Lesson video

Hello, my name's Miss Gilyeat, and I'm going to be your geography teacher for today.

In today's lesson, we're going to be learning about what it's like to live in the Arctic, and we're gonna learn about how people manage to live in such a cold and extreme environment.

We've got loads of interesting things to learn about, and I can't wait to teach you.

I hope you're looking forward to it.

Our lesson outcome for today is that we can understand how people adapt to living in the harsh environments like the Arctic and can give an example.

So we're gonna learn about what life is like for the people that live in Greenland and how they manage to live there.

We've got three key words for today's lesson.

So first of all, I'm going to say the key word, and I'd like you to pronounce it back to me to make sure that we're saying them correctly.

So the first one is Inuit.

Second, sealskin.

Third, tundra.

So an Inuit is our, or the Inuits are nomadic people who live within the Arctic Circle.

Sealskin is the furry skin of seals, which is used to make a variety of goods, such as clothes, shoes and rugs.

And tundra is a cold, frozen area of land where not many trees are able to grow.

We've got two learning cycles for today's lesson.

The first learning cycle is looking about what Greenland is like.

So we're gonna learn where it is, what the climate is like, or what the weather is like there.

And we're gonna learn about what types of animals are able to grow within the environment.

Plants and animals, sorry.

We're then gonna learn about how people manage to live in Greenland, okay? Because it is such a cold place, people have had to adapt to live in such a cold and extreme environment.

Greenland is the largest non-continent island in the world.

That means it's an island, but it isn't classed as its own continent.

It's part of the continent of North America.

Approximately 80,000 people live on the island of Greenland.

Now, if you have a look at the map, we can see that most of the island is covered in snow, or it's coloured white, and that's because most of it is covered in snow and ice.

If you look really carefully, you can see on the southwest coast, there is a thin sliver which isn't covered in snow and ice, and that's where most people live.

Now, the majority of people that live in Greenland live in the capital city of Nuuk, which is down there on the coast that we can see.

So just to the west, sorry, the east of Greenland, you've got the country of Iceland, which you might have heard of.

That's a very famous country because you get lots of volcanic eruptions.

And then to the west of Greenland, you've got Canada.

So the bit that's the little grey kind of island there is called Baffin, Baffin Island.

And the sea to the west of Greenland is called Baffin Bay.

Now, if you do live in the UK, we're still quite a bit of a distance away from Greenland, but not as far as going to America.

Can you spot Greenland on this map from here? So Greenland is just there.

Down and south, we've got the Atlantic Ocean, and above we've got the Arctic Ocean.

Now Greenland's a bit funny in a way because it's part of the Kingdom of Denmark, which is in Europe.

However, geographically, it's part of the North American continent.

So if we have a look at my globe, we can see that North America and Greenland, which is part of North America, has been shaded in the colour orange, okay? But actually the land is owned by Denmark, which is part of Europe, which has been shaded in green.

To the north of Greenland, we've got the Arctic Ocean.

So the top part of Greenland is classed as being in the Arctic Circle.

And to the south of Greenland, we've got the Atlantic Ocean.

Let's check our understanding.

Which of these statements is not true? A, Greenland is part of the North American continent.

B, Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark.

Or C, Greenland is part of Canada.

The answer's C, Greenland is part of Canada.

It isn't, it's next to Canada, but it's just part of the continent of North America, which is also what Canada is part of.

Greenland is a very cold island.

The coldest temperature ever recorded there was minus 69 degrees C.

Most of the island is covered in a big ice sheet called the Greenland Ice Sheet.

Now, if you haven't listened to the previous lessons in this topic, an ice sheet is a massive thick sheet of ice, which is sat on top of land.

Now, if you have a look, we've got a satellite image, which means it's a photograph which has been taken from set space.

This is a satellite image of Greenland.

We can see that most of the island is completely white.

The reason is because it's covered in snow and ice.

There's only parts next to the coastline, generally on the west coast, which are free from snow and ice.

And that's where the majority of people is, live there because there isn't any snow and ice, okay? So most of the island looks white from space as it's covered in ice.

