Planning to enable progression

Children were asked to complete a mind map at the beginning of the unit of work to show if they had any prior knowledge about Brewood.

In order to enable the children to progress with their Geographical thinking and learning and to maintain enthusiasm and motivation, the unit was designed with a variety of activities – visual, auditory and kinaesthetic (see Medium Term Plan) – to develop independent learning for both formative and summative assessments.

At the end of the unit the children were asked to complete a mind map again, this time to show what they had learnt about the village of Brewood.

Mind Map Before

Strategies

Several strategies were used to encourage geographical learning:

• Mapwork was used to motivate discussion and decision making skills
• The wall display asked questions to stimulate geographical thinking, discussion and learning
• Using photographs created discussion about features
• The children wrote letters to children at St Mary and St Chad’s First School in Brewood, explaining why they would be visiting the school and village.

The field trip to Brewood

The day’s fieldwork visit was designed to give the children first hand experience in order to develop their geographical understanding and knowledge between the two villages – Perton and Brewood.

As a result of the practical day’s activities, the persuasive posters and PowerPoint Presentations which the children would finally undertake would become more relevant and meaningful.

Download this PowerPoint Presentation showing more photographs of the fieldwork day.

In the afternoon the children stopped at six different places, completing appropriate tasks and questions e.g.

• Where have we stopped?
• Who has a map for this place?
• Who has a photograph of this place?
• Shade the box on the compass that shows the direction of the church spire.

 Students’ work >>>