New
New
Year 1

William Adams' journey to Japan

I can describe William Adams' journey to Japan.

New
New
Year 1

William Adams' journey to Japan

I can describe William Adams' journey to Japan.

warning

These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

Switch to our new teaching resources now - designed by teachers and leading subject experts, and tested in classrooms.

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. William Adams was an English sailor who went on many long voyages about 200 years after Zheng He.
  2. Adams wanted to follow in the footsteps of other explorers and travel to Asia.
  3. Adams sailed across the Atlantic to the Americas with five ships, before crossing the Pacific with only two.
  4. On the voyage a huge storm sunk one of Adam's boats and he arrived in Japan with just one boat and a very sickly crew.
  5. Adam's voyage took over two years and he chose to stay in Japan, working with a local leader to build ships.

Keywords

  • Atlantic Ocean - the Atlantic Ocean is the ocean between Europe and the Americas

  • Americas - the Americas are the continents of North and South America

  • Asia - the continent to the east of Europe is called Asia

  • Pacific Ocean - the Pacific Ocean is the ocean between the Americas and Asia

Common misconception

When looking at a 2D map of the world, pupils may think that there are two Pacific oceans.

The Pacific Ocean is the biggest ocean on earth. We can see on a globe that it is one large body of water between the Americas and Asia.

There are 5 oceans on earth. Pupils have encountered two of them by this point. Challenge pupils to learn all of the ocean names by making up their own mnemonics like "Alice Smith is a princess" for Atlantic, Southern, Indian, Arctic and Pacific.
Teacher tip

Content guidance

  • Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
  • Depiction or discussion of upsetting content
  • Depiction or discussion of violence or suffering

Supervision

Adult supervision required

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

Loading...

6 Questions

Q1.
A seafarer explores the...
land
air
Correct answer: sea
Q2.
Which of these is a tool for navigating ships?
Correct answer: compass
lead line
canoe
longboat
Q3.
What is rigging for?
catching the wind
steering the ship
Correct answer: moving the sails
Q4.
Which of these is a tool for measuring how deep water is?
flag
canoe
Correct answer: lead line
compass
Q5.
Which continent is to the east of Europe?
Correct answer: Asia
China
America
Q6.
What tool can show you if you are travelling north, south, east or west?
calculator
Correct answer: compass
rudder

6 Questions

Q1.
William Adams was the first English person to go to...
Spain
Scotland
Correct answer: Japan
Q2.
True or false? All 5 ships in Williams Adams' group arrived to Japan.
True
Correct answer: False
Q3.
Sailors got sick because they didn't have enough...
hot drinks
hats
Correct answer: fruits and vegetables
Q4.
Match the oceans to the correct descriptions.
Correct Answer:Atlantic Ocean,the ocean between Europe and the Americas

the ocean between Europe and the Americas

Correct Answer:Pacific Ocean,the ocean between the Americas and Asia

the ocean between the Americas and Asia

Q5.
What happened in the Pacific Ocean?
Correct answer: one ship was sunk
one ship went the wrong way
one ship turned around
Q6.
How long did William Adams' journey to Japan take?
10 years
6 years
Correct answer: 2 years

Additional material

Download additional material
We're sorry, but preview is not currently available. Download to see additional material.