Lesson video

Hello, my name is Miss Jarecjan.

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

I'm so pleased that you've decided to complete your learning with me.

We are going to do brilliantly.

Let's start our learning for today.

Welcome to today's lesson from our unit on land use.

How diverse are local and UK landscapes? This lesson is called "UK Human and Physical Features".

You'll be learning to identify and describe the main human and physical features of the UK using atlases and maps.

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

This links back to previous learning you might have done exploring your local area and using maps and aerial photographs to study a special place.

We will build on and develop learning you may have done on the UK and what kind of place it is.

I'm really excited to get started, I hope you are too.

The key words we'll be using today are physical features, human features and digital map.

We'll be using these keywords during the lesson and learning more about them later.

Let's do my turn, your turn.

Physical features, physical features, human features, human features, digital map.

Digital map, well done.

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

Let's think in more detail about what these keywords mean.

Here are the definitions of our keywords.

A physical feature is natural and has not been built by humans.

A human feature is something that humans have made or built.

A digital map is a map that you view and use on a computer.

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

First, we will be using an atlas to discover the UK.

Then we will be looking at human and physical features and finally we will be mapping the main features of the UK.

Are you ready to start your learning today? Fantastic, let's begin.

Today we'll be using atlases to help us with our learning.

Atlases are 2D representations of the globe.

Navigating your way through an atlas is easy if you use the contents and index page, they will tell you which page to turn to to find out about a specific country or place.

For example, if we look at this contents page and want to learn about Asia as a place, I can look on pages 13 to 16.

If I want to learn about South America, I can use my contents and find out that I need to look on pages 47 to 50.

Let's check your learning so far by answering this question together.

Which pages should I turn to in my atlas to find out about Africa? Is it A, pages seven to 10, B, pages 17 to 38, or C, pages 47 to 50? Pause the video and have a think.

well done, did you say pages seven to 10? That's right.

You can give yourselves a big thumbs up like this.

Pages 17 to 38 tell us about Europe and pages 47 to 50 tell us about South America.

We are specifically looking at the UK in this lesson, so we need to locate the pages in our atlas about this country.

Sometimes the continents page is divided into continents.

Which continent will we need to search for if we want to find information about the UK? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner.

The UK is located on the continent of Europe.

Information about Europe is on pages 17 to 38 of our atlas.

Did you get that right? Well done.

Most atlases have information about countries and places on one page, then have information about landscapes on another.

Usually each section on a continent will include a map showing its physical features such as the height of the land, rivers and lakes, and a page representing its human features like cities and political borders between countries.

This page in the atlas tells us about the countries that make up the continent of Europe.

On this map of Europe we can see the UK.

There's the UK and that means the United Kingdom.

It's north of France and to the south of Iceland.

It's surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea.

Landscape pages will include a map showing its physical features such as the height of the land, rivers and lakes.

We can find out lots of different information from these maps, including the highest point usually marked on the map by a black triangle symbol and that will be accompanied with the height of the mountain in metres.

There are some facts about the country or continent and that goes around the maps.

For example, fact boxes with the length of the longest river.

Atlases will also have a scale to indicate size, usually in kilometres and a compass to show direction.

So let's have another little check here, which Atlas page will tell us about the countries and which will tell us about the landscape? Pause the video here and have a think about which page is telling us what.

Great, let's look at this together.

The Atlas page on the left tells us about countries and the atlas page on the right tells us about the landscapes.

It's time for our first task now.

Today, you are becoming geography detectives.

First, can you read these statements and decide which of them are true or false? One, the UK is about the same size as France.

Two, the highest mountain in the UK is Yr Wyddfa.

Three, Glasgow is north of Belfast.

Four, the capital city of Northern Ireland is Dublin.

Five, Scotland has a border with England and six, the North Sea is between Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Which of these statements are true or false? And you can tick the box that matches each one.

Then I want you to be a geography detective and find out if you are right by researching the answers using your atlases, you'll need to look carefully at the maps for clues and don't forget to read the fact boxes too.

You could work with a partner or you could give it a try yourself if you feel confident.

Remember to use the contents and index pages to help you and you can use those to navigate around the atlas.

If you complete this task, you can make up some more true or false statements for your partner to try and answer.

Pause the video now and have a go at this task.

Well done Geography detectives, did you find some evidence in your atlases that could help you decide if these statements are true or false? Let's go through the answers together.

Statement one, the UK is about the same size as France.

That's false, the UK is just under half the size of France.

Let's look at statement two.

The highest mountain in the UK is Yr Wyddfa.

That's false, the highest mountain in the UK is Ben Nevis in Scotland at a height of 1,343 metres.

Statement three, Glasgow is north of Belfast.

That's true, well done.

Statement four, the capital city of Northern Ireland is Dublin.

That's false, the capital city of Northern Ireland is Belfast.

Dublin is the capital city of Ireland.

Statement number five, Scotland has a land border with England.

Well, that is true.

This runs for 96 miles or 154 kilometres.

Let's look at the final statement now, statement six.

