Mapping the world: locating the continents
I can understand that a map is a 2D model of the world and I know what continents and oceans are.
Mapping the world: locating the continents
I can understand that a map is a 2D model of the world and I know what continents and oceans are.
These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.
Lesson details
Key learning points
- It is hard to make a 2D map of a 3D world and so maps of the world can look quite different from each other.
- We call large blocks of land continents and there are seven of these on Earth.
- There are seven continents: Europe, Africa, North America, South America, Asia, Oceania and Antarctica.
- Some continents, such as North and South America, are connected and some, such as Oceania, include lots of islands.
Keywords
2D - A two-dimensional (2D) object is flat - its dimensions are height (top to bottom) and width (side to side).
3D - A three-dimensional (3D) object is solid - its dimensions are height (top to bottom), width (side to side) and depth (front to back).
Continent - A continent is a large land mass on Earth and there are seven: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Oceania.
Ocean - An ocean is a very big area of salt water between the continents.
Common misconception
Africa is country.
The continent of Africa contains 54 countries.
Equipment
Atlases, maps and globes.
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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Starter quiz
6 Questions
Exit quiz
6 Questions
A three-dimensional map shows us what our round world looks like.
a map that shows a flat representation of our world
a large land mass on Earth: there are seven of them