Part 2St Catherine’s Catholic Primary SchoolGeography & the Global Dimension ProjectDECSY and the Geographical Association

WALT: identify key features of a cityChildren mind mapped the similarities and differences

that they would expect to find when comparing our local area and the city.

Together on IWB we looked at the city centre using google earth, and identified similarities and differences.

Using www..... Together the class plotted the route that we would follow on our visit to the city centre to identify features of a city.

We went on the city centre trip stopping at different points to gather information and compare the city with our local area.

Children looked at Google earth, to familiarise themselves with some of the areas of town we would be visiting on our City Centre trip.

Before the City Centre trip, we discussed what we had seen whilst on the local walk, and then thought about what we might see when we went into the City Centre, and what the similarities and differences between the two areas might be.

This is a diagram to collate suggestions from the children of what we might see.

WALT: locate destinations on a map.Identify the four C’s (City, County, Country, Continent) we explained

this by using a jigsaw. Children then used Atlas maps to locate England, South Yorkshire,

Sheffield. The children explored the different maps in the Atlas and talked about what maps can show you.

We then explained to the children what a continent is using the jigsaw idea again.

Using a world map children located the different continents and added post it notes locating where their families were from.

Showed images of St.Catherines using google earth and showed images of Niza trust School in Zambia using google earth.

Showed children how to use the I-pad App “maps”.Children were given three specific tasks:1.Locate Sheffield –search for their home2.Locate Zambia3. Locate the two school – Niza trust school, Choma and

St.Catherines, Sheffield

Children using post- its to show their friends where their families come from.

Here is an image that some of the children found of Choma, Zambia, when they used the Ipad map application.

For this session, the children were shown a photograph of one of the Y4 classrooms that we visited during our visit to Niza Trust school.

The children were given some independent thinking time, then asked to share their first thoughts with a partner. Some children then shared their first thoughts with the whole class.

The children then split into small groups, to think of questions we could discuss. The whole class then voted on the question they would like to answer. The question we then discussed was “Why do people in Africa have less than we do?”

Some of the children’s first thoughts about the stimulus are on the next slide.

“The school is very poor”-

Khaliq

“They don’t have enough

money”- Ofofon

“They don’t have enough to help them to learn”-

Sandali

“ I feel a bit sorry for them”-

“They’ve just got a paper and pencil” -

Juno“They’ve only got one

partner but we’ve got lots of people to talk to”-

Hope

The aim of the lesson was to challenge some of the children’s preconceptions about what life was like for children at Niza Trust School.

We started off by showing some photos of the Zambia trip, and some slides of the comments the children had made at the start of our Zambia topic.

They were then shown different flipchart pages which merged together an image of St Catherine’s, and an image from Niza Trust. The children then had to identify the similarities and differences between the pictures.

The children were able to identify that although the environment and facilities are different, the children at Niza still go to school and learn, are still cared for, and have fun with their friends like the children at our school do.

The aim of the lesson was to discuss the weather we have in this country, and why it isn’t always the same.

We introduced the concept of seasons; we explained that the earth rotates around the sun, and that the changes in weather we experience are caused by the Earth’s movement.

The children then matched clothes and special events/hobbies with different seasons.

They then compared the seasons here and in Zambia, and learnt that due to its position near equator, Zambia only has 3 seasons.

This led to an explanation of how not every country has same seasons.

www.our-africa.com/zambia

Here are some comments from the Year 3 children, towards the end of the Zambia topic.

Our school has had a link with the Niza trust school in Choma, Zambia, for the past three years. During that time communication between the schools has been difficult. The Geography and the Global Curriculum project has supported our children’s developed understanding of similarities and differences between their own lives and those of the children in Choma.

They were able to consider and compare where they live and the amenities available to them and their families, in their local and nearby city centre to those of a children who attend Niza Trust school, in Choma.

The children were shocked when they saw photographs of Niza Trust school. They could not understand the lack of facilities or why the children were not dissatisfied with what was available to them. In discussion, children at St Catherine’s thought that because the children at Niza did not have what they have, they must be poor.

This year, a lot of the time was spent on the physical geography skills. Although children have developed an understanding that there is no single story, next year we would look to dedicating more time towards this through extended P4C sessions and circle times.

Something that we would like to focus on more, is developing a better understanding of lifestyles; talking with the children about incomes, the value of money and the quality of life within both countries.

Within the global dimension of diversity, we would like to focus more on differences in culture, customs and traditions.

ICTGoogle EarthGoogle mapsI pad app Maps

Books:Oxford Junior Atlas.

Websites:www.map.bndf.co.uk map of Burngreave for the local area walkwww.shu.ac.uk/_assets/pdf/SelfGuidedTourSheffieldCentre.pdf map of city centre for the city centre trip and map work.www.our-africa.com/zambia

Videos and photographs from Zambia trip May 2011.

How to involve the community:

• Open morning, showing parents the work the children have taken part in over the course of the project.

•Tourism role play; turn classroom into a travel agents! Posters of Zambia made by children; different groups explain different aspects of topic to parents- Eg. weather and climate, local amenities, etc.