Lesson video

Hello.

Welcome to this lesson.

I'm Ms. Roberts and I will be your geography teacher today.

This lesson is all about the kinds of parks and other green spaces we can find in cities like London.

You are going to be investigating why it is important for cities to have spaces like these.

This sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun.

Are you ready to begin? Great.

Let's go.

By the end of the lesson today you will be able to explain why it is important for cities like London to have parks and green spaces.

There are some keywords that we are going to be using a lot in this lesson, so let's begin by going through the keywords together.

You've already heard our first keyword and the first is green spaces.

Can you say green spaces? Great job.

Green spaces are areas of land with plants or grass and trees that people can go to visit.

Examples of green spaces include parks, woods, and wetlands.

Our next keyword is parks.

You've just heard parks there, haven't you? Can you say parks? Yes, well done.

A park is an outdoor space for the public to enjoy where people can go to relax or to play.

The next keyword for today is peaceful.

Can you say the word peaceful? Well done.

Something that is peaceful is something that is quiet and calm, where you will not be disturbed.

It's lovely to spend time in peaceful places.

The next keyword for today is recreation.

Can you say recreation? Well done! Recreation is any activity that we do for pleasure, so anything that we do like a sport or a hobby or a pastime that is done for pleasure is recreation.

The last keyword we have today is actually three words put together to make a title.

Now, that title is National Park City.

Can you say National Park City? Well done.

That's right.

Now, a National Park City is a city where everybody there is encouraged to work together to make life better for the people, for the places in that city, and for the nature that has its home in that city as well.

Now, don't worry if you're still not too sure what all those words mean or how to use them, because you will hear them again and I will highlight them when we use them in the lesson.

We're going to split this lesson into two parts.

In the first part, we are going to investigate the question, are cities just full of buildings? And later in the lesson we are going to think about what green spaces we can find in London.

So let's begin by investigating whether or not cities are just full of buildings.

Sometimes people call cities concrete jungles.

That's because in a city you can always see buildings, pavements, roads, bridges, and these have all been built or made or constructed by humans as the city has grown over time.

Most of those things, like buildings and roads and pavements, are made of material that is called concrete.

This is why cities are sometimes called a concrete jungle.

Concrete is grey in colour.

This photograph shows part of London with buildings as far as the eye can see, and there's a rather greyish tone to all of them.

To reduce this concrete jungle effect, cities use different zones to create spaces within the city.

Green spaces is one example of this.

Green spaces can range from very small areas to much bigger areas like parks.

Some cities also have wide, long streets or avenues that can be lined with tall trees.

This photograph is part of London.

Can you see that green space with the trees nestled in between the buildings? That's Finsbury Circus, one small green space nestled amongst a concrete jungle.

Green spaces, like parks, are very important.

They help to soak up all the noise and all the pollution that's caused by the heavy traffic in the city.

Green spaces provide peaceful places for recreation for the residents of the city, as well as visitors.

You can see people relaxing here in the park in the photograph.

Look at this park.

Look at the people.

What are they doing? How do people use green spaces like parks? Talk to a partner and share your ideas.

It sounds like you have lots of ideas.

You may have said things like people use parks for relaxing in, away from the stress of the city.

People use parks for enjoying nature and wildlife that they can find there.

People use parks for playing sports, especially outdoor sports and ball games.

People also enjoy taking walks in the natural surroundings of the park.

Or maybe they go because they enjoy having picnics in the summer weather.

A few people in this photograph are having picnics and enjoying the sunshine.

Now let's see if you were listening closely.

I'm going to ask you a multiple choice question and I'll read four options for you to choose from.

How do parks benefit people that live in cities? Is it option a, people can grow vegetables? Option b, people can escape from the noisy city? Is it c, people can take relaxing walks? Is it d, people can pick wildflowers? Have a think and make your choice.

Be careful, because there could be more than one correct answer here.

Have you made a choice? Okay, let's have a look at the answers together.

People can grow vegetables.

That's not true about parks.

People don't usually grow vegetables in parks.

They grow vegetables in their own gardens or in special places called allotments.

People can escape the noisy city.

What do you think? I think this is true.

Parks are peaceful places, so to get away from the noise it's nice to go and spend time in a park.

People can take relaxing walks.

I think this is also true, because parks are peaceful, like we just said.

Therefore, when it is peaceful, it is also relaxing, and you can take a nice walk in the nature surrounding you.

That means that option d is an incorrect answer.

Picking wildflowers is not a good idea in a park.

Wildflowers should always be left to grow where they are.

Let's try an activity now about cities.

The residents of a busy city are very unhappy because the council is planning to close the local park.

They want to use the space to build houses instead.

Your task is to work with a partner and together plan a short speech to share your concerns at the park being closed.

