Lesson video

Hello, my name is Ms. Chorekdjian.

You've made a great choice to learn geography with me today.

I will be guiding you through our lesson.

We're going to have such a great time learning together.

Let's get started.

Welcome to today's lesson from our unit on our local area: how do we read maps and plan routes?

This lesson is called "Fieldwork: Observing Geographical Features on Our Route" You'll be learning to observe and use geographical vocabulary to talk about features of your local area as you follow a route to a local play area.

Some of this learning is brand new, but I'm here to help you.

This links back to previous learning you might have done, exploring your local area, looking at aerial photographs, or large scale maps of your local area, and planning a route to your favourite play area.

I'm really excited.

I hope you are too.

Here are the keywords that we'll be using together today.

We'll be learning more about them later.

But first, let's practice saying them.

Let's do my turn, your turn.

Opinion.

Opinion.

Fieldwork.

Fieldwork.

Journey stick.

Journey stick.

Play equipment.

Play equipment.

Good job, everyone.

I want you to be using these keywords throughout our lesson as well.

Here are the learning cycles that we'll be working through together today.

First, we'll be exploring local features, and then we'll be completing a field visit to a play area.

Today's lesson is going to be really exciting.

Are you ready to start your learning?

Fantastic.

Let's begin.

A route shows the starting point and endpoint of a journey, sometimes with stops in between.

So you can see there on my aerial photograph, I've started at my school and I finished at my local play area, and then I've highlighted the route in purple.

Routes can be plotted and followed on different kinds of maps.

So there's the example I've shown you on an aerial photograph.

And here's an example looking at a large scale map.

If we plan a route to our local play area from our school, we will see some familiar features on our route.

So again, you can see there that the highlighted route starts at my school and it finishes at my local play area.

Geographers use maps in fieldwork to find and locate specific features.

For example, a local play area.

Let's explore these local features together.

What could I see on my route to my local play area?

Here is an aerial view of our route.

So again, we've gone back to the aerial photograph, but you can see that the route is the same.

It's the same purple highlighted area.

It starts at my school and it finishes at my local play area, which is the playground in the park.

What local features on our route can you see?

Pause the video and have a look at that aerial photograph, and see if you can locate any local features.

Pause the video now.

Should we have a look at this together?

We can see the allotments.

That's quite close to my school, and there's a picture of what the allotments look like.

We can also see that there's a detached house with solar panels.

That house is really interesting, because we get to see what solar panels look like.

And then, we can see a lampost a bit further down the street.

The lampost provides light and makes sure that the area is well lit.

Here, we can see the end of the school street zone.

The school street zone keeps us safe at pickup times and drop off times, because it means that cars aren't allowed to travel down that street.

Then, a bit further down the street, we can see the postbox.

Postboxes are used to send letters across the country and to other countries.

Then we can see our local shop.

This is a car garage, and it's right on the corner there.

Next, we can see a safe place to cross.

It's a zebra crossing, and it helps us cross that busy road.

So that's an important local feature to talk about.

And then finally, we've arrived at the play area.

So that's where I wanted to get to.

That's the place I was traveling to from my school.

And I spotted those local features along my route.

There are lots of local features on our journey.

Remember we've looked at pictures of them?

First, we saw the allotments.

Second, we saw the detached house with the solar panels.

Third, we saw the lampost.

Fourth, we saw the school street zone.

Then we saw the postbox.

Then we saw the car garage, which was on the corner.

It's an example of a shop in our local area.

And then we located the zebra crossing, which was a safe place for us to cross to get to our final location, which was our play area.

And this is our route.

So we've looked at our route here from our school to our local play area, and then we've identified lots of local features along our journey.

It's now time for a check.

Local features we would see on our route include: a zebra crossing, a football stadium, a postbox, or a lampost?

Pause the video and answer this check.

How did you get on?

Did you identify the local features that we would see on our route?

Did you say zebra crossing?

A postbox?

And a lampost?

Those three are correct.

Well done, you can give yourselves a thumbs up.

