Key geography enquiry questions in Robins class include:

How does the weather change throughout the year?

In this enquiry children identify seasonal and daily weather patterns and record the daily weather patterns in our school grounds. They look for differences between the seasons and think about how the weather has an impact on our activities and people’s jobs.

What is the United Kingdom?

Children use world maps, atlases and globes to locate and identify the United Kingdom and its countries, capital cities, continent and surrounding seas.  Children develop their vocabulary related to human and physical features and explain the difference between these features.

What would it be like to live in a Zambian village?

Through this enquiry of a non-European country children locate and explore Zambia’s physical and human features.  They learn about village life in Mugurameno and compare it with their daily lives.

What is an ocean?

Through using atlases, globes and maps children name and locate the world’s seven continents and five oceans and learn geographical vocabulary related to physical and human features.

What is like in the place where I live?

Through this enquiry children use fieldwork and observational skills to study the geography of our school, its grounds and the key human and physical features of its surrounding local environment. They will spot the differences between rural and urban areas and know what type of settlement they live in. Children will be able to recognise the symbols used on an Ordnance Survey map and create their own map of our local area. They will use simple compass directions (North, South, East and West) and locational and directional language.

Where are the world’s hot and cold places like and what is it like there?

Children will identify the location of hot and cold areas of the world in relation to the Equator and the North and South Poles. They will use world maps, atlases and globes to identify countries, continents and oceans studied. They will recognise the features of a hot and a cold place.  Children will be able to describe what they would see in a hot or cold place.

Early Years Foundation Stage

Through these geography enquiries, children in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) develop their knowledge and sense of the world around them- their physical world and their community. They learn and begin to use new vocabulary and simple mapping knowledge. They learn about the location of our school in Trefonen and begin to find features on aerial photographs. The children will begin to draw their own maps of their area or imaginary places. They learn that some places are important to members of the community.

The children will begin to recognise some similarities and differences between life in this country and like in other countries. They will explore the natural world around them and learn about how we care for it.

Through a study of a contrasting environment children will recognise that some environments are different to the one in which they live.

When looking at the seasons children will understand the effects of the changing of the seasons on the world around them.