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 Local to Global: How can we identify special places? This lesson is called The Seven Wonders of the Natural World.

Today, you're going to be learning to investigate special landscapes from around the world and talk about what makes them special.

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

This links back to previous learning you might have done, thinking about places that are special to you and explaining why they are your favourite or special places.

I'm really excited to get started.

I hope you are too.

Here are the key words from our lesson.

We're going to be learning more about them later, but first, let's practise saying them together.

Let's do my turn, your turn.

Natural.

Natural.

Landscape.

Landscape.

Atlas.

Atlas.

Survey.

Survey.

Good job, everyone.

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

Here are the learning cycles that we will be working through together in today's lesson.

First, we'll be looking at the seven wonders of the natural world and then we'll be gathering information on them through a survey.

Are you ready to start your learning? Fantastic.

Let's begin.

The seven natural wonders of the world are special landscapes around the globe that are natural and not created by humans.

These places create a sense of amazement and wonder in visitors.

So remember we talked about special places giving us different emotions and feelings, well, these natural wonders of the worlds do that as well, and they're special landscapes because they're created naturally and they give us that awe and wonder and amazement.

Geographers use images and maps to investigate places.

Maps can be collected in an atlas.

Let's investigate the seven natural wonders of the world together.

It's time for a check here.

Geographers use images and maps to investigate.

A, cars.

B, places.

C, animals.

Or D, plants.

Pause the video now and complete this check.

Well, geographers, how did you get on? Did you say B, places? That's correct.

Geographers use images and maps to investigate places and that's what we're going to be doing today.

We're going to be using images and maps to investigate places, more specifically the seven wonders of the natural world.

Here are some photos of some of the seven natural wonders of the world.

Have a look at these photos.

What makes these places special? Pause the video now and complete this as a think pair and share activity.

How did you get on? Did you talk about these places being beautiful landscapes and about them evoking a sense of awe and wonder? Did you talk about the colours there? Did you talk about the wildlife and the plants and animals that live there? I'm sure you talked about lots of things that make these places special.

We're going to learn more about them later.

These places are also some of the seven natural wonders of the world.

What do you think makes these places special? Pause the video and have that discussion with your partner.

How did you get on here? Did you talk about the mountain and the volcano that you can see? Did you talk about that beautiful bay there? Again, there's differences in colours between these photos and you can see how large these areas are because of the tiny little buildings that you can see in the first picture.

I'm sure you had a great discussion about all of these seven pictures that I've shown you and you've done that just by looking at photos and finding out information from the pictures.

But what we're going to do now is to find out more information about these places and locate them on maps.

So let's learn more about these special places using images, atlases, and maps.

The first of the seven natural wonders of the world is the Great Barrier Reef.

Have a look at these photos.

What can you see here? Discuss this with your partner.

Did you talk about the Great Barrier Reef being home to lots of different wildlife? And you can see there's a turtle there and lots of different coloured coral.

I'm sure you talked about it being a place of natural beauty.

Let's find out more about the Great Barrier Reef.

The Great Barrier Reef is an area of the Coral Sea to the northeast of Australia.

It runs along the coast of the state of Queensland.

There you can see it located on the map by the purple arrow.

Australia is a country in the continent of Oceania.

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef ecosystem in the world, so that means it's an area of natural beauty and wonder because it is the largest coral reef in the world.

It means that there's lots of different plants, animals, corals, and fish and marine life that live there.

It's visited by lots and lots of people and you can see that the photos were really beautiful and eye-catching.

It's time for a quick check here.

Where is the Great Barrier Reef? Pause the video now and complete that check.

How did you get on? Did you say that the Great Barrier Reef is to the northeast of Australia? Good job.

You can give yourselves a thumbs up.

Well done if you did.

It's now time to look at another one of the natural seven wonders of the world, the Northern Lights.

They're also called Aurora Borealis and you can see here that they're lots of different shades of blue, green, and purple and they look like ribbons that dance across the sky.

Pause the video here and think about why this place is special.

Good job, I'm sure you had a really lovely discussion there about all the beautiful colours that would be painted across the sky.

The Northern Lights or the Aurora Borealis, as I said, are a spectacular display of green and purple lights that look like ribbons dancing across the night sky.

