Lesson video

Hey everyone.

I'm miss Harris and today I'm going to be teaching you all about the continent North America.

Now, so far you have helped me fly all the way to the moon.

To Europe.

To Australia.

To Asia and Africa.

Today, can you help me go all the way across the ocean to North America? Can you help me? You can.

Thank you so much.

So, you're going to need to have your back nice and straight.

You're going to need to have your shoulders back and you're going to click like this.

We're going to do two clicks.

One, two.

Or we're going to do two claps like this one, two.

Are you ready? Are you sure? Ready? One.

Two.

And we have arrived.

Thank you so much for helping me get here.

We are in Times Square in New York City, which is in the country called the United States of America.

You can see here, they've got really bright lights, huge screens.

It's such a wonderful city.

I don't know, you might have been there.

If you were, you're really, really lucky.

Right? Let's get started with today's lesson.

So you are going to be learning all about recapping the continents like we've been doing for the last few lessons.

We're going to analyse a map of North America.

We're going to learn some languages which are spoken in the continent.

We're going to look at the physical features and then some natural places in North America.

You are going to need a exercise book, a pencil, a coloured pencil and most importantly, you're going to need your brain.

Well done.

If you need to go and get those things, please pause the video and go and grab them now.

Great.

So let's get started.

Can you remember what a geographer is? You should know this so well by now, are you ready? Let's recap the definition.

So a geographer is a special type of scientists.

Well done.

Who studies the earth, the land and the people.

Fantastic.

You are incredible.

Let's check.

Geographers are types of scientists who study the earth the land and the people.

You are amazing, well done.

Now this here is our 100% sheet.

This is all the knowledge that we are learning this unit.

So we are looking specifically here at North America.

Now we're going to do our Star Words.

Can you stand up wherever you want and get your hands ready? We're going to do some actions to each of these words.

Are you ready? Star Words, Star Words, Star Words.

Your turn.

So make sure you're talking to your screen.

Landmark, your turn.

North America, your turn.

North America so point up.

North America.

Continent, your turn.

Continent.

Population, your turn.

Population.

That's how many people live there.

Compass.

Your turn.

Compass.

A compass is a special type of tool that we use to help us know which direction we are going.

Country.

And lastly, size.

Your turn, size.

Good job.

Sit back down where you are.

Can you sit down? In three, two, one.

Are you sitting down? You're so speedy.

Okay.

Here is our favourite game.

I'm going to say continent.

And I'd like you to point to that continent.

Are you ready? Can you point to North America? Well done.

Can you point to Africa? Great job.

Can you point to Australia? Amazing.

Can you point to Asia? It's the biggest continent.

It's really easy to find, isn't it? Lastly, can you point to Europe.

Did you find it? Amazing.

Okay.

Great job.

Now, here we are learning all about North America.

North America is up here.

It's this blue one here, the light blue one.

North America is the third largest continent.

Can you say that? It's the third largest continent.

Good.

The continent stretches across the North hemisphere.

So remember that the equator is this red line that goes across the middle here.

It's the imaginary line that goes around the earth.

So if we split into two parts, we got the Northern hemisphere and the Southern hemisphere.

And it stretches across parts of the Northern hemisphere where Europe and also Asia are too and part of Africa.

Okay.

So we're going to order the continents now.

So here you can see, I have put all of the continents in a jumbled up order.

I would like you to order them by the amount of countries they have.

So taking up here.

I would like you to start with the continent that has the most amount of countries.

And then at the bottom, you're going to have the least amount of countries.

You're going to write a list down and writing how many countries they have, okay? So pause the video and have a go at that now.

Well done.

Let's check our answers.

So Africa has got 54 countries.

It's got the most countries.

Then Asia with 48.

Europe with 44.

North America with 23.

Australia with 14.

South America with 12.

And then Antarctica has none.

Can you use your coloured pencil to tick or fix? So remember if you're fixing your answer? You're writing down the correct answer.

You're not scribbling it out.

You're just writing it.

Putting a nice line through it and marking neatly next to it.

I see lots of your really great work.

And it's so neat when you tick or fix.

So pause the video and check your answers and your spelling.

Wonderful.

Well done.

Okay.

Here is the map of North America.

Now North America is the name of the continent but there is also a really large country called America.

But you might hear it being called the United States of America.

North America is the third largest continent.

It has 23 countries inside it.

How many countries? 23.

How many countries? 23.

What size is the continent? It's the third largest continent.

Good.

