Lesson video

I'm Miss Harris, and today we are going to be sailing all the way to Antarctica for our last lesson of our unit on the seven continents.

I'm really excited.

Can you help me board my ship and sail all the way to the Antarctic? Can you help me? You can! Thank you so much.

We're going to do our usual clap and click.

So you can choose whether you're going to go like this.

One, two, or you're going to click like this.

One, two.

Can you help me get there? Perfect, okay.

Get your hands ready like this.

Are you ready? One, two.

No, ooh.

Ooh, goodness.

It's so cold here.

Oh is that snow? Oh my goodness.

Can you help me? Can you use your magic powers and get me a coat and a hat so that I don't freeze in the coldest continent on our planet? You can! Can you help me really quickly? Can you do three clicks? Are you ready? One, two, one more, three.

Just the hat, just the hat.

I need, I need a coat too.

I need a coat! Ready, let's do this again.

One, two, three.

Oh, thank you.

I feel so much better.

I'm much warmer now.

Let's get started with today's lesson.

Thank you so much for helping me get ready so that I'm nice and warm in my coat in Antarctica, the coldest continent on Earth.

Today we are recapping the location of the continent.

We are analysing a map of Antarctica, looking at some key landmarks, the physical features, and some very special animals that can survive in this continent.

In this lesson, you are going to need your exercise book, a pencil, a coloured pen or pencil, and of course your brain.

Mine's nice and warm under my hat.

If you don't have those things, you can pause the video and go and get them now.

Okay.

This is our 100% sheet.

This is all the knowledge that we have learned throughout this whole unit of work.

Today we're looking at the last part which is on Antarctica.

Let's look at our star words.

Can you stand up wherever you are and get your hands ready like this so we can do our star words.

This is the key words we are learning this lesson.

Star word, star word, star words.

Your turn.

Make sure you're saying it to your screen.

Antarctica.

Antarctica.

Landmark.

Landmark.

Your turn.

Conditions.

Continent.

Temporary.

Temporary.

Iceberg.

Your turn.

Cold.

Your turn.

Size.

Your turn.

Good job.

Sit back down in three, in two, in one.

Did you sit down quick enough? Good, okay.

I would like you to point to a continent and I'm going to say the name.

Ready? Can you find South America? Great.

Can you go even faster? Can you find Australia? Can you find you find Europe? Can you find North America? Can you find South America? Can you find Asia? Can you find Antarctica? Great, you're really good at that now.

You definitely know where all the continents are.

Now Antarctica is at the bottom, the white part on the map because it's covered in snow and ice.

Here is a map of Antarctica.

Now in Antarctica, 5,000 people live there temporarily.

That means they don't live there all the time because it's too cold to live there all the time.

It's the coldest continent on our planet.

The entire continent is set aside as a scientific preserve.

So that means that scientists can freely study in Antarctica and they could do lots of research there.

So that the whole continent is set aside just for science.

Scientists at the moment really want to know what's under that ice.

Wonder what's under the ice.

How many countries can you see on our map of Antarctica? There are no countries in Antarctica.

You're right.

There are no countries.

But in Antarctica there are seven sovereign state claims. That means seven countries claim a part of the land and some of them overlap.

So if you have a look at the yellow part, you can see that Australia has a claim over that part of Antarctica but France has a little part of that too.

So some of them overlap.

There are seven sovereign states who own a claim, who claim part of Antarctica.

Can you write down three countries who have a territorial claim in Antarctica? Pause the video and have a go at that now.

Well done.

So although there are no countries in Antarctica, there are seven sovereign states who claim a part of the land.

Now because it's set aside as a place for science, scientific research, there has been a document that has been made called the Antarctic Treaty System.

Let's say it together.

Antarctic Treaty System.

Let's say it all together.

Antarctic Treaty System.

Can you say it one more time? Antarctic Treaty System.

Well done.

Now this was a special document that was signed in 1959 by lots of different countries who all had scientists who were studying in Antarctica at the time.

It outlines really, really important provisions that people must follow when they are conducting research in Antarctica.

We're going to have a look at some that I think you should know being in year one.

Let's have a look.

Antarctica should not be used for military use.

Only for peaceful purposes.

So that means you are not allowed to have any wars in Antarctica.

It's not an allowed.

Number two.

You are allowed to freely conduct scientific investigations.

So if you are a scientist you are allowed to freely study in Antarctica.

Number four.

Share scientific results.