Good job, everyone.

Geographers assess features and places in different ways.

One way is collecting opinions and comparing them.

We've talked about opinions before.

Do you remember what the word opinions means?

Remember that an opinion is what someone thinks or believes.

So by collecting different people's opinions and comparing them, we can see which people have the same opinions of a play area and which people don't.

And remember that people's opinions are different, and it's okay that everyone has different opinions, because we all think different things.

Today, we'll be completing some fieldwork, looking for some features we just found on our route.

We will also collect opinions during a visit to our local play area.

So that means we'll be collecting what people think along the way.

Do you remember what fieldwork means?

Pause the video and tell your partner.

Did you say that geographers investigate places by going outside to collect information in different ways?

And that's what fieldwork is.

Well done.

Remember that fieldwork can be completed anywhere.

As long as you're collecting information about a place, you're completing fieldwork.

Good job, everyone.

So I talked about this earlier.

An opinion is what someone thinks or believes.

Every pupil has an opinion on their favourite place to play and what their favourite play equipment is.

And we've already talked about people having different opinions, and it's okay for someone to have an opinion that's different to you.

We've got to respect everyone's opinions and make their opinions feel valued.

So we don't say someone's opinion is right and someone else's is wrong.

We're going to collect them and compare them to see what information we can gather.

Let's have a check here.

An opinion is.

See if you can complete that statement so that it makes sense.

Pause the video and complete this check.

How did you get on, everyone?

Did you say an opinion is someone's thoughts or beliefs?

Well done if you did, that's correct.

You can give yourselves a thumbs up.

Here are some examples of pupils' opinions on local features they saw on the way to the play area.

"I think the detached house with the solar panels is really good for the environment.

" Another people have said, "I like the zebra crossing.

It helps me cross the road safely.

" So both of these pupils have shared their opinion.

That means they've shared their thoughts and beliefs on what they think about the local features that they saw on the way to the play area.

Here are some examples of pupils' opinions on their local play area.

"I like the table tennis in Roe Green park.

It is my favourite play area.

" And another people have said, "I like playing in the playground at Roe Green park.

" So these pupils were able to share their opinions on their favourite local play area.

It's now time for Task A.

What I would like you to do is to think about your route to your local play area and talk about the features that you expect to see on your route.

I want you to tell your partner what you would expect to see and also your opinion of those local features that you see on your route.

I'd like you to talk about your favourite play area and share opinions about it.

Pause the video and complete Task A.

How did you get on, everyone?

Here's an example of what I've done for Task A.

I've located the allotments as a local area feature that I would see on my route to the local play area.

And I've said, "I like the allotments close to school because we can see the fruit and vegetables growing.

" And then I've talked about my favourite place to play.

I've said, "My favourite place to play is the playground because I like the slide.

" Well done for completing Task A.

I'm sure you had a really good discussion talking about all the local features that you will see on your route.

Let's continue with our learning.

So now, we're going to be thinking about our field visit to our local play area.

And like I said at the start of the lesson, we will be completing fieldwork today.

Geographers go on field visits and complete fieldwork to collect information about places to help them remember what they're like.

Fieldwork helps us to experience and observe what geography is like in the real world.

The best way to learn about something is to go out and experience it.

So that's what we'll be doing together today.

It's now time for a check.

Geographers collect information about places during fieldwork.

Now, because this is a true or false check, you've got to think about if that statement was true or not.

Pause the video and answer that question.

How did you get on?

Did you think that geographers collect information about places during fieldwork?

Did you say that was true or did you say that was false?

The correct answer is true.

Geographers do collect information about places during fieldwork.

Let's think about justifying our answer and explaining why it's true.

Is it true?

Geographers collect information about places during fieldwork to add to their collection of souvenirs or to help them remember what a place is like?

Pause the video and answer that check.

How did you get on?

Did you say b, to help them remember what a place is like?

That's true.

Geographers do collect information about places during fieldwork to help them remember what the place is like.

Well done everyone, you can give yourselves a thumbs up.

