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Barnaby Bear on FaceBook
The Official Barnaby Bear facebook page,
has been set up to 'provide a forum for people to contribute and
share ideas and resources that stimulate and inspire children's
learning'.
Barnaby Bear on FaceBook |
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Geography of Chocolate
- a Y6 / Y7
transition project brought to you by Give Geography its Place
and in particular Christine Lloyd-Staples and Adam Lawson.
This unit of six lessons is designed for use with Y6 post-SATs.
It is designed to:-
• provide a new and fully resourced topic for Y6
• engage children with a topic that is relevant to them all
• make links between their world and the wider world
• act as a bridge between KS2 and KS3 (through the “key concepts”)
• create opportunities for children to develop as young geographers
• provide a context for studying Fairtrade issues
All the planning and the resources for this
unit can be downloaded on
GGiP
primary project |
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Primary Geography Courses
for
2008 - 2009 from
SID (QLS)
A range of courses and
networking meetings are planned for subject leaders
and geography teachers. Please see the
Support from QLS pages for details of
dates and venues and
also details of all the
future programme
of geography CPD
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ICT for Key Stage 1 and 2
BECTa ICT
advice is well worth looking at. There are lesson plans and associated
resources for each year group, many directly linked with popular primary
topics.
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Ofsted primary subject report and conference
Have you read the latest
Ofsted
Annual report for Primary geography for 2005 and the report of the
Ofsted Geography Conference which was on Developing
the role of the subject leader? Click the links to find out!
Ofsted report for 2004
here.
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Assessing Primary
Geography Teacher assessment is a
complex matter, but here are a few tools to help you with part of the
process.
Principles and purposes of assessment
These are some special assessment tasks devised by
teachers in Staffordshire and Derby. They are designed to be completed by
pupils, generally towards the end of a unit, to help teachers judge what
pupils know, understand and can do, in order to help teachers assess
pupils' progress. These are all Word files, so can be adapted to suit your
needs
Recording pupils' progress
These examples of recording grids are useful to
help you devise your own.
End of Unit assessment chart
"Traffic lights" chart Y1 Around our School The local Area
"Traffic lights" chart Y6 The Mountain Environment
Class assessment records Y1 - Y4 (Perton First School)
Class assessment records Y5 - 6 (Perton First School)
Monitoring progress in geography Working
on your own moderating pupils' attainment can be very difficult. To help
you with a national view of expected standards in geography, please have a
look at QCA's
National Curriculum in Action website, which contains examples of
pupils work in all year groups, with a commentary on how well they have
achieved and what they could do to make their work even better. |
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Christ Church (CE) Primary
School, Lichfield Sue Coley (Geography Co-ordinator)
runs a Geography Club. In April 2005 the
children of entered a competition,
which Sue had seen it advertised in Mapping
News. This was The International Cartographic
Association’s Barbara Petchenik Children’s World Map Competition.
The children had to make a world map related to the theme ‘Many Lands, One
World’, which they all enjoyed doing. In July, we were really pleased to
hear that two of our maps were in the five sent to the international
judges in Spain: Kaitlin Wray’s (Y6) entitled ‘Friendship can beat sorrow’
and Holly Harrison’s (Y5) entitled ‘A World Free From Hunger would be a
good world’. Both drew the world free hand. Kaitlin filled hers in with
smiley faces and Holly filled hers with knives and forks. We were then
delighted to hear that Holly’s map was a winner in the international
competition. Both girls received a HarperCollins World Atlas as prizes and
Holly is to receive a certificate to be presented by Dr C Board of The
British Cartographic Society. The competition is held every two years.
Details of the competition can be found on the website at
www.ICACI.org
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New teaching and learning resources on Everest
and Antarctica for KS2
 The
Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) in London has recently opened
its doors to welcome primary schools. New teaching and learning resources
on Everest and Antarctica for KS2 are available on the website along with
a stunning on-line gallery of images from their exciting new project
"Unlocking the Archives". The resources can be used to
supplement any project on the Mountain Environment scheme of work and
Antarctica, with specific links to the geography, history and citizenship
curricular. Developed by teachers, these resources can be downloaded to
give ideas and activities on teaching and learning in the classroom.
