Lesson video

Hello, my name is Miss Chorekdjian.

I'm so excited to be learning with you today.

I will be guiding you through our geography lesson.

I'm really excited to get started.

We're going to have a great time learning together today.

Let's start our learning.

Welcome to today's lesson on our local area unit called "Local Area: How is It Changing?" Together, we'll be looking at how our local area has changed more recently and what we think about these changes.

Today's lesson is called "Our Changing Place." Our learning outcome is to create inquiry questions to investigate how our local place has changed.

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

This links back to previous learning you might have done, exploring your local area and identifying human and physical features.

I'm really excited to get started.

I hope you are, too.

Let's start our learning.

These are the key words that we'll be using today, fact, evidence, summarise, and opinion.

Let's practise saying these words and do my turn, your turn.

Fact, fact.

Evidence, evidence.

Summarise, summarise.

Opinion, opinion.

Well done.

I want you to be using these keywords throughout the lesson.

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

Here are the definitions of our keywords.

A fact is a statement about something that can be proven to be true.

Evidence is a fact or piece of information that helps to prove that something is or is not true.

To summarise is to explain something using just the main points.

An opinion is a thought, feeling, or belief held by a person or group of people.

Let's have a look at our learning cycles for today.

We'll be working through these learning cycles together.

First, we're going to think about what change looks like.

Then we'll investigate whether change always makes things better, and finally, we'll be creating some inquiry questions about what you can find out about change in your local area.

I'm really excited about today's lesson.

Let's get started.

Settlements are places where groups of people live and work.

What is the name of the settlement where you live? Pause the video now and have a discussion with your partner.

Great.

I'm sure you all know the name of the settlement where you live.

Settlements can be big or small.

They can have just a few facilities and services or have many.

Let's remind ourselves of the different types of settlements by looking at this image.

At the very top of the image, you can see that the smallest type of settlement is called a farm or a hamlet, and that typically has between one and 500 people.

Then you can see that the next biggest type of settlement is called a village.

A village generally has a population of between 500 and 3,000 people.

It usually has a few services, typically a church, a post office, a school, and there might be a pub as well.

Next we've got a town, which is a little bit bigger than a village, and it usually has a population of between 10,000 and 100,000 people.

If it's a small town, there'll be more like 10,000 people, and if it's a large town, it'll be closer to 100,000 people.

Next, we've got cities.

Cities are larger than villages and towns.

They usually have a population greater than 100,000, and cities offer a range of facilities, and generally, they have more efficient transport networks.

The largest settlement that you can see at the bottom there is called megacity, and that's a city that is huge.

More than 10 million people live in a mega city.

Let's have a discussion about the type of settlement that you live in.

Tell your partner if you live in a hamlet, a village, a town, a city, or a megacity.

Pause the video now.

Great, I'm sure you were all able to say which type of settlement you live in.

Let's have a little check-in now and see what we understand about settlements.

There's three pictures here, and I'd want you to look carefully at each of these types of settlements and tell me which one is a village.

Pause the video now and answer this check.

How did you get on looking at these maps? Did you answer A as a village? That's correct.

Berriew is a village in Wales.

We can see on the map that there aren't many buildings or roads in this settlement.

The picture of map B is Glasgow, which is a city, and Cramlington is the picture that's shown in image C, and that is a town.

Let's continue with our learning.

Today, we're going to think about how settlements might change.

Meet Izzy.

You can see a picture of Izzy there on the slides.

When Izzy was born, she lived in a house in the countryside.

When Izzy looked out of her window, this is what she saw.

Have a look outside Izzy's window and have a discussion with your geography buddy about what you can see.

Pause the video now.

Great.

Did you have a discussion about all the things that you could see outside Izzy's window? Did you talk about natural features like trees and human features like the shed? Did you also talk about the different wildlife there? So I can see images of butterflies, and I can see lots of different plants there as well as the trees that I've already mentioned.

Apart from that small shed, there aren't any other human features that you can see, and the majority of the features there are natural.

When Izzy was five years old, this is what she could see from her window.

So you can see that that view has changed slightly.

I want you to have a discussion with your partner and think about what has changed from the previous view outside Izzy's window.

Pause the video now and have that discussion.

How did you get on with your discussion? Did you talk about the shed still being there, but now there's also a fence around what might be the end of Izzy's garden? There's also now a road at the end of her garden, and you can see that across the road, there's another house.

So now Izzy has some neighbours, and she didn't have any neighbours before.

All of that land was previously natural.

In the distance, you can see that there are some more buildings.

They might be more houses or perhaps even a shop or a school.

There are still some plants and trees around her house, and there are still some butterflies, so the balance is okay between human and natural features.

