Planning with `big ideas’ Planning with `big ideas’ (or key concepts)

National Curriculum links to geography’s big ideas

Land – use KS2 – 6dPattern Pos 4

Ks2 1d valuesEmbedded in NC

Places Pos 3

ConnectednessCulture & Diversity

Physical & Human

processes

NC Pos 4NC Pos 5

Environmental change &

sustainability

ScaleKS2 Pos 7aLocal, RegionalGlobal

Place

NC Pos 3 Space

ENQUIRY&

SKILLS

Starting point: What if? A book about recycling

GEOGRAPHY

PLACE & SCALECoastal location (local)Decide on a real place where this event could have happened – photographs & maps•What is this place like?•How do I feel about this place?•How is this place linked to other places?ENVIRONMENTAL

INTERACTION (including ESD)

Waste, safe disposal, recyclingShipwrecks, salvage, safe disposalFinite resourcesRecycling in school/ energy saving schemesLooking at traditional societies that regard the earth as sacred – take only what is sustainable – GLOBAL FOOTPRINTS

CHANGING HUMAN and PHYSICAL PROCESSES

Coastal erosion (How the water wears away the cliffs and rocks and reshapes them)Sorting activity – pebbles from the beach – sharp pebbles, round pebbles, glass pebbles etcVideo/ movie clip – the power of the sea

LOCATION & SPACEWhere could the bottle float to? (Use of maps, globes, Google Earth).Use Google Earth, Live Local, Google Maps, Globe TossingRole Play activity – travelling to distant placesBee Bots – where in the world – travel mat

INTERDEPENDENCE &

CONNECTEDNESSMessage in a bottle OR in the post (the way we are linked to other people and places around the world)Internet – real stories – message in a bottle

Curriculum LinksArt, science, PHSE, citizenship

1. Start with …

the content of the source to develop an outline plan for a short or medium term unit.

2. Use the source in conjunction with an outline planning frame to identify key learning concepts that will be the focus of learning for your class. An exemplar frame has been provided for `What if?

3. Decide which are the two/ three most important geographical concepts (you have) listed on the frame. These will form the basis for the children’s learning so highlight them. Do the same for other subjects. The time that you are able to devote to this unit/project will influence your choice.

4. Identify additional resources that will help you to provide more in-depth learning in relation to identified concepts.

5. Plan activities to support learning.

A possible planning sequence

Use a mix of given and children’s own questions as a starting point - some prompts may be:

As a class, choose the most relevant questions to investigate.

What have we found out? Do we all share the same point of view? How does this affect our lives? What does it mean to us?

What has this experience taught us? How do we know? Has it changed our thinking and if so, how?

What new questions do we have?

How will we analyse and present information?

Starting Point and Focus

What do we do with this knowledge? Who can we share it with? And how?For example:

An EnquiryFramework

Planning Starter 1

Key Questions

Planning focus area

Geographical skills Fieldwork?

Links with other curricular areas

ResourcesAspects of ESDEconomic, Environmental, Social / 8 doorways / ESD concepts?

What do I want pupils to get out of this?

•This is an example – yours does not need to look like this

OutlinePlanning

exemplar

Food – should we buy from local sources?

Ensuring the place of geography in a cross curricular topic, e.g. food

PLACE

SPACE SCALE

CONNECTEDNESS

Planning learning …

STARTING POINTS

GEOGRAPHY

BIG IDEAS

ENQUIRY & SKILLS

Place

Scale

Making comparisons

Interconnectedness

Space

My enthusiasms – something I can deliver with passion

Provide a shared experience to build on – basis for common understanding

How we make the geography accessible to children

Asking questions

Using pictures/ photographs/maps

Drama, role-play, enactment

The `learning skill’ is focused on helping children to make connections

… more ideas to get you thinking

Wellies on WednesdaysLilli asked us all to feel the bark

on the tree

Elisa is drying her butterfly wings

Ben found a fir cone

Jane Mulligan, Austrey Primary School, Warwickshire

Middle YearsMiddle YearsEaster holiday geography homework challenge

Can you collect together:“Top Ten reasons why Cambridge is a great place to live.”

You can…..

Middle years Easter geography challenge

was to choose their top ten favourite places in

Cambridge and present them in any way they

chose. Posters, scrapbooks, leaflets and folders of photographs,

drawings, labels and information texts were

collated by around 70% of the children.

Over Easter I set up a whole school geography homework challenge (excluding Year 6 who had SATS homework).

Geography Geography ChallengeChallenge

Kings Hedges Kings Hedges Primary School, Primary School, CambridgeCambridge

Journey Sticks and Affective Mapping

Jane Whittlehttp://www.teachers.tv/video/23949

Teach specific skills and involve pupils (Y4) What route shall we take?

Paula Owens, Eastchurch Primary School, Kent

Map Art

Anthony Barlow, St Peter’s Smitshill Dean

Establishing cross-phase links …Establishing cross-phase links …

Wendy Hardman, Leighton Primary School

Contributing your ideas and resources to the

Young Geographers project page

Guidance

Submitting resources for the project website

On the front page:Title: An Island Home Key Stage/ Year Group: Year 2Approach:Use of story, maps, plans and

ICT to find out about a distant locality; use of Roamer (floor turtle)

Concepts: Place, space, environment Key Words: island, village, Coll,

Scotland, local area, map, key, journey

Plan a short sequence of 3 or 4 learning activities

• Show how these are linked through an outline plan

• Write up each learning activity (briefly – no more than one side of A4):– Key Question– Learning objectives– Learning outcomes– Resources– Brief activity description (could be written as an

instruction or recount – personal preference)– Where next (or extension)

Background information

• Your school (a few sentences about where you work/ or about the school you are working with)

• Why the content was chosen• Resources (a list of any resources you choose to

provide – e.g. additional PowerPoint – but no more than two/ three)

• Evaluation - what worked well