Lesson video

Hi everybody.

I'm Mrs. Lomas.

I'm a primary school teacher that is obsessed with geography, my students might say.

So I hope you are as excited as I am for today's lesson.

I had a little sneak peek and it looks good.

So should we find out what we're doing today? Let's have a look.

So today we are going to be looking at the location of the Amazon rainforest.

By the end of today, you'll be able to locate the Amazon rainforest on a world map, describe some of its geographical characteristics, that's a mouthful, and make comparisons between temperate and tropical rainforests.

So we have some keywords in today's lesson.

We have temperate rainforest, tropical rainforest, continent.

Let's do my turn, your turn.

Are you ready? Temperate rainforest.

Tropical rainforest.

Continent.

Well done.

Should we have a look at what those words mean? Temperate rainforests occur in parts of the world where the climate is mild and there are high levels of rainfall.

Tropical rainforests are areas of dense forest found close to the equator where it is warm and there are high levels of rainfall.

A continent is a large land mass on earth and there are seven, Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Oceania.

So today's lesson is split into two parts.

Why is it important to ask questions? And where is the Amazon rainforest? So we are going to start off by having a look at why is it important to ask questions.

So we are going to learn more about the Amazon rainforest and why it's so important to all life on earth.

What would you like to find out about the Amazon rainforest? Pause the video, have a class discussion, collect your ideas and then we'll come back.

How did you get on? Did you have the same ideas as your friends or did you have lots of different ideas? Well, let's learn some more, shall we? Asking questions is a very important research skill.

Questions help us to gather information and make sense of the world around us.

Why else is asking questions important? Pause the video, have a class discussion and come back.

How did you get on? Questions can be open or closed.

Closed questions generally have a limited number of possible responses such as yes or no.

Open questions encourage more thinking and detailed answers.

Can you think of any examples of open and closed questions? Pause the video, have a go and then come back and we'll have a look at some.

How did you get on? Was it easier to come up with the closed questions or the open questions? I wonder.

So here's some examples of some closed questions.

Is the Amazon rainforest in South America? Are there elephants in the Amazon rainforest? You can answer both of those with just yes or no, can't you? And then the open questions, what is the climate like in the Amazon rainforest? Why is the Amazon rainforest important? You can't just answer one word answers there, can you? You do have to give quite a lot of detail.

And hopefully, we're going to answer a few of these questions in our lesson today.

Right, let's have a little check.

Which two of the following are not closed questions.

A, is the Amazon rainforest a tropical rainforest? B, what is the Amazon rainforest like? C, which animal species are found in the Amazon rainforest? D, how many countries does the Amazon rainforest span? So which two of those questions are not closed questions? So if they're not closed questions, they are? Open questions, well done.

So pause the video.

collect your answers, and then come back and we'll check.

How did you get on? If you said B, what is the Amazon rainforest like? And C, which animal species are found in the Amazon rainforest? You were correct.

They are open questions.

They are not closed questions.

Different sources of information can be used to find out about the Amazon rainforest.

You could look on the internet.

You could look at some information books, I bet your school library's got quite a few or your book corner.

You could look at maps and atlases.

You can look at climate data and you can look at photographs as well.

So lots of different sources of information we can use there.

Name a source of information that can be used to find out about the Amazon rainforest.

I want you to turn to your talk partner and tell them one source of information that could be used and then your talk partner has to tell you a different one.

Okay, pause the video, have a go and then we'll check.

How did you get on? Hopefully you said one of these.

The Internet, information books, maps and atlases, climate data and photographs.

Well done.

We can use a question grid to help write questions.

So there you can see down the side you've got what, why and how.

And across the top is might and if.

So you can have a what is question, a what might or what if question.

For example, what is a map used for? Or what features might you see at the zoo? Okay, I love a question grid.

I think it really helps you to think really carefully and come up with some really good questions.

So you are going to have a go, use the question grid to write some questions.

So your first task, you're going to complete the grid with questions you would like to ask about the Amazon rainforest, okay? How might the rainforest be affected by climate change? Why is the Amazon rainforest important to everybody? How big is the Amazon rainforest? Those are just a few examples there and you can steal one of those if you want.

Okay? But I want you to fill in your grid with questions that you want to ask about the Amazon rainforest.

So only use one of mine if it you do actually want to know the answer.

Pause the video, have a go, and then we'll come back and have a look at one that I've done.

How did you get on? These are some examples I came up with.

