Lesson video

Hello everyone, and welcome to our geography lesson today.

I'm Miss Harrison.

And today we're going to continue our learning on the geography of Brazil.

Now I'm very excited about our lesson today, because you might have noticed behind me, I am going to be transporting you to the Amazon rainforest, which is one of the most exciting places I think in the country of Brazil.

And today we are going to look at the different communities of people that live within the Amazon rainforest.

Very interesting.

So let's get started.

Now, our learning question for today is who lives in the Amazon rainforest? And in our lesson today, we are going to recap those countries of South America.

We're going to think about the location of the Amazon rainforest and what it's like, what the climate is like, what it's like in the Amazon rainforest.

Then, we're going to look at some communities that live within the Amazon rainforest, and how the lives of those communities have changed over time.

So before we get started.

For our lesson today, you're going to need some paper or a notepad, a pen or pencil to write with, and as usual your big geography brain.

Now if you haven't got one of those things in front of you, or if you want to go and find a nice quiet place without any distractions, then pause the video and make sure you're ready now.

Okay, we're ready to get going.

Now, my first challenge for you today is to see if you can name all seven of those continents.

Now, I want you to pause the video and shout out the names of the seven continents Off you go.

Let's see if you managed to get them all.

So we have North America, we've got Africa, Asia, Australia, Antarctica, Europe, which is the country where we live here in the UK, and South America and South America is the continent we are going to look at today, and we're going to zoom in on the country of Brazil.

Now, before we zoom in, how many different South American countries can you name in just one minute? I wonder how many of those countries can you remember.

Pause the video now and shout out all the South American countries that you can remember.

Off you go.

I wonder how many you managed to get.

Let's have a look.

So we have all of our South American countries on there.

We've got Venezuela, we've got Colombia, we've got Ecuador, we've got Peru, we've got Bolivia, we've got Chile, we've got Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, which is our focus for this unit, we have French Guiana, which remember isn't a country by itself, it's a territory of France, we've got Suriname and we've got Guyana.

Awesome work if you managed to remember loads of those countries.

I wonder if you can even remember all of them, I'd be super, super impressed if you can.

So we are going to zoom on in to Brazil today.

And in particular, we are focusing on one particular feature of Brazil, which is the Amazon rainforest.

Now, I wonder if you can remember where in Brazil the Amazon rainforest is.

Let's take a closer look.

So the Amazon rainforest is located in the north western part of Brazil.

So if you have a look at the map on your screen, I'm going to make it bigger for you, you can see the entire continent of South America, and that green patch shows where the Amazon rainforest is.

So the majority of it is within Brazil, but it also spreads into Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana as well.

So it spans a huge area, but the majority of it is within the country of Brazil.

Now, let's have a think about what it's like in the Amazon rainforest.

So what are the conditions like? What's the climate like? What is it like to be there? So let's have a look.

Now, the Amazon rainforest is the largest tropical rainforest in the whole world.

And one in 10 animal species on the planet lives there.

So it's got loads of different plants and animals that live within the rainforest.

Now it's made up of dense forest with the Amazon River running through it.

And remember the Amazon River, which is one of the human, sorry, one of the physical features of Brazil, is the second longest river in the whole world.

And it runs all the way through the Amazon rainforest as well.

Now, not only are there lots of different plants and animals living there, but many different communities of people live in the rainforest and they have for many years.

Now, before we find out a bit more about those communities, I want you to have a think about the place where you live.

How do you think that human settlements will be different in the Amazon rainforest? So I want you to think about the place where you live and think about how the Amazon rainforest will be very different from your area.

So for example, I live in London, which is a big city in England, and I think the Amazon rainforest will be very different from my area because there won't be lots of cars and lots of tall buildings and lots of public transport like there is here in London.

Have a think about the place where you live, how will the Amazon rainforest be different? See if you can write down some sentences and finish those sentences for me.

Pause the video, have a go.

Okay, awesome work.

