The North Pole and the Arctic
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can locate and talk about the Arctic Circle using maps and globes, and describe seasonal changes.
Key learning points
- The Arctic Circle is an imagined circle around the North Pole that surrounds the area known as the Arctic.
- Much of the Artic Ocean around the North Pole is frozen sea ice, two to three metres thick, but this reduces in summer.
- The northern edges of three continents: North America, Europe and Asia, can be found within the Arctic Circle.
- The Arctic Summer has almost continuous daylight and the winter almost continuous darkness.
Keywords
Arctic Circle - The most northerly major line of latitude.
Arctic Ocean - The smallest of the world’s main oceans, much of it is frozen during its winter months.
Permanent ice - This is ice which never thaws, even in summer time.
Midnight sun - The 24 consecutive hours of sunlight during the Arctic or Antarctic summer.
Common misconception
The Arctic is just at the North Pole.
The Arctic is all the area within the Arctic circle, which includes parts of Europe, North America and Asia.
Teacher tip
You can show the class images of places in the Arctic using from Google street view or other websites.
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Where is the North Pole located?
Q2.What is the Earth tilted on which creates the seasons?
Q3.Which hemisphere is the North Pole located in?
Q4.How many continents are there?
Q5.Which of these continents are not in the Northern hemisphere?
Q6.Which continent is coldest?
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.What is the Arctic circle?
Q2.What is the Arctic surrounded by?
Q3.What is sea ice?
Q4.What is the key word for the definition 'this is ice which never thaws, even in summer time'?
Q5.What is the midnight sun?
Q6.When does Arctic experience winter?
To help you plan your 2 geography lesson on: The North Pole and the Arctic, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 2 geography lesson on: The North Pole and the Arctic, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 1 geography lessons from the Cold places: what is it like at the North and South Poles? unit, dive into the full primary geography curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.