Pupils can explore the gallery of images, have a go at the quiz, download
the factsheets together with classroom activities, post their opinions in
the forum and send in work for inclusion in the People's Exhibition. The
challenging interactive work can be reinforced with a visit to the Society
and participation in one of the themed workshops. These involve use of
archive material, role play with historical characters, co-operative
decision making, research using the ICT suite and spending time in this
geographical centre of learning. Website www.unlockingthearchives.rgs.org
Contact details education@rgs.org
Tel: 020 7591 3056
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QCA Adapted and Combined units
To
support your curriculum planning, QCA have provided further examples of
units; some of these are adapting previous units from their scheme of work
and others are combining units from other subjects, including embedding
literacy and numeracy in geography. Examples are:-
Going
on a Bear Hunt Y1 Geography and Poetry combined
Come
to Castries Y2 adapted from Tocuaro unit
Beside
the Seaside KS1 History and Geography combined
Who
lives in a place like this? KS1 Geography and Science combined
Allons
a la Reunion Y5/6 Geography and MfL combined
Problem
Parking KS2 adapted from Should the High Street be Closed to Traffic?
Lifeboats
and helicopters to the Rescue KS2 Embedding Maths in Geography
Water
Water Everywhere KS2 Geography and Science combined
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A contrasting locality: Tocuaro
Images from Tocuaro
Thanks to Adam Nichols for these images taken in
Tocuaro, Mexico, during a visit
in Easter 2004.
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You will find these websites useful
Mexico
for Kids
WorldAware
Tocuaro site
BBC Schools: A
Tale of Two Cities: Mexico City and Belfast
Mexicolore who offer Mexico workshops to school
More images of
Mexico
Links to other Mexico sites
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Innovative and Creative Practice - Pilot
research programme 2003 - 2004
A number of schools and QLS officers were involved in identifying and
highlighting aspects of practice in a range of subjects. Visits were
made to Perton First, Walhouse Junior and William Shrewsbury Primary
schools to find out what was happening in geography (and there is
lots!) |
You can read all the reports in detail by
following
this link or the individual geography ones here:
Geography is Everywhere - Perton First School
Keeping
Geography in its Place - Walhouse Junior
Making
Geography Fun - William Shrewsbury Primary School
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Advice for
co-ordinators
Here you will be able
to find items of interest as you develop geography for the primary years;
includes 11 steps to better geography, guidance on the role of the
geography co-ordinator, some ideas for assessment and a list of
geographical big books.
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 India
Quiz
This is the quiz from the recent "India
Day" at Thornbury Hall. It is a PowerPoint presentation - download
here
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Round
the World Google Treasure Hunt
Thanks to Chris Rogers, Perton First School, near
Wolverhampton, who has sent this Internet quiz which she has devised for
her Year 4 pupils
Download
quiz here |
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Village
Settlers (based on QCA Unit 9)
Sarah Robson, Headteacher at St. Augustine's C.E.
First School in Draycott-in -the-Clay shares with us a Y3/4 lesson
seen by Ofsted and described as "good". The report describes
the lesson: "Here the teacher combined history
and geography through mapping work. Pupils looked at maps to discover
whether towns and
villages were settled by the Saxons, Vikings or Celts. The extensive
research was conducted quietly, with high levels of concentration
and at a quick pace. Pairs worked together very well and the quality
of discussion was very high. By the end, pupils made hypotheses using
information they had already gained plus what they had found out. One
group concluded that Wales was settled by the Celts because the Saxons
and Viking invaders had driven them out. This showed high levels of
understanding." The lesson plans and support materials can be
downloaded below:
Lesson plan
Table
1
Table
2
What
the place names mean |
The work of one group - their graphs and reports of
their findings; other work can be seen below.
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Did
you know that from Stafford to Truro* is nearly 3000 miles?
Jill Wilkinson, Leasowes Junior School in Stafford,
was fortunate to go to Canada on a TPID Professional Development
visit. Here Jill describes the work she has been doing with her class
since the visit, linking geography, literacy, ICT, art and design and
the links she has made with Salmon River Elementary School. See
the full story here!
* Truro in Nova Scotia that is! |
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Teaching
about Chembakolli?
On a recent QLS course, Geography and the Internet, Gareth
Jones from Moor First School in Biddulph, created this PowerPoint
presentation to be used with children studying a Village in India. Please
download the presentation here for your own use.
Please make sure you are using the NEW Chembakolli pack from
Action Aid when
teaching this unit. It is also a good idea to complement teaching
about rural India with an urban contrast and Action Aid's new Bangalore
pack is excellent. |
Click on the picture above to see the presentation.
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The Flat Stanley Project
Emma Sheridan from Springfields First School in Yarnfield recounts
a very successful project Year 2 project which puts a new twist to the
QCA unit Where in the World is Barnaby Bear!