That means if you find something in Antarctica, you have to share it with other scientists from different countries.

It's really important so that we can all share the wonderful knowledge that the scientists found in Antarctica.

Number four.

National laws are followed by everyone.

So lots of different countries have different laws and different rules.

But in Antarctica, everyone must follow the national rules.

So there is a everyone has got to follow those ones, not just the ones from their country, okay? 'Cause there are lots of different ones in different countries.

Number five.

All treaty nations must ensure that no one breaks the rules that are in the treaties.

If you are in Antarctica and you are a scientist, you need to make sure that people are not breaking the rules.

Now I would like you to write a sentence using one rule from the Antarctic Treaty System.

My sentence is going to start with the treaty system was made to ensure.

Can you use that sentence stem at the start of your sentence to help you? So my sentence might be the Antarctic Treaty System was made to ensure that scientific research is shared between everyone amongst everyone.

Okay? Can you pause the video and write down one rule in the Antarctic Treaty System? Well done.

You were working so hard.

Now in Antarctica it's really, really cold.

It is so cold that it has, but it still has seasons although it's the coldest continent.

There are still seasons in Antarctica.

Now the seasons revolve around the sun.

So that means the sun is really dependent on what it is like in Antarctica.

So we're going to pretend.

My hand is Earth and this hand is the sun.

Earth in space goes around the sun like this.

It orbits the sun.

But Earth is on a slight tilt.

So it goes around the sun like this.

But you might need, you might know it already, but it's on a slight tilt like this.

But in Antarctica during the winter, Earth rotates and it moves away from the sun.

Parts of it move away from the sun and other parts face the sun.

So in Antarctica, that means that for half of the year it's facing towards the sun.

So it's going down the sun like this.

It's facing the sun.

But for the other half during the winter, it faces away from the sun and it is dark all the time, even during the daytime.

So during the winter, they don't have any daylight and it's usually very cold, very dark, and very snowy.

If I say the word snowy does that make it snow? Strange.

Now.

As I've said already, nobody lives in Antarctica permanently because it's too cold.

The conditions are too harsh.

It's a very cold and icy continent, which means that there are hardly any plants that grow in Antarctica.

Some small plants can survive but there are no trees and no shrubs and bushes and things like that.

It's too cold for them to survive there.

Most of the animals live in the sea because the land is much too cold due to the conditions and due it being covered snow and ice.

Too cold.

So they live in the water where it's a little bit warmer than being on the land.

Now we're going to do true or false.

So you can choose whether you want to write this down or you can point to true or false.

I'm going to read it first.

Then you're going to have a chance to answer it.

So number three.

Here are some statements about Antarctica.

Are they true or false? So A.

Antarctica is the coldest place on Earth.

True or false? There are thousands of trees and plants.

True, false.

Most animals live in the sea.

True or false.

And lastly, D.

A lot of people live in Antarctica all year round.

Pause the video and answer those questions now.

Okay, let's check our answers.

If you have a coloured pen or pencil and you've written it down in your book, you can tic or fix.

If you didn't write it down and you did it by pointing, you can tic the sky.

Are you ready? Antarctica is the coldest place on Earth.

True.

It is the coldest place on Earth, tic.

There are not thousands of trees and plants.

Only a few plants can survive.

There are no trees in Antarctica.

Most animals live in the sea, true.

Tic.

Gives yourself a tic if you got that right.

A lot of people live in Antarctica all year round.

They do not live in Antarctica all year round.

It is too cold.

They live there temporarily.

Let's take a look now at some landmarks in the continent.

Now here we can see the McMurdo Research Station.

It is home to 1,000 scientists and visitors.

So you can see here, this is where all the research take place.

It's a really, really important part in the continent.

We've then got something called the Chapel of the Snow.

It is a Christian Church in Antarctica, which has 63 people who fit inside of it.

So we can see here.

There is a church.

A chapel in Antarctica.

Of all the things, there is a chapel.

How amazing.

Then we have got a port called Port Lockroy.

Ships can dock here and tourists.

So people may be visiting that for like a holiday.

They can visit the shop and the really small museum.

Gentoo penguins live very close by.

So if you ever went there to visit, you might spot some next to the museum.

Then we have got Mount Erebus, which is a volcano in Antarctica.

It's an active volcano, which means that it has recently erupted.

Not yesterday but it has recently.

So that's Mount Erebus.

We then got the Antarctic Mountains, which are large mountains running across Antarctica.

The mountain range is one of the longest in the world.

