Fantastic Places

Peacehaven and the Chalk Downs

Learning objectives

• To know what kind of rock chalk is and how it is formed.

• To investigate how the Downs were made.

• To appreciate some of the special features of the land around Peacehaven

PLTS objective

Self management

I can take on new responsibilities and tasks, even when its something I haven’t done before.

Habits of Mind

Gathering data through all the senses:

In this lesson we will often be using texture, sight and feeling to help us with

the tasks set.

Keywords

The landscape around Peacehaven is called the South Downs. The hills and cliffs are made of chalk which makes the area and the wildlife found here very rare.

What kind of rock is chalk

Complete the classification exercise in order to appreciate the different kinds of rock there are.

Making a downs sandwich...

You have been given four pieces of paper.Lay a white piece at the bottom, this is rock that is millions of years old. On top of this lay the pink piece, this is clay.On top of this lay the yellow piece, this is sandstone.

Then lay another pink layer which is the clay.

Finally put another white piece on top to make a sandwich. This is the chalk laid down under a warm sea 75 to a hundred million years ago.

Cut a hole in the top piece of paper.

Hold or tape the paper at both ends and push them up. The rocks under our feet were pushed up by pressures in the earth. The top of the chalk cracked and then eroded away leaving us with chalk hills on either side of a great hollow.

Chalk Downland Ecosytems

Many of the plants and animals found on the chalk grasslands which have been grazed by sheep for hundreds of years are very rare and special.

A group of natural features like grasses and animals and physical features like hills and chalk soils work together to make an ecosystem.

All the parts of the ecosystem are needed and important.

You have all been given a plant or animal found on the chalk grassland.

Making a food chain

Hold up your card

If you think you have a producer, a part of the food chain which gets its energy from the sun.

Hold up your card

If you think you have a herbivore or primary consumer, an organism in the food chain that eats plants.

Hold up your card

If you think you have a carnivore or secondary consumer, an organism in the chain that eats herbivores.

Hold up your card

If you think you have a predator or tertiary consumer, an organism in the chain that hunts and eats carnivores and herbivores.

Hold up your card

If you think you have a decomposer, an organism in the chain that eats and breaks down dead and decaying matter.

You have made a food chain

Now can you make a food web...

Complete the tasks on the worksheet provided.

Hyperlinked to ‘ouses ‘ouses ‘ousesby imagined village

Writing the Downs

As you listen to the song written by the son of a shepherd who used to work on the Downs above Peacehaven write all the words you have come across that are to do with this landscape along your chalk cliffs or landscape. Add words, feelings and senses which you associate with the landscape around you too. Can you add things you can do on the downs?