Lesson video

Hello, Mrs. Lomas here.

I am a primary school teacher that loves geography, so I'm very excited to be sharing your geography lesson with you today.

And I've had a little sneak peek, and it looks really interesting.

So let's get started, shall we? So today we are going to look at the regions and counties of the UK as part of our unit "The UK: Who are we?" And by the end of today's lesson, you will be able to name and locate some of the UK's regions and counties.

And note that's counties, not countries, which we're gonna have a look at in a minute.

There are some key words today.

We have region, county, and map.

Let's do my turn, your turn.

Region.

County.

Map.

Well done.

A region is a part of a country or the world.

A county is an area within a country which runs services such as transport, education, policing, waste management, and other things.

A map is a two dimensional representation of an area showing geographical features and where they are in relation to each other.

So look out for those keywords in today's lesson and make sure you're looking carefully if it is county or country today, 'cause they can be quite easy to confuse, can't they? So our lesson is split into two parts today.

What do we mean by the United Kingdom and how is the UK divided into regions and counties? So let's have a look at what do we mean by the United Kingdom? When we are asked which country we live in, we might respond in several different ways.

You could say Scotland or another country, Great Britain, Britain, the UK, the United Kingdom, or part of a country such as the North of England.

What are the different ways to describe where you live? Pause the video, have a class discussion, and come back when you're ready.

How did you get on? Did you have lots of different ideas in your class? Were there any that were a surprise? The British Isles are made up of all the countries on this map.

There are five countries in total.

Can you name them all? Pause the video, have a go, and come back, and we'll check the answers.

How did you get on? The five countries are: Scotland is the orange one.

England is the green one.

Northern Ireland is the yellow one.

The Republic of Ireland is the white one.

And Wales is the pink one.

How did you do? One of these five countries is not in the United Kingdom.

So one of these five countries is not in the United Kingdom.

Which one is it? Pause the video, have a discussion, and come back when you're ready.

How did you get on? If you said that the Republic of Ireland is not part of the United Kingdom, you would be correct.

Well done.

So England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales are part of the United Kingdom.

But Scotland, England, Wales, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland are part of the British Isles.

It's quite complicated, isn't it? How are you holding on there? Let's do a quick check, shall we? Which two of these countries are part of the United Kingdom? A, England, B, the Republic of Ireland, or C, Scotland.

So once again, which two of these countries are part of the United Kingdom? A, England, B, the Republic of Ireland, or C, Scotland.

Pause the video, have a go, and come back when you're ready to check the answers.

How did you get on? If you said that A, England, and C, Scotland are part of the United Kingdom, you would be correct.

Well done.

So it's now time for task A.

On the map, draw around two areas with two different coloured lines.

The first line should go around the countries in the UK or the United Kingdom.

The second line should go around the countries in the British Isles.

And we've got a little hint from our friend here.

The full name of the UK is actually the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

So that might give you a clue about what you have to include in the UK.

So task A.

On the map, draw around two areas with two different coloured lines.

The first line should go around the countries in the UK and the second line should go around the countries in the British Isles.

Pause the video, have a go, and then come back, and we'll have a look at one that I've done.

How did you get on? Here's one that I made earlier.

So you can see the blue line is around the countries in the UK, and the red line is the countries in the British Isles.

So the British Isles, that line goes around everything.

Okay? Whereas the blue line for countries in the UK, it goes around everything apart from the Republic of Ireland.

So well done if you've got that correct? If not, and you need to make a couple of alterations on yours, now is the time to pause the video and do that.

Okay.

So we've had a look at what do we mean by the United Kingdom.

Now we're going to have a look at how is the UK divided into regions and counties.

Counties, not countries.

Okay? So each of the countries of the UK is made up of smaller areas called regions.

How many English regions are shown on the map? Pause the video and have a little go and see if you agree with our friend here who says, "I've counted nine regions." Pause the video and see if you agree.

How did you get on? Did you count nine regions as well? Well done.

Regions have changed their names and even their shape and size over time.

This is because they are manmade and not linked to fixed boundaries such as rivers.

If you live in England, which region do you live in? Pause the video, have a look, and see if you can work it out.

Did you work it out? And if we have a look, the nine regions are the North East, the North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, East Midlands, the East of England, London, the South East, the West Midlands, and the Southwest.

Okay, time for a little check.

What region is this? Pause the video, have a go, and come back when you're ready to check.