Let's carry on having a look outside Izzy's windows to see what else has changed.

So now Izzy is 15, and this is the view that she can see from her window.

Quite a lot has changed now.

Let's talk about this in detail with your class.

What else can you see that has changed from the view outside Izzy's window? Pause the video now and have a discussion.

Great.

How did you get on? So you can see that quite a lot has changed.

You can see that, in the distance, there's loads of buildings, so you can see that maybe the village has now become a small city.

You can see that there's a lorry and what looks like a van.

So there's definitely a lot more traffic in the area, and you can see that the balance between human and physical features has changed.

At the beginning when Izzy was a baby, we could see that there were more physical features outside her window, and now, it looks like there's more human features outside her window.

This is just an example of one child, but if you think about all of your houses and all of your local area, I'm sure that it's changed a lot from when you were born to the age that you are now.

Let's talk about this in more detail throughout the rest of our lesson.

It is time to have a little check now.

So look at the image on the left, which is the view outside Izzy's window when she was born, and compare it with the image on the right, which is the view outside Izzy's window now that she's 15 years old.

They look very different, don't they? Tell your geography buddy what has changed in the last 15 years.

Pause the video now and have that discussion.

How did you get on? This is the answer that I wrote down.

"The trees have been cut down, and the land has been developed and built on.

There are now roads, houses, and lots more people around Izzy's house." You could say that Izzy's village looks like it's now become a town.

It's now time for task A.

There were loads of changes in Izzy's local area, but what about your local area? What can you see from outside your window? I'd like you to use this window template here and draw what you can see from a window that's either in your school or your house.

What natural and human features can you see? Do you think it's always looked like this, and do you think the view will stay like this in the future? Complete this task and think about those questions while you're drawing your image.

Pause the video now and complete task A.

How did you get on? Have you drawn all of the human features that you can see, like lampposts, buildings, walls, and street signs? Have you drawn all of the natural and physical features that you see, like trees, hills, rivers, plants, or even mountains? Settlements change over time, so the view that you've drawn now will not always look like this, and it definitely didn't look like that in the past.

Let's continue with our learning.

Now that we've identified what changes to a settlement might look like, let's think about whether or not the changes always make things better.

Changes that happen could be thought of as positive or negative.

That means things could be good or bad.

People can have their own opinions about things.

Let's think about what the word opinion means.

An opinion is someone's viewpoint, which is not always based on fact or knowledge.

It's what someone thinks or believes.

Let's have a look at these two children here.

So for example, Laura says that she doesn't like bananas, but on the other hand, we've got Alex who loves bananas.

That's their own opinion.

They're allowed to have different thoughts and beliefs about things, just like they've got different thoughts and beliefs about whether or not they like bananas.

Let's check our understanding of opinions.

Which sentence about settlements is an opinion? So remember, an opinion is what someone thinks or believes, and it's not always based in fact.

Is the correct answer A, villages usually have a population of between 500 and 3,000 people; B, it is nicer to live in a town; or C, cities usually have a wide range of facilities and an efficient transport network? Pause the video now and think about which one of these statements is an opinion.

How did you get on? Did you answer B? That's right.

B is an opinion.

It's nicer to live in a town is what someone thinks or believes.

It's not fact.

So the other two statements are facts.

Someone might like living in a town while another person prefers to live in a large city or a village.

That's their opinion, so that's what they think or they believe.

Good job, everyone.

I'm going to give you a thumbs up.

That was really good learning.

Let's think again about the changes to Izzy's settlement.

What might her opinion be of these changes? More houses being built in the area and so more people might move in.

So that was one of the earlier changes that happened.

What do we think Izzy's opinion is about that change? So Izzy said that, "More people means I have lots of friends living nearby, and we can play together." So that sounds as though Izzy thinks that's a positive change because she'll have more friends living around her.

Let's have a look at her opinion of some more changes.

More roads and buildings mean more traffic.

Hmm, let's think.

Does Izzy have a positive opinion about that change or a negative opinion about that change? Izzy said, "The roads are very busy, and there are lots of cars.

It creates pollution near my home." So more roads and more traffic might lead to more pollution in the area, and that won't be good for Izzy and her friends.

Let's look at this change here.

So more services are closer to Izzy's house.

What do we think her opinion is of this change? "It's much quicker to get to the shops and my school now.

We even have a cinema and restaurants nearby." So that sounds like Izzy's quite happy with those changes.

She's got a positive opinion of more services in the area.

So she can go to the cinema, and she can enjoy eating in some restaurants.

Let's have a look at this one now.

There are fewer wild spaces.