What is the largest city in the Amazon rainforest? Why is the Amazon rainforest important? How big is the Amazon rainforest? What might happen to the Amazon rainforest in the future? Why might people cut down trees in the Amazon rainforest? How might we find out more about the Amazon rainforest? And the last column, what species might you see if you went to the Amazon rainforest? Why would some animals go extinct if the Amazon rainforest was cut down? How would people be affected if the Amazon rainforest was cut down? Don't worry if you've got completely different questions.

To me, it's about what you want to find out, isn't it? If you think, oh, that's a particularly good question or maybe you couldn't think of a question for one of your boxes, now is your chance to just note it down.

Well done.

So we've had a look at why is it important to ask questions.

Now we're going to have a look at where the Amazon rainforest is.

The Amazon rainforest is the largest rainforest in the world and we can see a fantastic picture of it there, can't we? What do you know about the Amazon rainforest already? I want you to pause the video, have a class discussion about what you know about the Amazon rainforest already and then come back when you are ready.

You may also want to do a little section on what you think you know, but you are not quite sure about as well, because sometimes there are those facts and that information you're like, I think this might be right, but I'm not sure.

And it's one that you can check as we're learning about it, isn't it? So I'll see you in a minute.

How did you get on? Do you already know quite a lot or is there actually a lot that you want to find out? The Amazon rainforest is a tropical rainforest and it's located here in South America.

You can see on the map it has been circled.

So it is on either side of the equator.

It's in both the northern and the southern hemispheres.

And the Amazon rainforest is located in the continent of South America.

And there it is again, on the map.

The UK is located in the continent of Europe and there the UK is circled on the map now as well.

Which ocean would you have to travel over to get from the UK to the Amazon Rainforest? Have a look at your maps, pause the video, and then we'll come back and check your answer.

How did you get on? If you said it was the Atlantic Ocean, you would be correct.

If you were going from the UK over to the Amazon rainforest, you would cross or travel over the Atlantic Ocean.

Well done.

The area of the UK would fit into the Amazon rainforest 28 times.

(gasp) It's huge, isn't it? Okay, which two of the following are true? A, the Amazon rainforest is in South America.

B, the Amazon rainforest is in North America.

C, the Amazon rainforest is only in the northern hemisphere.

Or D, the Amazon rainforest is in the northern and southern hemispheres.

I want you to pick two answers that are true and I'm sure if you're a little bit stuck your teacher can always show you the map again, just to check.

Pause the video, have a go, come back when you are ready to check the answer.

How did you get on? If you said that the Amazon rainforest is in South America, so A, and that the Amazon rainforest is in the northern and southern hemispheres, so D, you would be correct.

Well done.

The Amazon rainforest spans eight countries and one overseas territory.

And you can see there on the map, we've got a map of part of South America and the green area is the Amazon rainforest and we can see where the equator is as well.

And there you can see the names of the countries and one overseas territory that the Amazon covers.

Sorry.

So let's have a really good look at this map.

And we can see that most of the Amazon rainforest is actually in Brazil, isn't it? Okay, what other countries can we see that it's in? I want you to pause the video, have a look and then we'll check the answers when you get back.

How did you get on? So as we said, it covers, the majority of it is in Brazil.

It also goes down into Bolivia, across to Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guyana, and French Guyana is the overseas territory.

Okay, well done if you've got all of those countries.

Okay, which of the following statements are true? A, Peru has more than 60% of the Amazon rainforest.

B, Brazil has more than 60% of the Amazon rainforest.

Or C, Columbia has more than 60% of the Amazon rainforest.

So which statement is true? Pause the video, collect your answers and come back and check.

How did you get on? If you said B, Brazil has more than 60% of the Amazon rainforest, you would be correct and we could see that on the map, couldn't we? The Amazon River runs through the rainforest.

It is the world's largest river by water volume, so how much water there actually is in the whole river.

The Amazon River begins in the Andes Mountains in the west and ends at the Atlantic Ocean in the east.

The river is about 6,400 kilometres in length.

So the Andes Mountains are in the east, sorry, are in the west.

(laughing) I was just testing you.

The Andes Mountains are in the west and we can see from our compass on our map, can't we, which direction that is? And the source of the river is, where a river begins is called the source of the river, and that's in the Andes Mountains in the west and it flows downhill and over to the east all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.

And you can see there's lots of tributaries, can't you? There's lots of other rivers that do come off the Amazon River, but the Amazon River is the main river.

