What is it like to live in Shelley?

Age Group: Year 1

Selection of Content: Our spring topic for Geography was Kenya, so I wanted to try and link the fieldwork aspect to this as we normally compare a village in Kenya to our village of Shelley anyway. We had also been looking at stories such as Handa’s Surprise; Too Much Talk; Mary, Juma and Simba the Dog; and Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain.

• Handa’s Surprise, Eileen Browne, Walker Books (1995) 978-0744536348
• Too Much Talk, Angela Shelf Medearis, Candlewick (1995) 978-1564023230
• Mary, Juma and Simba the Dog, Helen Day, ActionAid (2000), 978-1872502656
• Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain, Verna Aardema, Macmillan (1986), 978-0333351642
• 

Teaching and learning activities

View the PowerPoint Presentation to discover more about the way Lisa taught this unit of work to her Year 1 class of pupils.

To watch this presentation online click the image to move on to the next slide or use the navigation controls. You can download the PowerPoint Presentation below.

Living Geography: Young Geographers Explore Their Local Area

Planning for teaching and learning

Planning Starter

Session 1: Walking around the village

Session 2: How do I feel about Shelley?

Session 3: My 5 favourite things about my village

Session 4: Creating a 3D map of Shelley

Session 5: What is it like to live in Shelley?

Evaluation

The development of the children’s mapping skills – using freehand drawing and ICT worked very well.

The children’s enthusiasm and their excellent homework projects amazed me.

The impact of the fieldwork on the children’s learning when planned and organised effectively.

Further Development

We still need to create a similar PowerPoint presentation for our contrasting locality in Kenya. We hope to include feedback from children in our Kenyan partner school.

Children will also create a 3D journey maps of their route around the Kenyan locality.

Links

Flickr – search for photos of Kenya

ActionAid – website and resources

Background Information about the School

The school is located on the outskirts of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire taking pupils from Shelley and the surrounding villages.

The school has large grounds plus KS1 and KS2 playgrounds, a shrub area, small barked area and outdoor area for Reception and Year 1. We are also working on creating a small gardening area. Fieldwork is undertaken within the school grounds and in the village.

School website: http://www.shelleyfirstschool.co.uk/

This material was contributed by Lisa Conlon, year 1 teacher and geography co-ordinator.

(Added 26.06.08)