Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to Geography.

I'm Mr. Hutchinson.

And we're learning all about villages, towns and cities.

If you haven't caught up with the lesson so far, then make sure you watch the previous lessons in the unit first because they all linked together.

If you've been on this journey and completing all of these lessons, well done, great to have you back.

And we're going to be exploring settlements where people live and how settlements develop and change more today.

Make sure that you've done the quiz so you can revisit the previous learning get all of that knowledge whizzing about and activated in your brain.

Make sure you've got a quiet place where you can just really focus on complete the full lesson and you've got all the equipment that you will need to do that including a pen or a pencil and a piece of paper or a book.

If you've got some colouring pencils or felted pens there'll be a chance for you to use those today.

Don't worry if you don't but if you do have some to hand pause the video and go and grab those because we can use them in an activity later.

So our lesson today is going to be all about What affects where different people live.

We've learned about different settlement types villages, towns, cities.

Today's lesson, we're going to think about some of the factors that affect where people choose to live and where they need to live.

So, our lesson will look like this.

First of all, we're going to look at natural resources, the natural resources in a particular area, then we'll have a look at some different locations.

And I'm going to ask you if you would settle in these locations? And if so, why, and if not, why no And then really excited about this.

Towards the end of this lesson, you're going to have a chance to design your own settlement using all the knowledge that you've gained about what makes a good location for a settlement.

You can design the perfect settlement of where you would settle in an ideal world.

We'll finish with our End of lesson quiz as usual.

So let's get started.

Natural Resources That's what we're going to look at.

Natural resources.

Resources are things that we can use and natural here means in nature, things that we can use in nature.

There are different natural resources that humans love to use and help them to survive, thrive and flourish.

What are some of those natural resources that we need? Well, first of all you can see this location here.

What can you spot? What would the advantages be of living in an area like this? What would some of the disadvantages be? It's important to get that balance.

Wherever we choose to settle there might be some advantages.

Some things that make it a really great place to settle.

Maybe some disadvantages of this could be a problem.

Look at this location, what would the advantages be? And what would the disadvantages be? And you can just jot those down on your piece of paper now.

You could maybe write out a table like I have.

Pause the video and complete that task.

Super, I wonder what sort of advantages and disadvantages that you wrote.

You might have thought that water might allow you to do some fishing, look at that fast flowing river.

Maybe there will be some fish going down that river and we'll be able to catch those fish and that will provide them with some food.

And also, we need fresh water to drink.

We're very lucky if we live somewhere where there's a tap and we can just open the tap and get water out but if we were somewhere away from taps and from pipelines, we would need fresh water.

We can only survive about three days without fresh water and that provides also fresh water.

In terms of disadvantages though, it looks like it will be quite difficult to build a big shelter because there's lots of trees around.

Now, those trees might be useful in giving us wood that we can use lots of different ways firewood to build things but it also means that there's not much flat land.

And I wonder if that river might start to overflow.

So, the disadvantage might be that when there's lots of rain, that river could overflow and that could present a problem.

So there are advantages and disadvantages.

You might have got some other ones to your less, well done if you did of anywhere where that we choose to settle.

But there are also natural resources, things in nature that we can use.

So for example, one natural resource that humans need to survive is fresh water.

Water from the ocean is not fresh water, it's salty water and so we can't use that water to drink.

We can't just take water out the ocean and drink it's too salty Rivers and lakes on the other hand, have fresh water that's drinkable.

There might also be different minerals.

Try saying that word 'minerals' there might be different minerals in the ground.

So minerals can be organic or inorganic and different things buried into the ground that we can use.

So that could be something like 10 so different metals could be minerals, it could be special kinds of rocks that types of minerals.

So these things are in the ground and we can dig them up and use them to help us.

That's another natural resource.

So we've got fresh water, we've got minerals what are the natural resources are around us? Well, there you can see there are some trees there and trees provide us with wood.

Wood is useful for all sorts of different things.

For building and construction for tools, we might want to burn it to make fire.

Wood is another natural resource.

Under the natural resource are rocks around us.

We can use rocks to build, to make walls or to make buildings.

Rocks are so helpful as a natural resource.

You can see that some animals, animals are a natural resource.

Now, maybe if you're a vegetarian or a vegan then you might say "No, I don't want to use animals as a natural resource." Throughout history we have used animals in terms of food for meat, and also other parts of the animal so that the skin can become leather.

The fur can help to keep us warm.

The wool from sheep can be used for clothes.

And so animals are a natural resource around us that some people will use Coasts are another natural resource.

So coastal land, there's all sorts of things along coasts, including lots of different foods like shellfish that often live around coasts.

Coast can also be useful in terms of fishing.

There might be fish near the coast, they can provide some protection.