This includes countries like the United States of America, Canada, Mexico and Cuba.

There's lots of countries in there 23 of them.

And Canada, you can see is towards the top of, on top of the United States of America.

Did you know that Canada, nearly half of the country is covered with trees? That's a lot of trees, isn't it? Now I would like to.

Oh, sorry.

I didn't say the population.

There are 579 million people that live in North America.

Wow.

That's a lot, isn't it? Lots of people.

So I would like to write down three countries in North America.

So look really closely at the map.

Can you find some that I haven't already mentioned.

Pause the video, have a go at that now.

Great job.

Now, I'd like to talk to you a little bit more about Greenland.

So, if we go back to our map, can you see Greenland at the top of the map? You can? Great.

So Greenland is the second largest Island in the world.

Australia is the largest Island, but sometimes people don't refer to Australia as being the largest Island because it's a continental Island.

But either way, Australia is the largest Island because it's independent from other pieces of land.

And it's surrounded by oceans.

And Greenland is the same.

It's surrounded by ocean.

Nearly 3/4 of it is covered with ice.

It's usually very, very cold in Greenland and it's near the Arctic.

So it's at the top.

It's near the top of the earth and the Northern hemisphere.

You can see things like Arctic foxes living in the snow during the winter.

And I love looking at pictures of Greenland because it's so colourful.

All the houses are different colours in some parts of Greenland.

It's really, really beautiful.

I wish I could go and visit there.

Now we're going to look at some languages in North America.

In North America, there are lots of different languages, like other continents where they dodge to speak their native language.

They speak other languages too.

So in North America they speak other languages.

And here are some examples we've got.

They speak Spanish, English and French.

So we're going to say hello in these languages.

Are you ready? So we're going to say hello in English first? You ready? Hello? You're turn.

We can all say hello.

It's really easy, everybody.

We're going to say hello in Spanish now.

Are you ready? Hola.

You're turn.

Hola.

Hola means hello in Spanish.

It means? Good job.

Now we're going to say in French, are you ready? Salut.

Your turn.

Salut.

That means hello in French.

Fantastic.

Okay.

We're going to see if you can connect now using your finger.

Can you match the flag to the country? I'm going to go through the answers in a moment.

So pause the video and match the flag to the name of the country.

Go.

Okay.

Let's check your answers.

So here, the top flag that is France.

Well done.

Gives a pat in the back.

If you draw it with your finger, you got it right.

Then we've got the United Kingdom flag and then we've got the Spanish flag.

Fantastic, great job.

Now I'm going to talk a little bit more about the physical features of this, of the third largest continent, North America.

Now it has hugely diverse lands, alot like all the other continents do too.

But I'm really interested to talk about this one because you can see here in this picture from space.

That Greenland at the top is completely covered with snow.

And often in the winter, that's what it looks like.

Completely covered in snow.

3/4 of it is covered in snow.

Whereas the rest of the land , you can see it's not covered in snow.

This is because Greenland is closer to the Arctic where it's really, it's really cold there.

Now we have got huge Rocky Mountains in North America.

And you can see here.

Wait for my arrow to appear.

So you can see here, the Rocky Mountains stretch from Canada all the way down to Mexico.

This stretches all the way across North America.

We have got the Rocky Mountains in America and we have got the Sierra Madre in Mexico.

Now another diverse landscape.

We have all the greenlands.

These are huge areas across this wonderful continent, which are full of wild animals.

We've then got the Great Plains, which is another word for flat land.

And this stretches down the centre of North America.

And lastly, there are lots of wetlands.

Now wetlands, I'm going to talk about more in depth in a moment.

But in Florida where my arrow is pointing we have the Everglades, which is a hugely diverse ecosystem and there is around 20 endangered and threatened species.

So animals that are there they are protected.

Should we find out more about that? Would you like to? Oh great so let's have a look.

So here we have got pictures of the Everglades in Florida, which is in America.

It's in? Good, it's in the country called America.

A wetland is an area of land that is covered in shallow water with really wet soil.

So you can see here in the picture with the pink sky's really wet.

Through out the wetland, you can find swamps and marshes that are full of shrubs and green grassy plants.

And really interested in animals.

The Everglades have a subtropical climate, which means it's really hot and it's really humid in the summer.

So you might get a little bit sweaty, but it's quite cool and mild in the winter.

So it's not as hot in the winter.

There are two regions here.

We have a two seasons soil in the Everglades.

They have the rainy season and they have the dry season.

During the rainy season it can rain up to 60 inches of rain.

