church, or it could be a mosque, Or it could be a synagogue, or it could be a temple.

It doesn't matter which religion it is.

Any place of worship is shown with this symbol here.

Sometimes it's a circle.

Sometimes it's just a cross.

Sometimes it's got a square like this, and that depends on whether there's a steeple or a spire.

But that's for a place of worship, and there's usually a place of worship in a settlement.

Depending on the size of the settlement, there might be a small place of worship or a very large place of worship.

So let's recap some of those symbols and see if you can remember what what they stand for because what I'd love for you to do today is add some symbols into your map to make your map like a real professional map.

So let's just make sure that we know what the different symbols mean.

There was this one.

There was this one.

Can you remember what it was? There was this one.

What was that? There was this one and this one.

So I just picked out five.

See if you can remember.

Already, you've learned lots of new things about maps and new symbols.

One of those was a school.

One was a forest or woodland.

One was a road.

One was a railway line.

And one was a place of worship.

Can you join up those different symbols? You might like to, if you've got a pen or paper or a book, you might like to draw the symbols with the name of what they represent next to them, or you might like to draw them out like I've done them there and match them up.

Or you might just like to use your finger on your screen to see if you can match up the different symbols and see if you can remember what they all represent.

Have a go at that task now.

You might need to pause the video to do that.

Okay, great work.

Well done.

You're working really hard.

Excellent.

Let's see if you've got them right and you know what those different symbols mean.

So, first of all, there was this one here.

That was, I've joined that up with a place of worship.

That was for a place of worship.

What about this? What was this one? What did this represent? Well done if you said it was a railway line.

What about this symbol? What does this symbol show? Excellent.

This was a forest or woodland or trees.

What about this one When you get usually a pink or a red line running through the map? That's showing us that there's a road, and of course, there's different sizes of road.

So well done if you said that.

And what about this one? Awesome if you said school.

S C H stands for school.

Well done.

So now I'm going to show you, now that I've learned some different symbols, I'm going to show you how I would add symbols to my map.

And then you will have a chance to add some symbols in to your map.

So I need my map from yesterday.

So I've got my map from yesterday, and I'm going to add in some different symbols.

So now that I've learned a few symbols, I can add those to my map from our last lesson when I sketched out a map of my local community, the settlement where I live.

And the first thing that I can do is I know that I don't actually need to write out all of primary school.

I can just write there.

Do you remember which letters I use, the symbol that I used for school? I can just write S C H for school, for school.

So I've got that to add to my map.

There's also something.

In fact, I'm going to do that in red to make it stand out a little bit.

So I'll just go over it, S C H.

And one of these shops here, I actually didn't tell you this, but one of these shops is actually a post office.

It's not a shop.

It's a post office.

It's this one on the corner.

That's a nice, convenient post office nearby if I ever need to post a letter.

And so, I can just write in there.

What was the symbol for a post office again? Well done.

That's right.

It was P O.

So I'm going to write in here P O for post office.

Now over here on my train station, you'll remember that there was some train tracks that were running through my local community to help to get people to work or wherever they're going.

And those train tracks run up and down through here.

That should go underneath.

This is sort of a road.

This road has a bridge.

So the train tracks run under the road, and they run off in this direction here.

So for me to have my train tracks, it's one line, and then I have the sort of train tracks with these lines going across it.

So I'll add these in to show that a railway line is running through the community, through the settlement, to take people where they need to go.

And it keeps on going off into the centre of London.

So I've added my railway line.

Along the edge of the railway line, there is actually some woodland.

There are some trees just all along the side of it.

And so I've got a green pen here, which I'm going to use just to add in a symbol for some trees to show you that there are a few trees around here.

They don't need to be pictures that look like a photograph.

I'm just using my symbols to represent them instead.

I'm just going to put a few of those trees in to show that all along the railway line, there are some trees.

And there we go.

I've added all of the different symbols.

Now, somebody looking at this map might not be as clever as you.

They might not know about symbols.

So what I'm going to do is I'm just going to draw a quick key to let them know what the different symbols mean.

So I'm going to put a box here, and in this box, I'm just going to write a key.

And this is the key to what the symbols mean.

It explains what the symbols mean.

So let's do each one.

First of all, there's P O.

And so, I'm going to write P O and then say exactly what that means.

P O, I'll do a little coat on to show this means post office.

What else have I drawn on my map? Oh, I've got S C H where I write school.

So I write S C H, and that means school.

What other symbols did I write in? Oh, I wrote in my railway line.

And so, I'm going to draw just a little section of that to show anywhere where we can see a line like this, that means a railway line.

That's what that symbol means.

And I've just got one more, which was my trees.

So I'm going to get my green pen again because I used green before.

I'm going to put a symbol that looks just like the symbol that I used there.

That shows trees.

Now I've added a key.

Maybe I'll do double lines here to make it stand out.

It's your map.

You can choose how you want to lay it out and represent your local settlement, your local community.

I've got a key, and I've added in some symbols to make my map even more detailed.

And I'm happy with that.

Have a great time with yours.

So now you have seen how I improved my map by adding in some map symbols and a key just like on a real map.

And it's your turn to have a go at that now to improve your map from the last lesson.

So you'll need to get out your map from the last lesson.

Now if you'd like to, you might even want to start again.

You might decide, "You know what, this is a good chance to have another go and improve it and make it even better.

I'm getting really good at map drawing." Or you can just improve the one that you've already got like I did.

And as you do that, you'll need to add the different symbols and a key.

And so, I put some of them here.

You might remember some of the other ones, which I haven't included here, but these are some of the main symbols that you might want to add, a place of worship that might be nearby.

There could be a railway track.

There could be some trees nearby where you live, a road or roads running through.

There could be a school nearby, or there could even be some other things.

And it's your map.

If you to make up your own symbol to represent something, then you can, or if you want to investigate other symbols that appear on maps, then you can.

And that will make your map even better.

So now is your chance to pause the video, take out your map, and add a symbol and some symbols to it and a key.

And I'm sure that you're going to do a great job in having an even better map.

Pause the video and add the symbols and the key to your map now.

Awesome work.

I'm sure that your map is looking even better now.

Well done.

You are becoming an amazing geographer.

You know all about different settlements, and you're mapping your own settlement with some real sophistication, I must say, just like a professional map drawer.

And I'm really proud of you for doing such great work.

So well done.

Have a look at your map, continue to improve it and add to it if you'd like to.

And I will see you in our next lesson.