The Amazon basin is the region of South America that the Amazon River and its tributaries drains into Most of the Amazon basin is covered by the Amazon rainforest.

And there's a satellite picture.

And can you spot the rainforest? What colour is that going to be, do you think, on the satellite image? Yeah, well done.

It's green.

And you can see the Amazon River, can't you? And actually as it gets closer to the ocean, it does look like it gets bigger, wider.

That's the word I was looking for.

Dear me, Mrs. Lomas.

You can see, and the tributaries are coming into it from other areas as well.

It's a great, great satellite image, isn't it? That's fantastic.

I could look at that for ages.

However, (laughing) we should probably carry on with the lesson.

If you want to have a little pause and a look, please feel free to do so.

Okay, here's a little check for you.

Where is the source of the Amazon River? Is it A, the Alps, B, the Andes, or C, the Himalaya? So where is the source? Where does the Amazon River start? Pause the video, collect your answers and come back and check.

How did you get on? If you said B, the Andes, you would be correct.

Well done.

The Amazon rainforest is sparsely populated.

This means that not very many people live across the whole of the rainforest.

So remember, if we are thinking about dense, so say if we're saying the Amazon rainforest is a dense forest because lots of trees are packed into a really small space, sparse is actually the opposite of dense.

So it's very few people spread out across a big area.

So most people live in a few cities which are located along the Amazon River and other major rivers in the region.

There are also smaller, isolated settlements, further inland.

Why do you think the Amazon rainforest is sparsely populated? Have a think.

Share your answers as a class and come back when you are ready.

Okay, Manaus, in Northwestern Brazil, is the largest city in the Amazon rainforest and it is the seventh largest city in Brazil.

Why are most of the world's largest cities located near water? You can see here, can't you, from this photo that Manaus is located next to water.

So why are most of the world's largest cities located near water? Pause the video, have a class discussion and then come back when you're ready.

How did you get on? I hope you mentioned things like transport, water source, fishing, hunting, entertainment, tourism or things like that.

Trade.

Did I say trade? So let's do a little check.

What is the largest city in the Amazon rainforest? Is it A, Iquitos, B, Belem, C, Rio de Janeiro, or D, Manaus? Pause the video, collect chances and come back and check.

How did you get on? If you'd said D Manaus, you would be correct.

Well done.

Okay, here is task two for you.

Where is the Amazon rainforest? I want you to label the countries and overseas territory the Amazon rainforest spans on your map.

So I want you to label Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Columbia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guyana on your maps, okay? You could use maps and atlas to help you here.

And remember, you want to be looking for the shape of the country.

Where is it next to the ocean? Is it to the north, the southeast or the west? Does it have a river running through it? All these things will help you find the country in your atlas and then match it to the one on your map.

Okay? So have a go and we'll come back and check your answers when you are done.

How did you do? Let's have a look, shall we? So we should have had Brazil, if we start in the east, the biggest country that we've got in the east with the most amount of the Amazon rainforest in it and we'll go round southwestern north.

Okay, we'll go round anticlockwise.

So start Brazil, then across, we've got Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Columbia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guyana.

Okay? And you can see the equator there on your map as well, can't you? If you made a mistake or you missed a country out, now is your chance to just alter it on your maps.

Well done.

Okay, so let's have a little summary about what we've learned today.

We've been looking at the location of the Amazon rainforest.

We learned that different sources of information can be used to find out about the Amazon rainforest such as the internet, maps and photographs.

You can also use climate data as well.

We also learned that asking questions is an important research skill and if you're ever a bit stuck, use a question grid like the one we used, it can be really helpful.

We also learned that the Amazon rainforest is a tropical rainforest, that it is located in South America and spans both the northern and southern hemispheres.

And we can see it on our map there, can't we? And that the Amazon rainforest spans eight countries and one overseas territory.

They are Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Columbia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guyana.

We also learnt that the Amazon River runs through the Amazon rainforest and it's the world's largest river by water volume.

The Amazon rainforest is sparsely populated.

Most people live in a few cities along the Amazon River and other major rivers.

And there are also smaller isolated settlements further inland.

Well done guys.

You learned a lot of information today, didn't you? So you listened so well and really good work on all your tasks today.

Don't forget to do the exit quiz just to see if there's any information you need to recap before the next lesson, just so you definitely have it all in your brains ready to go and I will see you ready for the next lesson.

Bye.