So it's less likely that a sediment will become invaded if it's near a coast because people can't easily get across a sea to attack somebody.

So there could be coasts.

That's another natural resource that we can use.

So different natural resources around that throughout history have helped people, especially around settlements and lots of settlements appear near to these things.

So for example, capital cities of different countries are very often on rivers.

Big settlements, big cities very often developed around rivers.

And there's a reason for that.

They provide transportation, they provide protection, they provide food through the fish and they provide fresh water and an ability to clean things.

So can you remember what all of these different natural resources are? I'm going to put some letters on them now so the first word on the top left there will be a, b, c, d, e, f, can you make a list now using those letters of the different natural resources that are all around us and that people can use in settlements.

Great work hopefully you've got that list there of freshwater for 'a' of coasts for 'b' minerals for 'c' rocks for 'd' wood or trees for 'e' and animals for 'f' Natural resources affect where settlements develop where people decide to settle to begin with.

And we'll learn a little bit more about that in the next lesson.

Go back in history a little bit and think about where the first settlements appeared.

But also where developments build up to bigger and bigger towns and cities because of those natural resources that are around.

So thinking about those natural resources and what might be a good place to settle what might be a good location for somebody to settle especially a new settlement.

Let's look I'm going to show you some pictures and photos of some different locations.

And I want you to tell me, would this be a place that you would settle up So should we settle in this place You tell me if you think that you would settle there or if you wouldn't, and you can write down whether you would or wouldn't based on the advantages and disadvantages of settling in these different locations so first let's take a look at Skara Brae.

Skara Brae is a one of the oldest settlements that we know about in the United Kingdom.

It's in the Orkney Islands in Scotland and it's a Neolithic settlement.

So Neolithic means new Stone Age, if you've already studied the stone age or history lessons then you might have studied Skara Brae you might know about the Neolithic era, the new stone age when people first started to settle down in permanent locations.

We think the Skara Brae is at least 5000 years old.

And you can see here that there are houses that are made out of stone and there's lots of different houses made out of stone.

And it wasn't just houses that were found buried into the ground.

They're also stone tools that were made in the Stone Age for the different houses that were made out of the stone.

And there's also evidence of farming.

So people weren't just using the environment in terms of finding what were what was around, they were actually farming the land, domesticating animals and again, we'll learn about that in our in our next lesson.

So one of the first permanent settlements of early humans in the UK.

In fact, first of all let's see if you can remember about Skara Brae.

That's Skara Brae one of the earliest settlements in the UK.

Quick question for you.

How old is Skara Brae? Skara Brae is it at least 50 years old as a settlement? Is it 500 years old, 5000 years old, or 50,000 years old? Put your finger on the right answer.

You could even write out as pause video and write it down as a sentence if you'd like to.

Well, the if your fingers on 5000 or if you wrote that out Scara Brae is at least 5000 years old.

Let's take a look at where it is because this will give us a bit of a clue about why early humans chose to settle there.

So this is a map of Skara Brae or the location of Skara Brae today.

Now, you'll be able to see that it's located near a coast.

It's just right on that coastline.

You'll also be able to see that nearby there's this dark green location it says a loch of scale now loch is Scottish for lake.

So there's this big lake nearby There's Skara Brae here.

There's a coast and sea on one side, a big lake of freshwater on the other There's also the coast nearby with lots of rocks.

And there's lots and lots of fertile ground and fertile means ground that we can farm so ground which crops grow in really well.

So we can see some of the reasons that people chose to settle in Skara Brae.

There was a coast nearby with rocks, there was fertile ground, there was a loch nearby.

Let's see if we can put this into an answer.

So here's my question for you.

Why do you think that humans settled at Skara Brae 5000 years ago? Write out a few sentences and I put some keywords there to help you write your answer.

So you might include the word natural resources, shelter, food drink.

You might even give an example.

So pause the video and write out a paragraph now.

Awesome work, hopefully you got a nice paragraph there.

I'd like to show you a paragraph that I wrote.

So you can compare yours to mine and you can add some ideas and you can tick them off any sentences that you put if you got a similar idea.

So, this is what I wrote in answering this question.

Why do you think that humans settled at Skara Brae 5000 years ago? I wrote, humans settled in Skara Brae during the Neolithic period for many reasons, as there are lots of natural resources available nearby.

For example, if you use that keyword, there is evidence of fertile soil farming and there are also rocks to build shelters.

Furthermore, so if you've already said for example but you want to give another reason this is a good word to use in your writing You say 'furthermore' it means another thing even further more stuff.

Furthermore, the ocean would have supplied plenty of fish for food and the nearby loch will it provide unlimited fresh water for drinking.

So I've discussed all the different natural features and natural sources around Skara Brae to show that's why humans chose to settle there.

It's not just random or let's just live here they look at where there's lots of different resources around.

