Lesson video

Hello, my name is Ms. Chorekdjian.

You've made a great choice to learn geography with me today.

I will be guiding you through our lesson.

We're going to have such a great time learning together.

Let's get started.

Welcome to today's lesson from our unit on our local area, where do we live? This lesson is called, "Mapping Our Journey to School." Today, you'll be learning to make a map of the journey to school, showing the buildings and places you pass on the route.

Some of the learning is brand new, but I'm here to help you.

This links back to previous learning you might have done, exploring your local area, locating features of your local area, planning field work outside your school, and thinking about your journey to school.

I'm really excited to get started.

I hope you are too.

Let's go through some of the key words that we'll be using today in our lesson.

Let's practise saying them together.

Let's do my turn, your turn.

Route route, symbol, symbol, detail, detail, large-scale map, large-scale map, street map, street map.

Well done.

I want you to be using these keywords throughout our lesson.

Let's look at the learning cycles we'll be working through together today.

First, we'll be identifying features on a map, and then we'll be mapping our journey to school.

Are you ready to start your learning? Fantastic.

Let's begin.

A map shows or represents an area.

Large-scale maps show you a small area in detail, and help you locate features like streets and buildings.

Here's a large-scale map of my school, and you can see that I've labelled it there to say "My school".

Geographers use maps to show journeys like a route to school.

What does the word route mean? Pause the video now and tell your partner.

Good job, everyone.

A route shows the starting point and the end point of a journey, and sometimes with stops in between.

Let's do a little check here.

Think about how you can complete this sentence.

Geographers make maps to show.

Pause the video now and complete that sentence.

How did you get on? Did you say geographers make maps to show journeys like a route to school? That's correct.

Well done.

You can give yourselves a thumbs up.

Maps can be useful because they can be used to sequence events and tell a story over time using landmarks as reference points.

So that's important because sequencing events means that you're going through them in the right order.

So, for example, if we map our journey to school, we will need to know exactly what we pass in the correct order, to find our way to school, which would be our final destination.

Geographers use symbols to identify and locate specific features on a large-scale map.

There are a range of symbols used on a map to represent a feature.

What symbols can you see on this image here? Pause the video and tell your partner.

How did you get on? Did you see the symbol for a place of worship? The symbol for a shop, a library, a supermarket, somewhere to park, a bus stop or an airport? Sometimes these symbols might look a little bit different on different maps, so it's always important to make sure you know what each symbol means.

Let's look at a large-scale map of our local area.

What symbols can you see on this map? Pause the video and have a look at the symbols, and think about what they're telling you.

How did you get on? Did you locate some symbols? Which symbols could you see? Could you see a symbol for a restaurant? Could you see the supermarket? There was also a symbol for a shop and a symbol for a park.

There was also a symbol for a place of worship, and a station.

All of these symbols show places.

Well done for locating all of those places on the map by finding the symbols.

These symbols can also be seen on a street map, so you could switch to an aerial photograph view of the map from the large-scale plan, and you can also notice the symbols there too.

So there's a symbol of the restaurant, the supermarket, the place of worship, and the station.

Let's have a check here.

Features represented on maps with a symbol include, a.

schools, b.

post box, c.

shops, or d.

parks.

Pause the video now and answer this question.

How did you get on? Did you answer a.

schools, b.

shops, and d.

parks? That's correct.

Well done.

These are all features that can be represented with a symbol on a map.

Give yourselves a thumbs up.

Good job, everyone.

Map-makers use symbols and colours to show information, and sometimes maps need a key.

A key is a box on the map that is filled with information and details about what different symbols mean.

Some maps use different symbols to represent different places, so it's important you check the map key to make sure that you've understood what the symbol means and that you're not confused by it meaning something else.

Which symbols can we use for the features we see on our journey to school? Pause the video and have a think about what symbol you can use for certain places that you see on your journey.

Great.

Did you talk about some symbols you could use? Let's go through this together.

So you could use a tree, for example, to represent green places like trees, hedges, parks, or other open green areas.

You could use a picture of a building to represent familiar buildings like a library, shops, homes, or offices.

You could use a bag or a book to represent a shop or a library.

Safe places to cross.

What could you do there? Maybe you can use the black and white stripe of a zebra crossing, or you can use a little yellow light that we see at other crossings.

What could you use to represent footpaths or pavements? Maybe you can use a grey wavy line.

What could you use to represent transport links, like a bus stop or a station? You could draw a little bus, or you could draw the round underground sign.

What could you use to represent traffic lights or roundabouts? Maybe using the different colours of the traffic lights.

What symbols could you use to represent lamp posts, post boxes, benches, or rubbish bins? Now that you've had a look at these features in more detail, pause the video again and see if you can think about more symbols that you could use to represent each of these features.

Good job.

I'm sure you came up with lots of creative symbols for each of these features.

Well done.

It's now time for Task A.

What I would like you to do is to draw map symbols and a key for the features that you see on your journey to school.

Remember to draw a symbol, and right beneath it, what that symbol means.

Pause the video and complete Task A.

How did you get on? Does your map key look something like this? Well done.

I'm sure you had fun drawing all of those symbols, and you did definitely write what they mean beneath them.

If you haven't done that, make sure you go back and write what they mean beneath them so that whoever's looking at your map that you create later, doesn't get confused about what the symbols mean.

Give yourselves a thumbs up.

Let's continue with our learning.

So now we're going to be thinking about mapping our journey to school.

We are going to create a map of the route we take on our journey to school.

Where does our route start, and where does our route end? Have a think about those questions.

Pause the video and tell your partner.

How did you get on? Well, if we are going to school, our end point is school, and generally, we go to school from our house, so our home is going to be the starting point of our journey.

There we go.

So here's our journey.

We're going to start at our house, so there's a picture of my house, and we're going to end at school.