What do we think Izzy thinks of this change? "Natural land has been removed to make way for buildings.

I liked walking in those natural areas, and I don't think the area looks as nice." Oh dear.

So that definitely sounds like her opinion is quite negative.

I think I would like to have more wild spaces to walk around as well.

What do you think? Discuss all of those changes and whether or not you agree with Izzy's opinion.

Is your opinion the same as hers, or is your opinion different? Have a discussion about those different changes and what you think of them.

Pause the video now.

Great, I'm sure you had a really good discussion there and you thought carefully about your opinions of the changes that were happening to Izzy's settlements.

Let's have a little check here and think about which of these are changes that happened to Izzy's settlement.

A, more traffic on the roads, B, more natural land and woodland, C, more services and facilities nearby, or D, more people and housing.

Pause the video now and answer that question.

How did you get on? Did you answer A? That's right.

Did you also answer C? That's also right.

Which other answer was correct? That's right, D.

So we saw more traffic on the roads, we saw more services and facilities nearby, and we saw more people and housing.

All of these changes affected Izzy's settlement.

The only thing that we didn't see was more natural land and woodland.

In fact, a lot of the natural land had been removed to make way for houses, so that was something that we saw happening as well.

It's now time for task B.

Can you remember Izzy's opinions about the changes in her local area? We're going to sort the changes to Izzy's settlement into positives and negatives based on her opinions.

So I know you talked about your opinions, but now we're going to focus on Izzy's opinions.

So you can see there's a table there, and on the left-hand side in that column, I want you to put all of the positive changes that Izzy thought, and on the right-hand side in that column, I'd like you to list all of the negative changes.

So the options you can sort are more houses means more people living near to me, more roads and buildings means more traffic, more services closer to my house, and fewer wild spaces.

Pause the video now and sort those opinions based on whether or not Izzy thought they were positive or negative.

How did you get on? Did you sort those changes correctly? Here's how I sorted it.

So in the column where it says positive changes, I've written more houses means more people living near to me, and that was positive because Izzy could make more friends, and then I've written more services are closer to my house.

Do you remember Izzy talked about going to the cinema and going to restaurants? So that was a positive change.

And then in the next column where it says negative changes, I've written more roads and buildings means more traffic, and that meant that there would be more pollution in Izzy's local area, and then there is less natural land.

So remember, Izzy liked going on walks in her local area, so if there's less natural land, there's less places for her to walk around and to enjoy.

Good job.

That was really tricky because we had to base it on Izzy's opinion rather than our own opinions.

So well done, everyone.

You worked really hard for that task as well.

I'm going to give you another thumbs up.

Fantastic.

Let's think about the final part of today's lesson.

We're going to investigate what we can find out about change in our local area.

Remember these two images of what it looked like outside Izzy's window when she was born? So that's the image on the left, and then when she was 15 years old, which is the image on the right.

Like Izzy's settlement, our local area will have changed over time as well.

Geographers use inquiries to create questions that will help us to find evidence of these changes.

Can you think of any questions that we could investigate? Pause the video now and answer this question.

Great.

How did you get on? To find out more about changes in our local area in this unit, we could investigate, so here are the questions that I came up with, how has our local area changed, why has it changed, and what do people think about these changes? I'm sure you came up with some great questions to investigate your local area as well.

Let's have a check here.

Identify the missing question word from each of these inquiry questions.

Pause the video now and complete this check.

How did you get on? Did you find the correct missing question word? So the first question, how has our local area changed? The next question would be, why has it changed? And the final question would be, what do people think about these changes? Well done for completing that check.

It's now time for task C.

What evidence will we need to use or collect to answer these questions? Discuss each of these questions with your geography buddy and think about the evidence you could use to answer them.

So the questions, as a reminder, how has our local area changed, why has it changed, and what do people think about these changes? Pause the video now and complete task C.

How did you get on? Here's the evidence that I will use to help me answer these questions.

Historical and modern maps, images of the local area, field work will also help me answer this question, and then moving on to the next question, why has it changed? The evidence that I could gather would be from local newspapers and interviews with local people.

And the final question, what do people think about these changes? The evidence that I will use to answer that question is the opinions of local people.

So remember, opinions are what people think or their beliefs.

Right, we've now come to the end of our lesson.

Well done.

You've done some excellent geographical thinking in this lesson.

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

Places change over time, and we can investigate this change in a variety of ways.

People have different opinions about a place and whether it's changing for the better or worse.

We can investigate changes in a variety of ways, including through maps, images, and field work.

You've been fantastic today.

Well done for joining me and sharing your learning with me.

I'm really impressed with all of your geography learning today.

See you next time for more geography lessons soon.

Bye.