Now, thinking about our fieldwork, what we're going to do is we're going to walk from our school to our local play area.

One way we can record our fieldwork is by creating a journey stick.

Journey sticks are used by people around the world as a way of telling a story of a journey, remembering where they went and what they saw.

Things are collected and attached to the journey stick in the order they were found.

The sticks can be used as a map to tell a story about the place.

So what we're going to be doing is while we're completing our fieldwork, each of you will be carrying a bag that you've brought in from home.

As we're walking along our route, what you're going to do is you're going to collect things that you see along the route that represent local features that we go past.

You're going to pick them up and put them inside your bag, and you're going to take some photographs of the local features that you see to help you remember them.

So you're going to have a photograph and an object that you've picked up to represent each of those local features that we pass.

We're not going to make the journey stick until we get back into our classroom, because it's not safe to complete that on the side of the road.

Now, I'm going to show you how we create a journey stick so that you know what you're looking for and what you're doing during fieldwork.

Remember, you're not completing your journey stick until you get back into the classroom.

You're just going to be taking photographs of the local features that you see, and you're going to be putting objects, representing those local features into a bag that you've brought in from home.

Let's have a look at our journey stick.

So remember, this is our route.

This is the aerial photograph of our local area, and it shows the starting point of our journey, which is school, and the end point of the journey, which is the local play area.

It's the playground in the park.

So along this route and this journey, we're going to pass local features.

And as we pass the features, you're going to pick up something and put it in your bag so that you can attach it to your journey stick later when we get back inside.

So remember the first place that we pass will be the allotments.

Here, you can see I've picked up some rose petals and I've attached it to the start of my journey stick to represent the allotments.

As we carry on walking our route, we pass the next feature, which was the detached house with the solar panels.

And so I've picked up a little bit of pottery that I've found, and I'm going to attach that next in line, because that's the next thing that I would have seen on my journey.

Then, we passed the lampost, so I've picked up some buds of some flowers that I've seen growing near to the lampost, and I've put that next to the detached house, because it was the next thing I saw after I passed the detached house.

Then, do you remember it's the end of the school street zone, so I found a little bit of bark there.

And I'm going to attach that to my journey stick to represent the end of the school street zone.

Next, it was the postbox.

Growing next to the postbox were these red berries.

So I'm going to attach these red berries, because the red also reminds me of the red postbox.

Next, we go past the car garage, and what I saw at the car garage was a little rock.

So I've picked up that little rock and attached it next to my journey stick.

Then do you remember what we passed next on our roots?

It's the zebra crossing, our safe place to cross.

That's an important thing to remember.

So on my journey stick, I've attached a little bit of moss that was growing.

And that's representing the zebra crossing because it's black in color, and it matches the black lines that I can see on the zebra crossing.

And then finally, it's the local play area.

I've picked up part of a branch that must have fallen off a tree.

But it's got lots of green leaves on it, and that represents the park and the play area within the park.

So here's the map of the route that we're going to walk, and then you can see that I've represented that map on a journey stick like this.

Remember, I collected something at each of the local features that I spotted along my route, and I placed it into my bag.

I'm not going to create my journey stick until I'm back in the classroom, but I just showed you the process of it so that you know what you're doing while you're outside and when you're back in the classroom.

Journey sticks can help us record and remember what a place is like based on real objects.

And that's a good way of remembering what a place is like because you've actually got something that was physically from that place.

We can use our journey sticks to share our opinion of a place.

So for example, the first thing that I saw from the allotments were these pink rose petals, and then I've shared my opinion.

I've said, "I like the pink roses and other colorful flowers in the allotment.

" That's an opinion because it's telling you what I like.

I've said here, "The red berries grow near the postbox.

It's easy to remember to post letters!

" And I've related the color of the red berries to the color of the postbox.

And then finally, I've said, "The playground is full of leafy trees.

I love climbing them.

" So I've told you about the place based on the object that I've picked up from it, and I've also shared my opinion on that place.

