New
New
Year 2

The North Pole and the Arctic

I can locate and talk about the Arctic Circle using maps and globes, and describe seasonal changes.

New
New
Year 2

The North Pole and the Arctic

I can locate and talk about the Arctic Circle using maps and globes, and describe seasonal changes.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. The Arctic Circle is an imagined circle around the North Pole that surrounds the area known as the Arctic.
  2. Much of the Artic Ocean around the North Pole is frozen sea ice, two to three metres thick, but this reduces in summer.
  3. The northern edges of three continents: North America, Europe and Asia, can be found within the Arctic Circle.
  4. 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.

You can show the class images of places in the Arctic using from Google street view or other websites.
Teacher tip

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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6 Questions

Q1.
Where is the North Pole located?
Antarctica
Asia
Africa
Correct answer: Arctic
Q2.
What is the Earth tilted on which creates the seasons?
Equator
Poles
Correct answer: Axis
Angles
Q3.
Which hemisphere is the North Pole located in?
Correct answer: Northern hemsiphere
Southern Hemisphere
Eastern Hemisphere
Q4.
How many continents are there?
3
5
Correct answer: 7
9
11
Q5.
Which of these continents are not in the Northern hemisphere?
North America
Europe
Correct answer: Antarctica
Correct answer: Oceania
Q6.
Which continent is coldest?
Correct answer: Antarctica
Europe
North America

6 Questions

Q1.
What is the Arctic circle?
An imaginary line around the middle of Earth
A line which Earth sits on
A line of longitude
Correct answer: An imagined circle around the North Pole that surrounds the Arctic
Q2.
What is the Arctic surrounded by?
ocean
Correct answer: land
mountains
Q3.
What is sea ice?
parts of the sea which used to come from a glacier
Correct answer: parts of the sea which are frozen
ice which has melted in the sea
Q4.
What is the key word for the definition 'this is ice which never thaws, even in summer time'?
Sea ice
temporary ice
Correct answer: permanent ice
ice sheets
Q5.
What is the midnight sun?
Correct answer: the 24 consecutive hours of sunlight during the Arctic or Antarctic summer
when the moon is so bright, it looks like the sun
when the sun never comes out
Q6.
When does Arctic experience winter?
Correct answer: November to March
May to September
All year round
never