And finally, we have got something called the Antarctic Ice Sheet.

It is the largest piece of ice in the world.

It stretches across almost all of Antarctica and Antarctica contains 90% of the world's ice.

That's nearly almost all of it.

The Antarctic ice sheet doubles in size during the winter because the sea freezes.

So the ice builds up even more.

So you can see here, it's almost like a big, like it's called an Antarctic ice sheet, so it's sitting on the top of the water but there are also parts underneath that are frozen.

Where would you like to visit if you went to Antarctica? Can you pause the video and have a think where you would like to visit.

I would really love to visit the volcano.

That sounds really interesting.

See a volcano that is really hot in the coldest place on Earth.

That really intrigues me.

I'd love to go and visit it.

Okay.

Now here are some pictures of some animals that you might find in Antarctica.

We have first got the Arctic Minke whales.

They are really, really big whales that you can find in the waters surrounding Antarctica.

I'm going to make this bigger so you can see it.

In the middle, we have got some emperor penguins.

I'm sure you have heard about these penguins before.

These are some of the most common penguins that you may have seen in films or in books.

Then we have got the wandering albatross, which is a huge bird.

You can see that it's got huge wings and it looks like it's got little pink flippers for feet.

We've then at the bottom got killer whales.

They are some of the most intelligent whales that we know about at the moment.

We've then got in the middle a leopard seal and on the right we have got, it makes me laugh a little bit.

They're called macaroni penguins.

They're not made out of macaroni, but they called macaroni penguins and they're really cute, and they're really short compared to emperor penguins.

Emperor penguins are really tall.

Macaroni penguins are really, really short.

Now these animals are really, really special because they have the ability to travel really long distances but they can survive in Antarctica.

Not many animals can.

We as humans couldn't survive in Antarctica for a really long time.

It's too cold.

We don't have the scientific provisions yet to help us survive that for that amount of time.

So we've got here, the whales can travel really long distances, so that helps them survive.

Penguins have got, and some of the animals have got something called downy feathers, which means that they've got fine layers of feathers and they almost overlap.

So they keep them super, super warm.

Some of them are waterproof.

So they're waterproof feathers.

All of the animals have really thick skin to protect them from the cold weather and cold water.

Now the killer whales in particular have a really special chemical inside their body, inside their blood that helps keep them warm.

Stops them from freezing.

How amazing is that? So inside their blood, there's a special chemical that stops them from freezing.

My goodness.

How interesting.

Now you may have noticed if you look at all of these animals, maybe not the albatross bird.

But the penguins, the seal, and the whales all have kind of long shaped bodies.

They've got a compact body shape.

They're all pretty similar shapes aren't they? Kind of like a long sausage shape almost.

And they, that keeps them together and able to survive in this wonderful continent.

But they've got thick skin.

Some have got feathers, some have got special chemicals in their blood to keep them from freezing, and also they've got lots of layers of fat, which is almost like under their skin.

They've got a blanket underneath their skin.

So they've got layers of fat.

We have got fat on our bodies but they've got even more than us to keep them warm.

So we've got can travel long distances.

Can you say that? Can.

Thick skin.

Layers of fat.

Downy feathers.

Chemical in their blood.

Great.

Now what you are going to do now is you are going to write down three physical features that can help these animals survive.

I've done one already that tells you about the chemical in their blood to keep them from freezing.

Can you write three more? You can also draw the pictures in the middle.

Pause the video.

Have a go now.

Well done.

Now here, we can see two pieces of artwork by an artist called John Kelly.

By an artist called? John Kelly was appointed an artist in residence and spent three months drawing in Antarctica.

He was drawing, painting, and documenting what he could see.

So he's writing down what he could see.

I need to have a think now.

Put your artist hat on.

Why did John Kelly, why did John Kelly choose these colours? I can see there's blues, and whites, and greys.

Why did he choose these colours? Are there lots of colours in Antarctica? Do they have lovely, beautiful, colourful daffodils and tulips during the spring? They don't have many plants and they don't have beautiful trees like we do on our continent.

He chose these colours because it best represents what the continent is like.

Really nice blue water and lots of white ice.

Clear skies sometimes or snowy clouds.

You are going to have a go at drawing your own John Kelly inspired picture.

So here I've shown you a picture of some penguins sliding off the ice.

Can you draw your own version of John Kelly? He's used really soft colours to make his artwork seem really calm.

Can you have a go at doing that now? Fantastic work.