Now, let's find out about some of those communities that live in the Amazon rainforest.

Now, previously in our geography learning, we have looked at the urbanisation in Brazil and about how lots of people want to move to towns or cities.

However, this isn't always the case.

Not everybody wants to move from rural areas to urban areas in Brazil.

And many people choose to live in those more rural areas like the Amazon rainforest.

Now, a key piece of vocabulary that we're going to use today is the phrase indigenous communities.

Hoo, that's a bit of a mouthful.

Why don't you try and say it with me? Indigenous.

Your turn.

Indigenous communities.

Your turn.

Communities.

Let's try them both together.

One, two, three.

Indigenous communities.

Awesome some work, we've got it.

So indigenous communities are people who originate from a particular region or country and who choose to remain living in their ancestral home.

Your ancestors are the members of your family that lived before you, so your grandparents, great grandparents, great, great grandparents.

And so lots of these communities that live within the Amazon rainforest have lived there for many, many years, and their ancestors have lived there as well.

And they've chosen to stay in the place that they have always lived.

Now, let's have a think about some of those communities.

Now, there are approximately 400 different tribes living in the Amazon rainforest, and a tribe is a type of community.

And many of these tribes have little contact with others outside their own community.

And that's because they choose not to have contact with anyone else outside their own community.

That's a choice that they make.

And they live off their land in the forest.

So they create their houses from wood and trees and leaves.

And then to have their food, they hunt or forage within the rainforest and eat the different meats or the different crops that they can grow or find within the Amazon rainforest.

Now, one such tribe is the Awa tribe who live in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil.

And we're going to look a little bit closer at what their lives might be like today.

Now, there are not many photos of uncontacted tribes, like the Awa, as they don't use technologies.

They don't have phones or camera phones and things like that.

And not many people have visited their land.

So they're called uncontacted because they don't have very much contact with other people outside of their community.

Now, some geographers in Brazil and some charities are trying to find out more about uncontacted tribes like the Awa, because they want to educate the rest of the population, both in Brazil and around the world about their lifestyle and the things that might threaten them.

So things that might put tribes like the Awa in danger.

Now, the Awa tribe is home to around 350 people who live together in one part of the Amazon rainforest.

We're going to have a look today about what their life might be like and thinking about a daily life for somebody living within that tribe.

So what might life be like for tribes in the Amazon? Now, remember that there are lots of different tribes living within the Amazon rainforest.

And the lives of people in those tribes might be very, very different.

But here is just one example of how life in the Awa tribe might be.

And this is based on research that's done by geographers in Brazil.

So let's have a think about their day.

So usually they would wake up as the sun rises and go to bed when the sun sets.

So rather than having alarm clocks or watches and things like that, they would wake up when the sun rises and go to bed when the sun sets.

For breakfast, usually they might pick crops such as corn and beans and bananas to eat for their breakfast.

And lots of the Awa tribe and similar tribes grow their own crops on their own land.

Then, for lunch and dinner, they might hunt for food each day.

So they might go hunting for turtles and fish in the Amazon River and catch them with arrows.

Then, they would cook the food over a fire while it's still fresh.

And using resources in the rainforest to build their homes, to hunt and cook food and to make medicines rather than using medicines that we might use here in the UK or in other parts of Brazil.

So think about that daily life of somebody in the Awa tribe and I want you to think about your daily life and how is your daily routine different to the routine of somebody in a tribe like the Awa.

So have a think now about what time you wake up, what sorts of things you eat for breakfast or for lunch, and how your daily routine is different to somebody in the Awa tribe.

So for example, I wake up at seven o'clock, even though the sun might have risen earlier, I normally wake up around seven o'clock.

For breakfast, I would have something like porridge or cereal, which is different to the example of what somebody might eat in the Awa tribe.

And for lunch, I might eat a salad or some pasta rather than going having to hunt for my food and cook it over the fire.

So my daily routine is quite different to a tribe in the Amazon because the foods I eat are different and the way I get my food is different.