Click here to see the work and more
photos
Flat
Stanley Website www.flatstanleyproject.com
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Click on the image above, and use it as a template for your own
"Flat Stanley"!
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Geography Action Week 2002 - Celebrating Diversity: Life in the UK
Today
Staffordshire schools joined in with this national event - examples of
what they did can be
found here.
Right: Pupils at Lansdowne Infants school produced a
collage showing the diversity of their local area. |
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Coming to
England
Caroline
Johnstone from Christchurch Middle School in Stone
describes how she has brought Geography into the Literacy hour by using
Floella Benjamin's autobiography Coming to England to compare
weather in Trinidad and England.
Click here to see the work and
more photos of the display!
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Register of Research in Primary Geography
Discover an active network of people concerned with the continued
development of the primary child through its original
geographical skills. The Register of Research in Primary Geography welcomes Final Year
B.Ed., PGCE, NQT and established
primary teachers to join the network, receive help and
guidance for action research and CPD opportunities. Share
experiences
for enhancing and improving teaching and learning from Nursery to KS3.
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Further Details from:
Mrs Rachel Bowles,
9 Humber Road
Blackheath
London SE3 7LS
Email rabowles@dial.pipex.com Tel/Fax 020 8858 5685
Research Register
on GA website
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| Lesley Stanton reports on the Whose
Citizenship conference for teachers of KS1 pupils. This initiative, run by the DEC in Birmingham, is
about
providing a practical response to citizenship in the curriculum. Find
out more about the DEC and TIDE (Teachers in Development Education) here.
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 Katie
Morag and the Two Grandmothers is set on the island of Struay.
However, Struay does not exist! Marie Hedderwick
based her book on the island of Coll. Clare van Schijndel
from Knypersley First School has created this PowerPoint presentation to
raise some questions about Coll. Thanks to Steve Rogers, Shropshire
Adviser for geography, for the "odd one out" slide. To save the presentation on your
computer click here with
your right mouse button and Save Target As. Here are some websites which give
you maps, information and photos about Coll.
www.scotland-info.co.uk/coll.htm
www.aboutscotland.com/coll/dairyglendyke.html
www.sturgeon.dircon.co.uk/index.htm
Thank you to Pete Coleshaw and Coll Holidays for their
website which was the source of many of the images used in the
presentation. Their site also features a stunning 360º panoramic
virtual tour of the island. www.collholidays.co.uk/
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Staffordshire
School Weather Data Site
This is a new site dedicated to explaining how to collect basic weather data and
encouraging young weather enthusiasts. The project is a result of a Staffordshire
Educational initiative to promote the use of the Internet and sharing of weather data from
across the county. This site has been created and managed by Alan Rodgers and Angella
Streluk.
Amington Heath Primary School
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What
A Wonderful World!
Oh yes it is, and just to prove it Year 5 at Hugo
Meynell Primary have been busy travelling the globe finding out
about many of the most famous landmarks, natural and man-made.
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Fly
and float with Fergal
Fergal is the frog that will guide you through some excellent aerial
photographs of the Trent from Knypersley (one of the sources) to
Blacktoft (the mouth).
This would make a great resource for the geographical enquiry: How does
the River Trent affect the landscape and people of Staffordshire,
Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire?
Sally Sanders formerly of Ryecroft Middle
School in Rocester, has created two differentiated worksheets
for Y5 pupils to use with the River Trent website. Click
here for River Trent worksheet and click
here for Freddie Frog worksheet, a slightly easier
version.
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An example of one of the twelve
aerial photos on the fergal site
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Barnaby's
travels
Congratulations to Georgie Savage and Chris Rogers and their colleagues at
Perton
First School.
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The school web site features Barnaby's
travels. Barnaby's adventures are pupil generated and he has been
all over the world.
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Round the World in a Day
Take a trip with Thomas Russell Infants
who went Round the World in a Day. This was
a project for Geography Action Week.
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Cannock Town Centre Trail
resource
Carolyne Cadman of Walhouse Junior School,
has produced a valuable teaching aid for teachers of KS2 Geography and
English in the Cannock area, with support from Cannock Chase Council and
the Staffordshire
Partnership. Karen Ward and Val Moore from the District Council
have produced a supporting board game and wallchart.
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Silkmore Primary's Geographical
Enquiry
Study the details of Silkmore Primary School's Geographical
Enquiry into a development site in their local area - This involved the 'Planning for
Real' project with pupils building models and offering opinions about a new housing
development.
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beyond.
Don't hesitate to contact me if you need support in
school. Look at our 