They are mainly seen close to the Arctic Circle in the Northern Hemisphere in these countries: Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Canada, Greenland, Russia, and Finland, and you can see there that the area is located on the map.

So those are the countries that are very close to the Arctic Circle, some of them are even within the Arctic Circle.

It's time to have another quick check here.

Which of these countries might you see the Northern Lights, the Aurora Borealis? A, Brazil, B, Australia, or C, Iceland.

Pause the video now and complete that check.

How did you get on? Did you say C, Iceland? That's correct.

That's where you would see the Northern Lights.

Well done, everyone.

It's now time to look at the third of the seven natural wonders of the world.

Here are some pictures of the Grand Canyon.

Have a look at them and discuss with your partner why you think the Grand Canyon is a special place.

Good job.

Did you talk about the colour of the rock there and how the canyon has been formed? The Grand Canyon is in the state of Arizona in the southwest of the United States of America.

There you can see it located on the map.

The Grand Canyon was formed by the Colorado River.

The river has eroded downward through layers of rock over millions of years.

It is such an impressive landform that it is a protected national park, so I'm sure you could see all of the different grooves that the river has eroded into the rock.

It's now time for another check.

Where is the Grand Canyon? Pause the video now and complete that check.

How did you get on? Did you say that the Grand Canyon is in the southwest of the USA? That's correct.

Well done.

You can give yourselves another thumbs up.

Well done, everyone.

You're doing some fantastic learning about the seven wonders of the natural world.

It's now time to find out about wonder number four.

Here is a picture of Victoria Falls.

Pause the video and have a discussion with your partner.

Why do you think Victoria Falls is a special place? Did you talk about the beauty of this waterfall? Look at all the vegetation and greenery around it.

Let's find out more about Victoria Falls.

Victoria Falls is located on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe in the continent of Africa.

There you can see it located on the map.

It is one of the world's largest waterfalls.

It is located on the Zambezi River.

It provides a home for several unique plants and animals.

So that means that those plants and animals only live in that area and those views of the waterfall were really breathtaking, weren't they? Again, this is a place that makes you feel awe and wonder.

Let's move on to wonder number five out of the seven wonders of the natural world.

Look at these pictures here.

This is the Harbour of Rio de Janeiro.

Why do you think this place is a special land form? Pause the video and discuss with your partner.

Did you talk about those breathtaking views? Did you talk about all of the mountains that are around this bay? Did you talk about the colour of the water? Let's find out more about the Harbour of Rio de Janeiro.

The Harbour of Rio de Janeiro is also known as Guanabara Bay and is located on the southeastern coastline of Brazil.

There it is, you can see it located on the map.

It is the largest bay in the world and surrounded by spectacularly shaped mountains.

Did you see those mountains in the photographs that I showed you all around the bay and the water was in the middle.

It's now time for a quick check.

Where is the Harbour of Rio de Janeiro? Pause the video now and answer that check.

How did you get on? Did you say that the Harbour of Rio de Janeiro is on the southeast coast of Brazil.

Good job.

Well done if you did.

There's lots of information and places to remember, but you're working through it so well.

It's now time to think about wonder number six.

This place is called Paricutin Volcano.

Have a look at both of these pictures and think about why this volcano is a special place.

Did you talk about the shape and the size there of the volcano? Did you talk about maybe it erupting lava? Should we find out more about Paricutin volcano? The Paricutin volcano is located in the state of Michoacan, Mexico.

It is a cinder cone volcano.

That means that it erupts lava and ash up into the air.

There it is, you can see it located on the map.

Paricutin volcano reaches a height of 2,740 metres.

Paricutin last erupted in 1952.

It's now time to move on to the last of the seven wonders of the natural world.

This is Mount Everest.

You might have heard of this mountain before.

Pause the video and have a look at these pictures and discuss with your partner why you might think that this is a special place.

How did you get on? Did you talk about how tall it might be at the top of Mount Everest at the summit? Did you talk about there being snow on the cap? Did you also talk about maybe the weather and how cold it is up there? Let's learn more about Mount Everest.

Mount Everest is a mountain located in the Himalayan mountain range near the border of Nepal and Tibet, a region of China.

There you can see it located on the map.

Mount Everest reaches a summit at 8,848 metres making it the tallest mountain in the world.