How did you get on? If you said it was the North West, well done.

What region is this? Pause the video, have a go, come back when you're ready to check.

How did you get on? If you said the East of England, you would be correct.

Okay, let's have another check, shall we? True or false.

England is split into two regions called North and South.

Once you've decided if this is true or false, I want you to justify your answer with either A, there are regions with North and South in their names, or B, there are nine regions in England and they are in the North, the Midlands, and the South of England.

So once again, true or false.

England is split into two regions called North and South.

Once you've decided if this is true or false, I want you to justify your answer using either A, there are regions with North and South in their names, or B, there are nine regions in England and they are in the North, the Midlands, and the South of England.

Pause the video, have a go, and come back when you're ready to check your answers.

How did you get on? If you said that England is split into two regions called North and South was false, you'd be correct because, B, there are nine regions in England and they are in the North, the Midlands, and the South of England, then you'd be correct.

Well done.

Within each region, there are usually several counties.

The counties help run local services such as education, transport, and waste management.

Norfolk, Essex, and West Yorkshire are examples of counties in England, which you can see on the map there.

It isn't just England that has counties, but all the countries in the United Kingdom, so Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, and England all have counties.

By comparing these maps, we can see that there are three counties in the North East region.

So if you look at the map on the left, the pink region is the North East that's been circled.

And if you have a look at the map on the right where the same area has been circled, you can see that there are three counties within that region.

How many counties are there in the East of England? Let's see if we can spot the East of England first, shall we? Pause the video and see if you can spot it, and then come back when you're ready.

So here's the East of England.

So now I want you to count how many counties there are in the East of England.

Pause the video, have a go, and come back when you're ready.

How did you get on? If you said that there are six counties in the East of England, you would be correct.

Well done.

Counties provide a range of services.

Every family pays taxes.

And the local county council arranges for services such as a collection of litter, bins, streetlights, education, libraries, and also the emergency services such as the police.

Some county names end in shire.

You may be able to identify your county by looking at your home or school address, and sometimes some counties have certain things that are linked with them.

So here we can see in this word cloud all the words that everyone thinks of when they think of Cornwall.

And obviously pasties is quite a big one.

Clotted cream is another big one.

So I wonder if your county has any words, things, food, anything associated with them.

Why don't you pause the video and have a think, and then come back when you're ready.

Okay, let's do a quick check.

Which of these services is not provided by local councils? A, street lighting, B, rubbish collections, or C, dentist services.

So one more time.

Which of these services is not provided by local councils? A, street lighting, B, rubbish collections, or C, dentist services.

Pause the video, have a go, and come back when you're ready to check your answers.

How did you get on? If you said that C, dentist services were not provided by the local councils, you would be correct.

Well done.

So now it's time for task B.

There are two parts to task B.

For the first task, I want you to tell me which English regions are labelled A, B, and C on the map.

So which English regions are labelled A, B, and C on the map.

And then when you are done with that, I want you to complete the paragraph below using the words at the bottom of the slide.

So your options are emergency, taxes, counties, and streetlights.

And I want you to fill those missing words into the paragraph.

It says, regions vary from country to country, and are made up from smaller areas which are called, in the UK.

They provide services for people who live in them, which are funded by, people pay.

They include keeping, working and providing the, services to keep people safe.

So once again, your options are emergency, taxes, counties, and streetlights.

I want you to use those words to fill in the gaps in this paragraph.

Pause the video, have a go at the two tasks, and then come back when you are ready, and we'll have a look at one that I've had a go at.

How did you get on? Here are the regions.

So A is the North East of England, B is the East of England, which sometimes is called East Anglia, and C is the southwest of England.

And here's the second part.

Let's have a look at those missing words.

Regions vary from country to country, and are made up from smaller areas which are called counties in the UK.

They provide services for people who live in them, which are funded by taxes people pay.

They include keeping streetlights working and providing the emergency services to keep people safe.

How did you do? Now's your chance to pause the video and make any corrections that you need to make.

So in summary of today's lesson about the regions and counties of the UK.

The United Kingdom is made up of four countries.

These countries are split up into regions and further divided into counties.

The counties vary in size, but are used to help organise services such as education and sanitation for people who live in them.

Counties change their names over time.

Well done to everybody.

You worked really hard.

That was actually quite interesting, wasn't it? I hope you didn't get too confused between counties and countries.

That's definitely one to keep practising , isn't it? I'll see you next time for next lesson.

Bye.