So that's what you're going to be doing.

That's going to be the end result of our fieldwork.

We're going to use everything that we've collected to create our journey sticks in our classroom, and we're going to talk about the places that we've seen and share our opinions on them.

Before we go outside, we're just going to remember how to keep ourselves safe when completing fieldwork.

Remember, we've got to follow these tips: We've got to use any equipment correctly.

So that means if you collect a journey stick, you shouldn't be using that stick to poke anyone.

You should place it straight in your bag along with all the other objects and keep them safe.

You're not going to be using them for anything other than what they're supposed to be used for.

We also have to remember that we stay with our group.

We don't want to get lost.

We've got to look out for low branches, so we're going into a park.

Parks have lots of trees, and that means that there could be branches that are hanging low.

If you're not careful, you might walk into a tree, or you might have a branch poke you, and that would mean that you get hurt.

You've got to be careful not to trip on tree roots.

Again, we're going into a park.

Parks have lots of trees, and there'll be roots that stick up from the ground.

You have to be aware of where you place your feet so that you don't trip over.

You're not going to walk in any ponds or rivers, that's because you don't know how deep they are.

And finally, you're not going to pick or eat anything growing on trees.

So I know that I've collected berries on my walk to represent the post box.

But I'm not going to eat those berries, and I'm going to make sure that I wash my hands afterwards in case they're poisonous, because they might hurt my belly or make me feel really sick.

So we've got to remember all of these things before we go outside.

It's really important as well that because we're picking things up off the floor and we're putting them into our bags, we've got to wash our hands carefully before we eat anything when we get back to school.

It's now time for you to complete Task B.

So what I would like you to do is to take part in a field visit to your local play area.

You're going to be walking along the route that we've planned, and you're going to be spotting your local area features.

You're going to be completing fieldwork along the way to your local play area by collecting things to add to your journey stick that help you to remember the local features that you pass on your route.

Remember, I've said you're creating your journey stick once you're back inside your classroom.

So you're going to collect those objects and place them in the bag that you've brought with you from home.

Once you're back in your classroom, you're going to use the photos that you've taken to help you attach each of those objects onto your journey stick in the correct order in which you passed them.

You're then going to use your journey stick to remember what each place you passed was like, and explain the story of your journey stick and your opinion of those places to your partner.

You're going to have a really fun time outside completing fieldwork, but remember that you have to keep safe as well.

Pause the video now and complete Task B.

Fantastic!

How did you get on?

Did you enjoy your fieldwork?

Let's have a look at an example of my Task B to see how you got on.

So here's an example of my journey stick.

And I showed you how I built it up at each step.

Making sure that I remembered to sequence, that means put all of the objects that I collected in the right order to help me remember my journey.

I've also written sentences explaining what I've picked up and my opinion on them.

So I've said, "I like the pink roses and the other colorful flowers in the allotment.

These roses smell the best!

" So I've shared my opinion and I've told you about the place that I found that object.

I've said, "The red berries grow near the red postbox.

It's so easy to remember to post the letters!

" And finally, I've said, "The playground is full of leafy trees.

I love climbing them.

This is my favourite play area.

" Well done, geographers.

I'm sure you've had a great time completing fieldwork and walking your route to your local play area.

I'm sure you enjoyed creating your journey sticks once you were back inside your classroom.

And I'm sure you were able to use your journey stick to remember your route and sequence the places on the way to your local play area.

Good job, everyone.

You can give yourselves a thumbs up.

We've come to the end of our lesson now.

So let's just go through a quick summary of all the learning that we've completed together today.

Routes can be plotted and followed on different kinds of maps.

Geographers use maps in fieldwork to find and locate specific features, for example, a local play area.

Geographers use different ways of assessing features and places, such as comparing opinions about a play area.

Journey sticks can help us record and remember what a place is like.

Good job, everyone.

You've been fantastic today.

You can give yourselves one last thumbs up.

Well done for joining me today and for sharing your learning with me.

See you next time for more geography lessons soon.

Good bye!

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