So you can imagine the views at the top are breathtaking and because it's the tallest mountain in the world, it definitely has earned its spot as one of the seven wonders of the natural world.

It is time for another check here.

The seven wonders of the natural world include.

A, Mount Everest, B, Machu Picchu, C, Victoria Falls, or D, the Grand Canyon.

Pause the video now and select which of these are parts of the seven wonders of the natural world.

How did you get on? Did you say A, Mount Everest, C, Victoria Falls, and D, Grand Canyon? Correct.

They're all included in the list of the seven wonders of the natural world.

Well done, every one for completing that check.

Give yourselves a thumbs up.

You've heard lots of different information about those places, but I wonder if you can remember that information.

Geographers sometimes add labels or captions to images to share their opinion.

We use labels to help find key features on photographs.

We use captions to explain an image.

So you can see there that I've added those labels.

I've labelled the city, the bay, and Sugarloaf Mountain, which is the mountain that's identified there with the arrow.

So those are the labels that I've used to find key features in the photograph.

And then you can see that I've added the caption at the bottom that locates this place.

It says the Harbour at Rio de Janeiro.

We can also use captions to share opinions of a place.

So let's see what my opinion of this place is.

The harbour is special because it is so beautiful.

The colours of the water and the sunset make it look magical like a rainbow.

So you can see there that I've shared my opinion of this place.

I've talked about the colours, I've talked about it looking magical, and that it's a beautiful place.

That's my opinion.

Remember that people's opinions can be different and that there's no right or wrong answer.

It's now time for task A.

What I would like you to do is to choose one of the seven natural wonders of the world and to draw a picture of it.

Use labels and captions to share the name and location of it.

Share your opinion as to why you think it is a special place.

Pause the video now and complete task A.

How did you get on? Here's an example that I've done for the Harbour at Rio de Janeiro.

So you can see I've drawn it there and I've labelled the image, so I've labelled the mountains, the bay, and the city, and then I've written a caption at the bottom to locate the place.

I've said the Harbour at Rio de Janeiro.

I've also used a caption to explain my opinion of this place.

I've said the harbour is special because it is so beautiful.

The colours of the water and the sunset make it look like a magical rainbow.

Well done, everyone.

I'm sure you all completed that task really well and it helped you remember lots of information about these special places.

Good job.

It's now time to move on to the next part of our lesson.

What we're going to be doing now is gathering information through a survey.

A class survey can be used to investigate which of the natural wonders of the world is the most popular, that means the one that people like the most.

Asking everyone the same question and recording their answers is called a survey.

A survey gathers responses from people.

It lets them share their opinion about a place.

Survey responses let us know what a range of people are thinking.

Remember we said that everyone has different opinions and so they think different things and there's no right or wrong opinion, it just means that people think differently and it's really interesting for us to compare and collect opinions about a place.

When they carry out field work, geographers use surveys to find out what people think.

We can record answers in a table like this one.

So here's my table, it has two columns.

The column on the left you can see is titled natural wonders of the world and then beneath that in the next row it has all seven natural wonders of the world written down.

And then in the column on the right it says number of pupils.

So I wonder if you look at this table, what do you think our question would be? Pause the video and discuss that with your partner.

How did you get on? Did you think about what our question could be? Well, let's have a look together.

Our survey question could be which of the natural wonders of the world is the most special? Which of the natural wonders of the world is your favourite? And which of the natural wonders of the world would you like to visit? So all of those could be survey questions linked to that table that I showed you.

A survey gathers responses from people and it lets them share their opinion about a place.

So all of those questions would let us find out what people think about those places.

Here you can see pictures of all seven natural wonders of the world.

What I would like you to do is to look carefully at each one and think about which one is most special and why.

Which one would you most like to visit? Pause the video and answer those two questions.

Good job, everyone.

I'm sure you thought really carefully about which of those natural wonders are most special and which one you would like to visit.

Here's what some pupils might respond.

The Great Barrier Reef is the most special because it is the largest coral reef in the world.

Mount Everest is the most special because it is the tallest mountain in the world.

The Harbour at Rio de Janeiro is the most special because it's pretty and colourful.

So you can see there that three different pupils have got three different ideas about which one of those natural wonders is the most special.