That's a lot, but in the summer it can be really, really hot.

Like we said, really humid in the dry season.

Now in the Everglades there are 700 species of plants and animals.

So 700 different types.

Species is another word for types of plants and animals.

And it's located here in Florida in the United States.

You can see here where the star is, the Everglades national park.

Now here, you can see some of the animals you could find in the Everglades.

I would like you to draw four animals that you could see in the Everglades.

So pause the video and draw four animals you could see.

Fantastic.

Well done.

I can't wait to see them.

Now.

We're going to talk about some natural areas in North America.

Now so here.

This is called the Naica mines, it's a cave of crystals in Mexico.

Where is it? It's in.

Good it's in Mexico.

It has the most peculiar features in here because there are giant crystals of selenite.

So you can see in the picture here.

These huge crystals, can you see the person? Compared to the size of the crystal? Some of these crystals are up to 55 tonnes.

That is a lot.

That's heavier than an elephant.

Even heavier.

It's going to be lots and lots of elephants to be 55 tonnes.

Now these crystal caves are located around 290 metres below the land, so that they're really deep down into the land.

So here we can see over a really, really long time.

Lots of things have happened to all of the chemicals inside the mine.

And slowly over 500,000 years, these crystals have formed and they are ginormous.

Really, really beautiful.

So that is in Mexico.

Where is it? Say it.

Good.

Now here we have got the Yosemite falls in the United States of America.

Is in the? Good.

Now these are home to one of the tallest waterfalls in the world.

It's almost one of the tallest waterfalls on the planet.

But did you know it's actually made up of three separate waterfalls.

There is the upper waterfall.

Then there's another one down the middle, which is cascading down.

And then there's a low one to make up.

So it all kind of becomes together into one waterfall.

You could learn more about these waterfalls.

If you want to search it on your own.

This is the United States of America.

Now here we have the Monteverde Cloud Forest, which is a reserve home to more than 1000 species of mammals, 400 species of birds and 1,200 amphibians and reptiles.

So things like snakes and crocodiles.

The highest trails in these forests can sit over 1000 metres up high.

Gosh, you'd have to climb quite a lot to get there, won't you? This is an incredible forest in Costa Rica.

Where is it? It's in? I don't hear you.

Say it's again.

It's in.

Good.

So it's home to some of the most exotic birds like toucans and bellbirds and humming birds.

There are loads of types of birds that live here in the forest.

And if you went to visit there, all you can hear are the birds tweeting and making their bird calls.

Gosh, that'd be really nice, wouldn't it? Now here we have the Moraine Lake in Canada and this is home to some wildlife like grizzly bears, ground squirrels, chipmunks and some small rabbits and other mammals.

This is one of the most photographed places in Canada.

And I can see why look how beautiful it is? This is in Canada.

Is in? So you could see grizzly bears.

You could see squirrels and chipmunks.

Wow, lovely.

And lastly, the last place we're going to look at.

This is Barringer Crater in the United States of America.

Now I know lots of you are really interested in space.

I am too.

And this here is a huge, huge hole in the ground.

Where thousands of years ago a meteorite, a big rock in space flew onto earth and it hit the ground here.

It's ginormous.

You can see here.

If you stood inside the crater, it's almost like a big bowl in the ground where once a rock hit the ground amazing.

Now what you are going to do is in your book, you are going to write the name of the place and you are going to write the fact next to it.

So the first one we're going to do together, you ready? So a meteorite came from space and crashed into earth.

Which place do you think that is? Have a look at the pictures.

Which one do you think that is.

You're right.

It's the Barringer Crater.

So what are you going to do? You're going to write Barringers Crater and then you're going to write the whole fact next to it.

Okay.

So pause the video and have a go at doing all the others now.

Okay.

Let's check our answers.

So we've got, you could see grizzly bears.

Here in the Moraine Lake.

Then we have got crystals which have taken 500,000 years in the Naica Caves, the crystal caves.

Then here you can see loads of exotic birds in the Monteverde Cloud Forest.

Then we have got the tallest waterfall in the world, in the Yosemite falls.

You have worked so hard today, year one.

I am so impressed as usual by how hard you work.

Now, it's time to show of all the wonderful knowledge you've learned and do your end of lesson quiz.

And you can ask your parent or carer to send me a photo on Twitter, using @Oaknational and then using the #ONAYear1.

That's where I can comment and see all your wonderful work.

I try and reply to all of them.

So if you want to send it, hopefully I might be able to respond and tell you how great you are.