The North Sea is between Scotland and Northern Ireland.

That is false.

The North Sea lies to the east of England and Scotland.

The North channel is the straight linking the Irish Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean between Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Good job, I can see you've worked really hard there and I'm gonna give you a big thumbs up.

Well done, it's time to continue with our learning.

Now we're going to look at human and physical features.

When we look at the features of the UK, we talk about human and physical features.

A physical feature is natural and has not been built by humans.

A human feature is something that humans have made or built.

Now we're going to create a digital map of the UK, adding labels and photographs to show significant human features.

But what kind of significant human features could we include? Can you think of three human features that we could investigate? Pause the lesson now and think of some examples.

Good job, did you think of these human features? Countries, capital cities, famous buildings like the Shard, historical landmarks like Edinburgh Castle, Sports Stadiums like the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, which is in Wales or even your school.

These are all examples of human features.

So let's have a check here.

Which of these is a human feature? Is it A, B, or C? Pause the video and answer this question.

How did you get on, did you say A? Well done, tat is an example of a human feature because it's showing us Buckingham Palace in London, which was built by humans.

The other two photos are showing us places and features which have not been built by humans.

Good job, now, can you think of three physical features that we could investigate? Pause the lesson now and try and think of some examples.

Remember, these are features that have not been built by humans.

How did you get on? Did you think of these physical features? Things like rivers, mountains, seas and oceans, national parks or famous landscapes like the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland.

Good job, so these are some examples of physical features that we could learn about.

Now let's think about sorting human features and physical features together.

Where would these pictures of features go? If the features are human features, they would go on the left.

If they are physical features, they would go on the right, and if they're a mixture of both, then they would go in the middle of the Venn diagram, pause the video and have a go at this.

You could think, pair and share your ideas as a class, or you could work by yourself and then discuss it with a partner.

Pause the video now.

How did you get on with that? Did you sort them like this? The space in the middle of our Venn diagram shows us a combination of human and physical features.

So well done.

Everything that's been built by humans needs to go in the human features section and everything that is natural and has not been built by humans goes in the physical features section.

Fantastic, it's now time for task B.

I'd like you to sort these UK features into physical and human features and put them in the correct column in the table.

The River Thames in England, Edinburgh Castle in Scotland, the Principality Stadium in Wales and the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland.

Pause the video and have a go at this task.

Here are the answers.

How did you get on? Did you put Edinburgh Castle in Scotland and the Principality Stadium in Wales in the column that says human features? Good job, they were both built by humans.

Did you put the River Thames in England and the Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland in the column that says physical features? Good job, that's because they were natural and not built by humans.

Well done, give yourself a big thumbs up like this.

You've worked really hard so far.

Let's carry on with the final part of today's lesson, which is mapping the main features of the UK.

We can find the location of human and physical features using an atlas or a digital mapping programme.

Which features should we search for? Have a think and share some ideas with your class.

Think about the human and physical features we've already talked about.

Pause the video right now.

Let's search for the River Thames.

The River Thames runs through London in England.

London is England's capital city.

It is the second longest river in the UK.

Remember, the River Thames is a physical feature because it is natural.

We could also look for the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland.

It's on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean.

It's also a physical feature because it is natural and has not been built by humans.

So let's have another check here.

Which nation of the UK is the Giant's Causeway in? Is it A, England, B, Northern Ireland, C, Scotland, or D, Wales? Pause the video now and answer this question.

How did you get on? Did you answer B, Northern Island? That's right, well done.

Give yourselves another thumbs up.

Let's continue to search for human features using an atlas or a digital mapping programme.

We can look for the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.

Cardiff is the capital city of Wales.

It's a human feature because it was built by humans.

Here's Edinburgh Castle.

Edinburgh Castle is in Edinburgh, which is the capital city of Scotland.

It was built in 1103.

Remember, Edinburgh Castle is also a human feature because it was built by humans.

Let's check your learning again now.

Which human feature in the UK was built in 1103? Was it A, the Principality Stadium, B, the River Thames, C, Edinburgh Castle, or D, The Giant's Causeway? Pause the video now and answer this question.

How did you get on, did you answer C? That's right, Edinburgh Castle.

It was built in 1103, well done.

Give yourselves another thumbs up.

It's now time for Task C.

Label these human and physical features on a map of the UK.

The features are the River Thames in England, Edinburgh Castle in Scotland, the Principality Stadium in Wales, the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland.

Pause the video now and complete this task.

Good job everyone, here is my answer to task C.

Did you label all the human and physical features correctly? Well done, good job geographers.

I'm gonna give you one final thumbs up.

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

Today we have reviewed previous learning on what we understand the UK to be and have used atlases and maps to help you check facts about places and locate human and physical features.

We've learned that human features have been built or created by humans and physical features are natural features which have not been created by humans.

Each place you have investigated today has its own unique characteristics and features.

You've been fantastic today.

Give yourselves one last thumbs up and well done for joining me today and sharing your learning with me.

See you next time for more geography lessons, bye.