They've explained it using their opinion, and like we said, it doesn't matter who's right or who's wrong as long as we find out information about what people think about those places.

What I would like you to do is to develop the answer that you gave earlier and use this sentence stem to help you think about explaining why you like that wonder or why you might want to visit it.

So here's the sentence starter.

I want to visit.

So pick which natural wonder of the world you'd like to visit.

And then it says because and explain why like these pupils have done here.

Pause the video and expand your answer.

Good job.

I'm sure all of you can quite clearly say now which natural wonder you would like to visit and why.

So we can collect responses to our survey in this table.

Remember, I've shown you this table before.

So we've got all of the natural wonders of the world in the column on the left, and then we're going to tally up or count the number of pupils that choose each of those natural wonders on the right so that we know which one is the most popular or the most favourite, or the place that most people want to visit.

Each tally line represents one pupil.

So as you go round and you're collecting survey responses, you're going to draw one tally line down like this, and that's one per pupil.

Remember that when you have five of those, you do a diagonal line across before that came before it.

So let's work through this together.

The Grand Canyon, four pupils chose that.

So I've got four tally lines there.

The Great Barrier Reef, three pupils chose that one.

The Harbour at Rio de Janeiro, seven pupils have chosen that.

So remember on the fifth pupil, I draw a diagonal line across the four that came before it and then I carry on tallying the ones that come after that.

Mount Everest has got three tallies, that means three pupils chose that place as a place they would like to visit.

The Northern Lights.

So again, we've got a group of five there, so it's marked with that diagonal line across and then three extra.

So that means that eight pupils altogether chose that place.

Paricutin Volcano has got three pupils that have chosen it.

And then Victoria Falls has got two pupils.

So I've gone around and I've collected all of those opinions to my survey.

Once you've collected your opinions and completed your survey, you can total up the amounts to help you read that information.

So you can see that I've written the totals there next to the tallies.

So four for Grand Canyon, three for the Great Barrier Reef, seven for the Harbour at Rio de Janeiro, three for Mount Everest, eight for the Northern Lights, three for Paricutin Volcano, and two for Victoria Falls.

So that quite clearly shows me that the pupils in my class like the Northern Lights the most and want to see them or visit them.

It's now time for a true or false check.

Geographers use surveys to ignore what people think.

Is that true or false? Pause the video now and answer that question.

How did you get on? Did you say false? That's right, geographers use surveys to find out what people think, not to ignore them.

Let's think about justifying our answer and explaining why it's false.

Is it because A, geographers use surveys to find out what people think or B, geographers use surveys to find directions to places? Pause the video now and justify your answer.

How did you get on? Did you say A? That's correct.

Geographers use surveys to find out what people think and to collect their opinions.

Well done, everyone.

I'm going to give you a thumbs up for that.

Good job, I tried to trick you there, but you worked through it really well.

It's now time for task B.

What I would like you to do is to complete a survey of which natural wonders of the world pupils in your class would like to visit.

Collect your answers in this table.

Then I'd like you to answer these two questions.

Which of the seven natural wonders of the world would most pupils in your class like to visit? And why do you think the class has chosen this place? Pause the video and complete Task B.

Well geographers, how did you get on? Here's an example of my survey.

So you've seen that I've tallied and totaled up all the responses that I got and then I've answered the two questions.

So which of the seven natural wonders of the world would most pupils in my class like to visit? Well, pupils in our class would most like to visit the Northern Lights.

Remember that eight pupils have chosen that as a place they'd like to visit.

Question two, why do you think the class has chosen this place? I think the class has chosen this place because the colours in the sky are beautiful and mesmerising.

You would feel a sense of wonder looking at them.

Well done for completing your survey.

I'm sure you enjoyed learning about the seven natural wonders of the world and you enjoyed asking your classmates a survey about which one was their favourite or which one they would most like to visit.

Good job, everyone.

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

We're going to go through a quick summary of all the learning that we've completed together today.

Geographers use images and maps to investigate places, for example, the seven natural wonders of the world.

Geographers sometimes add labels or captions to images to share their opinions.

Surveys help geographers find out what people do or think.

So for example, what is their favourite natural wonder? Well done, everyone.

You've been brilliant today.

You can give yourselves one last thumbs up.

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

I'll see you next time for more geography lessons soon.

Goodbye.