A glacier is a huge accumulation of ice and snow that moves slowly over land.

Icebergs are large floating chunks of ice, that break off glaciers into the ocean.

An ice floe is a sheet of ice floating in the water.

An ice shelf is a floating tongue of ice that extends from a glacier grounded on land.

Locating the North and South Poles

Geography

The world's cold places

The North Pole and the Arctic

The South Pole and the Antarctic

Arctic wildlife

Antarctic wildlife

Living in the Arctic

Living in the Antarctic

It then leads on to examine this same scale but by investigating hot places in 'Hot places: What is it like near the Equator?'. This unit also links to future understanding of land use and settlement, and builds on Earth Geometry by establishing familiarity with the Polar Circles here and with the Equator in 'Hot places: What is it like near the Equator?'.

links to work done in and around the school ground on weather and develops the idea of temperature variations and extreme cold on a global scale. 

This unit explores the North and South Poles through their locations, climates, landscapes, wildlife and ways of life. Pupils learn to compare the Arctic and Antarctic using maps, images and geographical vocabulary to describe features of cold environments.

Cold places: what is it like at the North and South Poles?

a large floating chunk of ice, that breaks off glaciers into the ocean

a floating tongue of ice that extends from a glacier grounded on land

a huge accumulation of ice and snow that moves slowly over land

True or false? The Arctic is a continent.

What is the imaginary line which runs around Earth?

What is Earth tilted on which creates seasons?

The North Pole is in the same hemisphere as which country?

The South Pole experiences winter in which months?

Locating the North and South Poles

Lesson outcome