And you can see Iceland there in the bottom right, which mostly isn't covered in ice.

You'd think that that would be since it's called Iceland, but actually no, it's just there to confuse you.

Greenland is white, even though it's called Greenland, and Iceland is mostly green even though it's called Iceland.

Most people live on the west coast, and I've circled the area there, with the purple circle, which shows where the majority of people live.

And that's because it's not covered in ice.

Now that area of land is actually called a tundra.

So the ground is frozen and not many plants are able able to grow.

When you've got frozen land, it basically means that the soil is frozen too, and that's got a very special name called permafrost.

Now because the the soil is frozen, it's very hard for roots to be able to dig down and get the nutrients out, and that's why it's hard for plants to grow there.

On this slide, I've got a photograph of what a tundra looks like.

I'd like you to pause the video and see what you can spot with the person you either sat next to or on your own.

What things can you spot in the photograph? So one thing I can't spot is that there's no trees.

It's hard for trees to grow because first of all, the soil might be frozen.

Also because it's so cold and windy, it's hard for plants to grow very high.

They prefer to stay nice and low because it's ever so slightly warmer and the wind isn't as strong, which might blow them over as well.

Frozen soil, which we said was called permafrost, small shrubs.

So shrubs are like little plants which grow, they don't get super high, they stay relatively close to the floor.

Grasses and small plants.

Is there anything else that you can spot in the photograph? I can also see a little stream, a river.

There's some snow on the photographs and gravel, and there's even a little mountain in the background.

Did you spot any of those as well? Let's check our understanding.

Which of these photographs, A, B, or C, shows tundra? Pause the video and either do it by yourself, or with the person you're sat next to.

B shows a tundra environment.

Do you know what A and C are called as well? So A is called a desert, so a hot and dry place, and C is called a rainforest, where it's generally quite warm and wet.

The first task that I'd like you to do for today's lesson is I'd like you to fill in the blank words with the words in purple below.

I'll read it out to help to start you off and then you can pause the video.

Greenland is the non-continent island in the world and is home to 80,000.

Greenland is part of the Kingdom of, but is part of the continent of North America.

Nuuk is the capital of the island.

To the north of Greenland is the Arctic Ocean, and to the south is the Atlantic.

Pause the video.

Can you fill in the gaps? Let's go through the answers.

Greenland is the largest non-continent island in the world and is home to 80,000 people.

Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, but is part of the continent of North America.

Nuuk is the capital city of the island.

To the north of Greenland is the Arctic Ocean, and to the south is the Atlantic Ocean.

How did you do? Did you get them all right? The second task I'd like you to do for this first learning cycle is label the picture of Greenland here that's on the slide with the following labels.

Can you see mountains, tundra, ice and snow? If you like, see if there's any other things that you can spot in the photograph and label.

I can see a very small something down in right.

Pause the video and have a go.

Let's see how we've done.

So we've got mountains.

Now there's a few different places where you could have labelled mountain there.

You've got the tundra environment so that the cold frozen ground.

You've got snow on the mountains.

There is ice floating in the sea, so that's sea ice.

What other ones did you spot from the photograph? I can see there's actually a small boat down at the bottom right of the photograph.

Did you manage to see that? We're now moving on to our second learning cycle, which is looking at how people in Greenland live.

Most people who live in Greenland are Inuit.

These are people who are from the Arctic Circle and most of them speak Greenlandic.

On the slide we can see two pictures of these Inuit communities.

I'd like you to pause the video and look at what they are wearing.

Look at where they they're living.

Can you spot anything interesting about how they live in their day-to-day life? So things I managed to spot.

They're wearing lots and lots of clothing and it looks like they're wearing some sort of fur and that's because it keeps them super warm.

The guy in the photograph on the left is wearing sunglasses.

Now one of the reasons that they wear sunglasses a lot because the snow is so bright it hurts their eyes.

So they wear sunglasses to protect their eyes.

And on the photograph on the right, you can see the kind of settlements that they live in.

So here we've got a tent which has been made outta lots of different sealskins that these little children live in.

I can imagine that being quite a hard way of life sometimes.