There's a picture of school.

So we're going to map our journey to school, and we're going to show the route that we take with stops in between.

What buildings and features will we see on our journey? We might see some houses, we might see shops, schools, or places of worship.

So whatever I see, I'm going to plot it on my route.

We could also see some green spaces, medical centres, transport links, and leisure facilities.

And remember, it's important that we sequence our route in the correct order, and that will help us find where we're going.

So let's think about the location of each feature in relation to other places.

This will help us when we're mapping our route.

Remember locational language includes, next to, in between, far away, above, and near.

So we're going to use this language when we're mapping our journey to school.

Do you also walk straight, turn left or turn right on your journey to school? We're also going to be using this language to help us describe and map our journey to school.

So now let's think about our route to school.

Which features or buildings do you pass? Think about any trees, hedges, parks, green spaces, or any other features like the allotments.

So, I leave my house and I walk straight.

I pass the park on the left.

So my starting point from home is located there, on my route, and then I pass the park on my left.

So I'm going to show you a picture of the park that I go past, and I've used the locational language to say that it's on the left.

Let's think about the next points that I go past on my route.

Familiar buildings, like maybe the library or shops.

I might pass some more homes or offices.

So I want you to think about what the next feature or buildings you pass is on your journey to school.

Then, I turn right and I see the library.

So the next part of my route is going to be a picture of the library, and then like I said, I use the locational language to say that I turned right.

So here we are mapping my journey to school.

Then, what other features do I pass on my journey to school? Maybe there could be a safe place to cross, like a zebra crossing or a pelican crossing.

Next, I see a zebra crossing opposite the library.

So I've located that zebra crossing there.

You can see that I've used a locational language opposite, to say where it is in relation to somewhere else, which is the library.

Next, what other features or buildings would you pass on your journey to school? Maybe you can think about footpaths, pavements, or cycle lanes.

Those will be a good reference point to help someone get to school safely.

There is a cycle lane near the park.

The locational language I've used there is near, and then I've drawn an arrow to show you that it's near to the park.

Finally, which are the last features or buildings you pass on your journey to school? They might be things like lamp posts or post boxes, maybe benches or rubbish bins.

Again, those are good features to help someone find their route to school.

There is a post box between the tree and my school.

There's the post box, and the locational language I've used is in between.

There is a post box in between a tree and my school.

Then, the final thing I need to do, is to arrive at school.

I turn right and arrive at school.

There we are.

So I've used locational language like right, to tell you that's where I turn to get to school.

So you can see there, that my whole journey to school has been mapped out.

I've got my start point, I've got my end point, and I've got the stops in between.

And I've used locational language to help describe one place in relation to another place.

And all of that language has helped me arrive safely to school.

What is your route to school from home? Tell your partner using locational language.

Remember to think about all of the things that you walked past on your journey to school.

Pause the video now and walk through your journey to school with your partner.

How did you get on? Did you walk through your journey to school with your partner? Did they share their journey to school with you? It's okay if you had some similar features.

You're both going to the same place, so you're bound to walk past some of the same things.

Was your route similar to your partners? You would've ended up at the same place, but did you start near each other? Not everyone's houses are close to each other, so you could have started somewhere different to them.

You could have started further away from school, and then as you got closer, you might notice some of the similar features.

Or if you had the same features, they might not be in exactly the same location as they are on your map because you could be coming from different directions.

So if you saw the library on the left, they might see the library on the right.

Good job.

I'm sure you had a really good discussion there with your partner talking about your route to school.

Remember that routes most walked or travelled may show the same buildings and the same landmarks, but we've talked about if you come from a different direction.

Remember you're both going to the same place, so your final destination, or the last few things that you see on the street, will be the same.

Okay, so now it's time for your task.

For Task B, I'd like you to draw a map of your journey to school.

I'd like you to include detail, like key features you see on the way using colours, pictures, and symbols.

You can use your key and the same symbols that you've done in Task A.

I'd like you to use labels or annotations to describe the route using locational language similar to what I did, as I walked you through my journey to school.

Pause the video and complete Task B.

Good job, geographers.

How did you get on? Here's the map that I've drawn of my journey to school.

I've included my key there in the bottom right, so you can see all of the different symbols that I've used and what they mean.

And then I've been sure to use labels.

So I've written my house, there at the bottom, to show the start of my routes, and then at the top I've written my school, and I've written the word school.

And then in between, you can see where the symbols are, that show you all the different features and places that I walked past on my journey to school.

I've written sentences to add more detail to describe my journey to school, and I've made sure to use locational language to help others find my school and to follow my route.

I've said, "I leave my house and walk straight.

I pass the park on the left.

Then, I turn right and see the library.

There is a zebra crossing opposite the library.

There is a cycle lane near the park.

There is a post box close to my school.

I turn left and I arrive at school." So you can see there that the image that I've drawn, and the sentences that I've written, have clearly mapped my journey to school.

And they've made it easy so that anyone else can pick up my map, and pick up my sentences, and follow my route to school.

I'm sure you've done something similar as well.

Well done for completing your learning today.

I'm sure you had lots of fun talking about your journey to school and mapping your route.

You were really creative and you designed your own symbols as well.

You thought really hard like geographers, and you created a map just like geographers as well.

We've now come to the end of our lesson.

Let's go through a quick summary of the learning that we've completed together today.

Geographers make maps to show journeys.

For example, your route to school.

Map-makers use symbols and colours to show information and add detail.

Sometimes maps need a key.

The routes most walked or travelled may show the same buildings and landmarks, and that's because you're going to the same place.

Well done, everyone.

You've been fantastic today.

Give yourselves one last thumbs up.

Thank you for joining me today and for sharing your learning with me.

I'll see you really soon for more geography lessons.

Goodbye.