The River Thames
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can explain the importance of the River Thames to London.
Key learning points
- People settled by the River Thames for navigation, trade and a water supply. Today, many bridges connect both banks.
- Today, Londoners use the most water in the country; much of this comes from the River Thames.
- Waste water is also pumped into the River Thames, which is why a new super sewer is being built.
- The Thames’ Barrier is a special piece of engineering that is designed to protect London from flooding.
Keywords
Navigation - Navigation is finding a way from one place to another
Banks - Banks are the edges of the land beside a river or waterway
Bridges - Bridges are structures that enable people and vehicles to travel over another space, such as a river or road
Sewer - A sewer is an underground pipe that takes dirty water, such as from baths and toilets, to the sewage works to be cleaned
Flood - A flood is when there is too much water in a waterway, such as a river, and it overflows onto land that is normally dry
Common misconception
Pupils may think the banks of a river actually "burst" in an explosive way when there is a flood.
During a flood, the water level of a river is higher than the banks, so the water 'bursts' out of the river, over the banks onto the surrounding land.
Teacher tip
Try some experimenting to demonstrate flooding, using water and a small container. Challenge pupils to take turns to spoon or drip small amounts of water into the container without bursting the banks. When the container overflows, the banks are burst!
Licence
Lesson video
Loading...
Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Complete the sentence. The mouth of a river is where it meets the .
Q2.How do we use rivers?
Q3.About how many parks and green spaces are there in London?
Q4.Why do people that live in cities enjoy spending time in parks?
Q5.What is recreation?
Q6.Put the words in order to complete the sentence. London is the world's first .
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Which of these allows people to cross from one side of a river to the other?
Q2.What does the Thames Barrier help to protect London from?
Q3.Where does most of our waste water end up?
Q4.Complete the sentence. We use water every day when we brush our .
Q5.Match the words to the definitions.
Q6.Put the sentences in the correct order to describe what happens in a flood.
To help you plan your 2 geography lesson on: The River Thames, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 2 geography lesson on: The River Thames, 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 What is life like in London? unit, dive into the full primary geography curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.