That's where they chose to settle.

So, let's play our game now of would you settle in this location? Here's your first photo.

Would you choose to settle here, Do you think that humans would choose to settle here, would you choose to settle here? If yes, why? If no, why no have a little think you might want to write down I would settle here because or I wouldn't settle here because what did you think? I looked at this and I thought that looks very very hot.

It looks like the plants are even struggling to grow.

There's a few shrubs there but no real trees or plant life.

It looks really hot.

I'm looking at I'm thinking there might be some poisonous sort of snakes or scorpion around Which I wouldn't want to live near.

I don't think I'd settle here.

I don't think I'd settle here.

I don't know if there's any water around and it looks like if there was water then it would dry up quite quickly.

I don't think I would settle on this location for those reasons there aren't enough natural resources around that I think would be helpful.

What about this location, Would you settle here? Yes or no? If you would, why, if you wouldn't, why no What do you think about this location I found this one a little bit tricky.

I don't know about you.

I thought it was a bit tricky because it looks like there is some natural resource around looks like there's some good soil, the grass seems to be growing there quite nicely.

It looks like there might be some trees nearby is quite flat so I think I'll be able to build on it.

However, I'm not sure about this weather.

Look at that weather it looks like it's very stormy there.

It looks like there might be lots and lots and lots of rain and maybe even some thunder and lightning, which would make it perhaps quite a difficult place to live maybe actually quite difficult to build on that lands.

It could be really wet, it could be like marshland that makes the foundations of your building quite shaky and it might even sink into the ground.

So I don't think I would settle there either.

Let's have a look at another one.

Another location What about this location here, Would you settle here, If you would, why'd you locate there? Why would you settle there? If not, why no? This looks like a better place to settle to me.

I like the fact that there's fresh water nearby and I think I could probably do some fishing there.

It looks like there's some trees where I can get some firewood and maybe even start building a house.

I wonder if there's some rocks in that in that river as well that I might go to use to help with my building.

The land does look quite uneven.

And that's one of the disadvantages.

The land doesn't look quite uneven.

So I think it'd be difficult to find a place to to build where it's quite flat if I wanted to build a house, for example.

But on the whole, lots of great natural resources around and I think that would make it a good place to settle that hill could provide me some protection as well.

Maybe from the wind, it might protect me from some invaders, if they want it to invade my settlement.

And then that hill if I built on top of the hill, then that could give me a good vantage point.

So a vantage point is a point where you can look out and see lots of different things.

See anybody invading.

Again and in the next lesson, we'll be looking at the first settlements and how when humans started to settle permanently.

We started to get more rading and invading.

If you saw another settlement nearby and they had lots of natural resources then you might think "we could go in and raid that settlement and take their natural resources away." That's what humans began to do.

So began to build big forts and more walls to keep those raiders out.

And that hill could be a useful protection from raiding.

So I think there's lots going for this, there's lots going for this location and I think out of the three that we looked at.

I would most like to settle in this location here.

Maybe you disagree.

If you disagree, that's fine.

I'd love to know your reasoning but that's where I think I would choose to settle.

So now we get to the final part of our lesson where we're going to design our own settlement.

So if you've got a blank piece of paper, that would be really helpful.

You could get a big piece of paper, If you got a big piece of paper you might have some coloured pencils, you might have some felt tips.

You can use all of those.

I'd like you to design your ideal settlement, you can do this any way you'd like.

So you could you could draw as a picture like it's a photo like the ones that we've been looking at, you could do it as a plan.

So like you're a bird looking looking from the sky a bird's eye view, you can draw it or represent it in any way that you like.

And that works for you.

What I would like you to do is think about those natural resources that you would need for your settlement.

Where would the freshwater be? How would the freshwater be provided? Maybe you're going to draw a lake nearby or loch, a Scottish word lake.

Maybe you're going to draw a river running through your settlement.

What about wood, how would you get wood and think about all of these different natural resources at the bottom line You don't have to include them all but think about whether and how you would include those in your ideal dream settlement.

If you'd like to, you could even think about how you would keep invaders out as well.

So pause the video and design your own settlement using those labels for the different natural resources.

Super work, I'm sure that you have created a fantastic settlement I would love to come and live in with all sorts of natural resources nearby that could help us to survive and thrive and do really well in that environment.

Brilliant work today, well done.

You should have picked up some of the factors that affect where people live, that where people choose to settle, and how settlements develop and get larger, maybe into towns and eventually even cities.

And in our next lesson, we will be discussing that more what makes different settlements grow and how do they change over time and I look forward to seeing you in that lesson.

Make sure that before you log off, you complete the End of lesson quiz.

That's important to lock in all of that knowledge from this lesson so click next and do that End of lesson quiz.

And I will see you next time.