So I want you to have a think about your daily routine.

How might it be different to somebody in a community like the Awa in the Amazon? Pause the video now, have a go.

Okay, awesome work, team.

So the next thing we're going to think about is how the lives of the indigenous communities have changed over time.

So one thing that is actually threatening the lives of tribes like the Awa, so putting them in danger, is things like illegal logging.

Now, illegal logging means that people invade the parts of the land that are owned by communities like the Awa and they chop down the trees.

Now, the reasons that the loggers come to these areas and chop down the trees is because they can sell the wood from the trees for construction.

Now, this is illegal.

It's against the law in Brazil for people to do this because that land belongs to the Awa tribe.

But this is a big, big problem because if the trees are cut down, it makes it more difficult for the Awa people to find food or to build their homes because they use that wood and they use those trees to help them survive and to help them live in that part of the rainforest.

Now, things like fires in the rainforest are also very dangerous for the tribes living there because wood and trees catch fire very, very easily.

So if a fire starts within the rainforest, it can spread quite quickly.

And that can also be very dangerous for tribes and communities that live there.

Now, the Brazilian government have set up operations with the army and the police to remove the illegal loggers.

So the people trying to cut down the trees illegally on the land of the Awa.

And what the army and the police in Brazil want to do is to give the land back to the indigenous people who have always lived there.

This is a very important job, and it's always, it needs to be monitored regularly.

So they need to check regularly if there is any illegal logging going on in the Amazon rainforest, so that tribes like the Awa can survive.

So that's a way that their life has changed in recent years because now more people are trying to come to their land to cut down those trees.

But luckily the government and the army and the police are trying to stop that and help return the land to the Awa tribe.

Now, my final thing for you to think about today is what are the biggest problems facing tribes living in the Amazon? So here you've got some sentence starters.

A big problem for tribes living in the Amazon rainforest is? If trees are cut down, this means? So pause the video now, see if you can finish off those sentences.

Have a go.

Well done.

Let's see what you've written for your answer.

So what I would have written is a big problem for tribes living in the Amazon rainforest is illegal logging or people coming to their land to cut down the trees.

If the trees are cut down, this means that the tribes, like the Awa, struggle to survive because they might not be able to build their homes or to find food.

That's why it's such a big problem.

If you've written something like that, give yourself a big tick.

Awesome.

Now, my very last challenge for you today is can you draw a picture of a village in the Amazon rainforest and label it with the different parts of the rainforest that the tribe use in their daily lives? So you might want to draw some houses made out of trees and wood and leaves.

You might want to draw some of the crops that are grown in the Amazon rainforest, like corn or like bananas or beans.

And you might want to draw maybe some of the people from the tribe hunting for their food.

So they mentioned before, hunting for turtles or fish in the river.

So choose a part of the Amazon rainforest and see if you can draw what the life of somebody living in the Amazon rainforest might look like.

So drawing a picture of a village and the different parts of the rainforest that the people of the community use in their daily lives.

That's something for you to do after our lesson today.

Now, that's all we've got time for in our lesson today.

So well done for all of your hard work.

And if you've enjoyed our lesson today, I hope you've found it really interesting learning about the lives of different people.

They probably live in a very different place to you or I.

If you have enjoyed our lesson today, and you want to share some of your amazing work, for example, maybe you want to share your beautiful picture of a village in the Amazon rainforest, then you can ask a parent or carer to take a photo of that work and to upload it to social media, tagging @OakNational and using the hashtag #LearnwithOak.

That way, some of your teachers from the Oak National team will be able to see some of the great work that you're doing at home.

I would love to see any pictures of the Amazon rainforest that you have drawn and labelled, and with things that help the communities survive there.

So that's all we've got time for today.

The last thing for you to do is to go through your quiz at the end of this video, and see how much you can remember.

I will be back next time when we're going to learn some more about the Amazon rainforest in Brazil.

I'll see you then.