Geography

EYFS

Topics

Nursery

        All about me (Celebrations)

        People who help us

        Traditional tales

        Growing

        Mini-beasts

Reception

         Ourselves

understanding our school (where things are)

Day/night/Diversity week

          Homes and Buildings

          Growing/habitats

Vocabulary

Police Officer

Doctor

Dentist

Nurse

Teacher

Bulb

Grow

town

vllage

road

path

house

school

car park

café

airport

season

winter

spring

summer

autumn

synagogue

busy

quiet

pollution

semi-detached

terrace

train station

weather

hot/cold/rain/ snow/sun/cloudy

map

habitat

solar system

planets

moon

stars

flats

detached

office

shops

Key knowledge and Skills

22-36 Months

• Has a sense of own immediate family and relations.

• In pretend play, imitates everyday actions and events from own family and cultural background, e.g. making and drinking tea.
• Beginning to have their own friends.
• Learns that they have similarities and differences that connect them to, and distinguish them from, others.
• Enjoys playing with small-world models such as a farm, a garage, or a train track.
• Notices detailed features of objects in their environment.

30-50 months

• Comments and asks questions about aspects of their familiar world such as the place where they live or the natural world.
• Shows care and concern for living things and the environment.
• Can talk about some of the things they have observed such as plants, animals, natural and found objects.
• Talks about why things happen and how things work.
• Developing an understanding of growth, decay and changes over time.
• Shows interest in the lives of people who are familiar to them.
• Remembers and talks about significant events in their own experience.
• Recognises and describes special times or events for family or friends.
• Shows interest in different occupations and ways of life.
• Knows some of the things that make them unique, and can talk about some of the similarities and differences in relation to friends or family.

Early Learning Goals

• Children know about similarities and differences in relation to places, objects and materials and living things.
• They talk about the features of their immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another.
• They know about similarities and differences between themselves and others and among families, communities and traditions.
• Talk about past and present events in their own lives and know how they are similar and different to others.
• Understand where things are around the school/local environment.
• Show an interest in maps.
• Use language associated with different types of homes e.g flat, semi detached house, terrace house, shops etc
• Use simple vocabulary to talk about the weather e.g. cold, hot, wet, snow, rain, windy, cloudy.
• Understand things that are the same and different between themselves and others and traditions/communities.
• Begin to understand there are four seasons.

Activities

• Visits from people who help us.
• Trip to Chalkwell.
• Visit shops, park and around the school.
• Talk about my home and who lives there.  Representing their homes through drawing.
•    Name and compare different homes and building materials.
•    Servicing of our homes e.g how we maintain healthy living conditions.
•    Comparing human homes to animal homes.
• Play maps and small world equipment for children to create their own environments
• Resources for children to create simple maps and plans, paintings, drawings and models of observations of known and imaginary landscapes
or from stories e.g Rosie’s Walk.
•   Celebrations e.g Diwali, Eid, Chirstmas, Easter, Chinese New Year etc.
•   Provide role-play areas with a variety of resources re enacting diversity, estate agent, travel agent, tourist information, etc
•   Invite children and families with experiences of living in other countries to bring in photographs and objects from their home cultures including those from family members living in different areas of the UK and abroad. 
•   Speaking about children’s experiences of holiday or visits to friends or relatives.
•   Comparing and contrasting planets,
•   Identify, name and talk about mini beasts in the local area.
•   Growing plants both inside and outside of the classroom.
•   Give children daily responsibilities to take care of certain areas in the classroom.
•   Use the garden in all weather types as children can use their senses to feel the wind and rain on their faces.

