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      Fieldwork: Autumn in the school grounds

      Lesson details

      Learning outcome

      I can use geographical vocabulary to identify seasonal signs in the school grounds.

      Key learning points

      1. Recording daily weather conditions (e.g. temperature, wind direction and speed) develops weather-specific vocabulary.
      2. There are four seasons, and signs of each of them can be seen in the school grounds.
      3. Fieldwork outside, e.g. finding signs of autumn, develops geographical vocabulary, observation and recording skills.
      4. Geographers take photographs, draw pictures, make models, or add information to maps to record what they notice.

      Keywords

      • Weather - The weather of a place is the day to day condition of the atmosphere, e.g. sunny, snowing, warm, etc.

      • Seasons - The seasons are four times of year that have different weather and they are spring, summer, autumn and winter.

      • Fieldwork - Investigating the outdoors using geographical tools and thinking, and gathering information or data is known as fieldwork.

      Common misconception

      Fieldwork only takes place in a field.

      You can complete fieldwork anywhere as long as you can get outside and look for changes and make observations!

      Teacher tip

      You can include pictures of things to look for in your school grounds to link the signs of Autumn to the school grounds. For example if you have fruit in your grounds, trees that have leaves which have changed colour etc.

      Content guidance

      Risk assessment required - physical activity

      Supervision

      Adult supervision required

      Licence

      This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), 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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      Prior knowledge starter quiz

      6 Questions

      Q1.
      What is an example of weather?

      Correct answer: rain
      Correct answer: wind
      flower
      Correct answer: sun

      Q2.
      Which words describe the weather?

      Correct answer: cold
      tree
      Correct answer: hot
      Correct answer: windy
      leaf

      Q3.
      What are seasons?

      How the air feels outside right now.
      Correct answer: Four different times during the year with different types of weather in each.
      Five times a year when the weather is the same.

      Q4.
      What are the names of the seasons?

      Correct answer: Summer
      Correct answer: Autumn
      October
      Correct answer: Spring
      Correct answer: Winter

      Q5.
      Signs that it is the end of summer and the beginning of autumn include:

      Correct answer: colder days
      hot sunny days
      Correct answer: leaves turning brown
      Correct answer: darker days

      Q6.
      In autumn leaves change from green to:

      Correct answer: yellow
      black
      Correct answer: red
      blue
      Correct answer: brown

      6 Questions

      Q1.
      Weather explains the current state of the ...

      ceiling and the floor inside.
      grass and soil.
      Correct answer: sky and air outside.

      Q2.
      Words that we can use to describe the weather include:

      Correct answer: cloudy
      Correct answer: warm
      Correct answer: drizzle
      sad
      Correct answer: overcast

      Q3.
      Seasons show us how the weather changes over ...

      a day.
      a week.
      a month.
      Correct answer: a year.

      Q4.
      What are the four seasons?

      Autumn, Winter, November, Summer
      October, Winter, Spring, Summer
      Summer, Autumn, Winter, Rain
      Correct answer: Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer

      Q5.
      Signs that it is autumn include:

      Correct answer: fruit to harvest
      long, warm evenings
      Correct answer: shorter, darker days
      Correct answer: seeds falling from trees

      Q6.
      Which months of the year fall into autumn?

      Correct answer: October
      August
      Correct answer: September
      Correct answer: November

      To help you plan your 1 geography lesson on: Fieldwork: Autumn in the school grounds, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...