So they use sealskin, which is one of the key words from today's lesson to make coats to help keep them warm.

Sealskin is just using the skins from seals.

So they use them for lots of different things.

So here they're using them in coats.

They also use the sealskins for their building materials and for their tents like they've got here.

Now most people's jobs in the area are from hunting, fishing, or tourism.

So they are using their local area to earn money.

On the slide on the right, we've got something called a cruise ship.

Now these are people that come and visit the island.

Now often that's done on a cruise.

It's better if the people come off the cruise and then come onto the island to go spend their money there because then that money goes to the local people.

So hopefully they're not just staying on the ship.

You can see here that on the photograph on the left, we've got a fisherman who's going out to fish in the sea.

Now that can be useful for two things because it might be able to provide a meal for his family that evening, but also, it means that he is able to sell the fish and make money.

Houses in Greenland are often made of stone, concrete, and corrugated metal as trees don't grow there.

It would be very, very expensive to get trees or timber, which is the wood from trees sent over to Greenland.

So instead they use what they've got on the island to make building materials or to make buildings.

Peat, which is a type of soil, is burned on the fires.

The photograph in the bottom left there is a pile of peat.

So what they do is they dig it up and they dry it out and it burns really, really well.

Now because often they might not have gas supplies, or electricity isn't always super reliable, they need to make sure that they've got fires that they can use to keep warm and to cook off as well.

The living areas and the houses are built well above the ground, as the snow and the ice will be very deep in the winter.

So they often build them a bit higher up, so if it does get really snowy, they're able to get into and out of their house as easily as they would do normally.

Because Greenlanders need to live by the coast, fishing is very important.

And the main things that they catch are fish and seal.

So the photograph on the left here looks like a lovely meal that was taken from somebody's house in Greenland.

And the picture on the right is somebody going fishing.

So they use their local environment for their food and their work, which is really, really cool.

Let's check our understanding.

True or false? People from Greenland eat a lot of fish.

And then can you justify your answer? A, because they live by the sea, or B, because there isn't much food available.

Pause the video and either do it by yourself or with the person you are sat next to.

So true.

People from Greenland do eat a lot of fish.

And the reason they do is because they live by the sea.

So it's easy access for them to go fishing and catch a few fish for dinner that night.

The second task I'd like you to do for today's lesson is you are going to pretend that you are from Greenland and you are going to write a diary entry of what you have done that day.

So if you didn't know what a diary entry is, a diary is a little notebook or a journal which you write and tell your diary what you've been up to.

You might talk about your feelings, or you might talk about literally what you've just done.

I write a diary every day and it's more for me just to remember what I've done that day.

So things that you could include in your diary is what you wore.

So think about what the people in Greenland wear to keep warm.

What you ate, what you actually saw, and how you felt.

There's loads of other things that you could put in your diary entry.

It's totally up to you, but that's a bit of guidelines for you.

If you want a sentence starter to get you going, "Dear diary, today I.

." Pause the video and have a go.

Good luck! On the slide here, I've got an example of a diary entry.

So I'll read you mine.

"Dear diary, today I woke up and put on my sealskin coat as it was very cold outside! I had fish for breakfast, which I caught yesterday.

I went seal hunting today for work and saw lots of cool wildlife, including a whale! Good night!" How does your diary entry compare? Could you add any extra detail? On this slide, we've got a summary for today's lesson.

So Greenland is part of the continent of North America, but it is part of the Kingdom of Denmark.

So it actually is owned by Denmark, but the land is associated with North America.

Most people who live in Greenland are native and they are called Inuit people.

And that means that they're from that area and they've lived there for a very, very long time, or those communities have lived there for a very long time.

They have a very special way of life, which relies on their environment to live.

So they rely on the sea for fishing and for food.

They rely on their area for jobs.

So for tourism, when people come and visit on holiday, they're able to do tours for them.

And hunting is another example of a job in which they rely on their environment.

I hope you've enjoyed today's lesson and you've enjoyed learning about how people live in Greenland and how their life is adapted to live in such a cold place.

I've had a fantastic time teaching you and that's it for today's lesson.