Your speech must include reasons why you think the park should not be closed.

Think of all the benefits of the park that you will no longer have access to if it isn't there.

Pause the video now and work with a partner to complete the activity.

Well done, everyone! You had some excellent ideas there.

Some of the children from Oak Academy are going to share their ideas with us now too.

Jun asks, "Where will I walk my dog?" That's a very good point, Jun.

Izzy is concerned about the pollution.

She says that "the pollution will be worse because there will be more cars on the road." I think she's right.

More houses means more people and more people means more cars.

Alex says that he will have nowhere to play cricket, and that's a very good point too.

You can't play ball games like cricket indoors, especially not in a house.

Laura is worried that it will be so noisy.

"There will be nowhere to get any peace and quiet," she says.

I think they are all excellent ideas.

Well done, everybody! Now let's think about the city of London in particular.

Let's find out what green spaces there are in London.

There are around 3,000 parks and green spaces in London.

Some are very large or historic parks and others are just very small green spaces in residential areas.

You can see some examples in the pictures.

On the left is a picture of people enjoying a large, open green space, and on the right is a much smaller green space.

This is a digital map of a part of London.

Look at a digital map of London like this one and try to find the names of some of the parks and green spaces in the London area.

You can pause the video while you do this and you can work with a partner for extra support if you want to.

Did you find the names of some London parks? Maybe you found answers like these.

On this map we can see Regent's Park, Hyde Park, Victoria Park, Clapham Common, Greenwich Park, West Ham Park, and Holland Park.

Now, there are over 3,000 parks altogether in London, so I'm sure you didn't name them all, and these are certainly just a few.

Eight of those parks in London are very special parks in particular.

That's because they are Royal Parks.

They are called Royal Parks because at one time in the past they weren't public parks.

They were actually private spaces that were owned by the Royal family.

The Royal Parks are Hyde Park, Green Park, Richmond Park, Greenwich Park, St.

James's Park, Bushy Park, Regent's Park, and Kensington Gardens.

You can see in the photographs here, Bushy Park has wildlife in it like deer that roam around the countryside.

Greenwich Park is a large, flat park with views across the city of London.

In 2019, London was declared the world's first National Park City.

Do you remember that title from our keywords earlier? The aim of a National Park City is to work together for better lives, health, and wellbeing, wildlife, trees, and flowers, places, habitats, air, water, sea, and land, time outdoors, culture, art, playing, walking, cycling, and eating, locally grown food and responsible consumption, decisions, sharing, learning, and working together, and most of all, better relationships with nature and each other.

They are the aims of a National Park City, and London was the first city in the world to set out to achieve those aims. So, were you listening closely? This is a true or false question.

Listen and tell me if the statement I read is true or false.

London is a city, so it does not have any green spaces.

Is that true or is that false? Have a think now and make your choice.

Have you decided? Okay, so I'd like you to give me thumbs up if you think this is true and thumbs down if you think this is false.

Okay.

Who has thumbs up for true? No, I don't have thumbs up for true.

I'm saying thumbs down, because this statement is false.

It is not true to say that because London is a city it doesn't have any green spaces.

Now, as a geographer, whenever we make a statement we also need to provide some explanation or some evidence to show how we know that what we are saying is right.

So I am going to read you two statements and I want you to choose which one is the most helpful in this situation.

Listen carefully.

Sentence a: there are about 3,000 parks and green spaces in London.

Sentence b: some parks in London are called Royal Parks.

Which of those two sentences is most helpful in this situation? Have you chosen? I chose option a.

Option a explains that we know that London has 3,000 parks and green spaces, so that explains how we know the statement that London is a city, so it doesn't have green spaces, must be false.

Well done! Let's try another activity to finish this lesson.

This is an activity about green spaces in London.

On the right you can see a word bank and on the left you can see four sentences that all have at least one word missing.

Choose from the words in the box to complete each sentence.

Pause the video now while you complete the activity.

Okay, let's have a look at the answers together.

Number one, it is important for cities to have parks and green spaces.

Number two, people enjoy spending time in parks because they are peaceful places without the noise from the traffic.

Number three, parks are also important spaces for recreation, for example, doing outdoor sports.

And number four, cities like London have a lot of pollution; parks can help to reduce this.

That was a very interesting lesson about parks and green spaces in London.

We've learnt a lot today, so let's have a review of everything we've covered.

We now know that parks and green spaces are important in cities for lots of reasons.

Parks help to soak up the pollution and they also absorb noise from the heavy city traffic.

We know that parks can be used for recreation and relaxation because they are peaceful places.

London has around 3,000 parks and green spaces and it was declared a National Park City in 2019.

I hope you've had an enjoyable time in this lesson and I'm looking forward to seeing you again for another lesson about life in the city of London.

Bye for now!.