The River Taff
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can describe the course of the River Taff and explain how the River Taff has changed over time.
Key learning points
- The River Taff flows from the north to the south of the city and drains into Cardiff Bay, a freshwater lake.
- Over 200 years ago, a famous engineer called Isambard Kingdom Brunel changed the course of the River Taff.
- Cardiff Station was then built in an area that used to flood before the river was diverted.
- The River Taff used to be heavily polluted but is now home to trout, salmon and other wildlife.
Keywords
Course - The course of a river is the path it takes from its source at the start to its mouth at the end
Freshwater - Freshwater is water that is not salty
Divert - To divert something is to make it take a different route
Pollution - Pollution is anything that makes the environment dirty or unhealthy
Common misconception
Pupils may think that rivers simply stop or disappear, rather than flow into a larger water body.
All rivers are part of the water cycle; water in a river flows overland along its course until it reaches a larger body of water, often at the coast. For example, water from the River Taff flows into Cardiff Bay.
Teacher tip
Find out about community groups in your local area that volunteer to clean up natural places like riversides. Pupils may not be aware that any such groups exist and it will make the concepts in the lesson more tangible to see how similar things happen in their local area.
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Which of these modes of transport would you find on water?
Q2.Which of these is a National Park?
Q3.What do people use Cardiff Central Station for?
Q4.Complete the sentence.
An express service takes people from Cardiff city centre to the international airport.
Q5.Match the words to the definitions.
Q6.Complete the sentence.
Wales is connected to by the M4 motorway.
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Where does the River Taff begin?
Q2.Which of these historic people was an engineer?
Q3.Match the words to the definitions.
Q4.Which of these species would you find in the River Taff?
Q5.Complete the sentence.
A lot of pollution in the River Taff came from the industry.
Q6.What problem is shown in the picture?
To help you plan your 2 geography lesson on: The River Taff, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 2 geography lesson on: The River Taff, 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 Cardiff? unit, dive into the full primary geography curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.