Stories: Titch -Jasper’s beanstalk -The Gigantic Turnip, The Very Hungry Caterpillar -The very busy spider -Aaaarrgghh Spider! etc

• Handas Surprise  -  Gruffalo  -  The three little pigs  -  Goldilocks and the 3 bears  etc.
• Computing
• Seasonal walks

Year One

Topics

Introducing the UK and locating all four countries and the physical geography of a sea 

     Local Area

     North and South Pole

     Diversity week

     Dagenham Ford Factory

Vocabulary

city

town

office

factory

countryside

shop

 house

Wales

Scotland

Northern Ireland

England

sea

port

harbour

farm

forest

North Pole

South Pole

beach

cliff

coast

village

hill

mountain

sea

river

valley

season

weather

Key knowledge and Skills

• To name the countries and capital cities of the United Kingdom

• Use world maps and Google earth to identify the UK and its countries.
• To use basic geographical vocabulary to refer to key physical and human features
• Know the differences between, country, city and town.
• To identify natural and man-made features of Dagenham
• Identify human and physical features of Dagenham and other places using geographical language.
• To make observations about our school and where we live
• Use locational and directional language e.g near-far-left-right
• Use their observational skills to study the key and human features of their school and the surrounding area.
• To look at landscapes
• Understand the four seasons and identify daily weather patterns.
• To understand what weather is and how it changes.
• Use weather symbols on a map.
• Make a weather map and record weather.

            Find the North and South Pole on Google                   map/globe/atlas.

• Understand the differences in weather in relation to the North and South Poles
• Devise a simple map.

Activities

• Seasonal walks.
• Rainham Marshes
• Journey to the toy museum
• Fieldwork around Dagenham and Village Infants School.
• Find out and record information from Dagenham walk.
• Follow routes around school and describe.
• Draw plan of classroom.
• Look at aerial view of school – identify and name different places in school.
• Find where they live and their school on a map.
• Write their address.
• Name/label the four countries and surrounding seas using maps, atlas, Google  Earth .
• Investigate and explain Ford factory using secondary resources e.g books, Google
• Identify human and physical features of Dagenham and other places e.g town/village and compare and contrast.
• Make a weather map, using weather symbols and record weather.
• Stories  -  Penguin Small
• Computing.
• Compare and contrast the similarities and differences related to a country of their choice. (Diversity week) e.g. food, traditions, schools etc.

Year Two

Topics

  The Great Fire of London

   Eggs (what comes first?

   Diversity week

   Explorers  -  Ernest   Shackleton           Christopher   Columbus  

   Amelia Earhart

Vocabulary

forest

ocean

Artic ocean

Southern ocean

Indian ocean

Atlantic Ocean

Pacific Ocean

Continent

Asia

Antarctica Europe

North America

South America Oceania/Australia

Equator

beach

Town

Countryside

Forest

Mountains

Village

Season

Africa

season

weather

coast

port

harbour

cliff

compass

north/south/east/west

near

far

left/right

continents

soil

valley

vegetation

Key knowledge and Skills

• Locate and name 7 continents/ and 5 oceans.
• Compare and contrast similarities and differences of the human and physical features of a small area in the UK to a small area in a non-European country.
• Tell the difference between human and physical geography.
• Name the 4 compass points, Using vocabulary – North/South/East/West
• Use world maps, atlases and globes to identify countries, continents and oceans.
• Use aerial photographs to recognise landmarks and basic human and physical features.
• Plan perspectives to recognise landmarks.
• Devise a simple map and use basic symbols in a key
• Use geographical vocabulary to refer to physical and human features.
• Understand similarities and differences between a small area of the UK and a non-European country.
• Identify and locate places using secondary resources e.g maps, atlases/books, globes, computing. ,

Activities

• Use world maps, atlases and globes to identify and label the continents/ surrounding oceans and equator.
• Stories  -  Snail and Whale
• Practical work using compasses – follow a set of instructions to reach a point/ The Great Fire of London/Expeditions.
• Computing -  Google Earth  - Kid Rex to find out facts.
• Investigate and explore physical/human features of places explored by Columbus/Shackleton /Earhart and compare and contrast to our local area.
• Diversity week.
• Use aerial photographs and plan perspectives to recognize landmarks and basic human/physical features.
• Devise maps with a simple key.
• Mapwork  -  follow a route using compass points.
• Describe a route from a starting point, (The Great Fire of London).