I've worked in primary teaching for over 10 years and specialise in creating fun and engaging educational resources, particularly for Geography and History.
I've worked in primary teaching for over 10 years and specialise in creating fun and engaging educational resources, particularly for Geography and History.
This lesson is designed for KS2 children. It can be taught as a stand alone lesson but is also available as part of two wider units, both of which are available on TES:
-Earthquakes
-Volcanoes & Earthquakes
N.B. Ideally children have a grounding in latitude and longitude prior to this lesson. The unit Understanding Latitude & Longitude is an ideal introduction to the topic.
First the presentation introduces students to latitude and longitude and goes through how to find the coordinates of a point step-by-step. It then asks them to find the latitude and longitude of several world capital cities.
The activity challenges students to locate the world’s biggest earthquakes using their latitude and longitude. It is differentiated three ways:
Easier – Students locate 12 earthquakes using latitude and longitude.
Medium – Students locate 15 earthquakes using latitude and longitude.
Harder – Students locate 18 earthquakes using latitude and longitude.
If you like this resource, we would appreciate a review! We will happily send you a free resource in return for a review or useful suggestions/feedback. Contact us at ed@teachitforward.co.uk.
Earthquakes is an exciting Geography unit designed for students in KS2.
The planning overview, topic title page and vocabulary page can be downloaded for free here. Lessons include:
L1 – Understanding the structure of the Earth
L2 – Understanding tectonic plates
L3 – Understanding the causes of earthquakes
L4 – Investigating the five deadly features of an earthquake
L5 – Researching earthquakes using Wikipedia
L6 – Locating the world’s biggest earthquakes using latitude & longitude
L7 – Writing a fact file about a famous earthquake
Each lesson includes a presentation and differentiated activities/worksheets.
If you like this resource, we would appreciate a review! We will happily send you a free resource in return for a review or useful suggestions/feedback. Contact us at ed@teachitforward.co.uk.
This fun jigsaw activity is a great geography resource for reinforcing children’s knowledge of the world.
It is also available as part of the Our World topic, an introduction to the geography of Planet Earth for KS1 and lower KS2
The presentation introduces students to a map of the world and highlights physical features including the continents, oceans, rivers and mountain ranges.
The jigsaw puzzle activity is differentiated six ways. The age brackets below are a rough guide:
6 pieces – EYFS
12 pieces – EYFS/Y1
24 pieces – Y1/2/3
36 pieces – Y2/3/4
48 pieces – Y3/4/5
60 pieces – Y4/5/6
A guide map is included for students in Early Years and KS1. Challenge more able KS2 students to complete the puzzle without the guide map.
If you like this resource, we would appreciate a review! We will happily send you a free resource in return for a review or useful suggestions/feedback. Contact us at ed@teachitforward.co.uk.
This lesson is part of Mountain Environments, a Geography unit designed for students in upper KS2 (Y4-6).
N.B. Ideally students have a grounding in latitude and longitude prior to this lesson. The unit Understanding Latitude & Longitude is an ideal introduction to the topic.
First the presentation introduces students to latitude and longitude and goes through how to find the coordinates of a point step-by-step. It then asks students to find the latitude and longitude of several world capital cities.
The activity and extension then challenge children to locate famous world mountains using their latitude and longitude:
Easier - Students locate 12 famous world mountains using latitude and longitude.
Harder - Students locate 16 famous world mountains using latitude and longitude.
Extension - Students add more famous mountains to their world map using latitude and longitude clues.
If you like this resource, we would appreciate a review! We will happily send you a free resource in return for a review or useful suggestions/feedback. Contact us at ed@teachitforward.co.uk.
This lesson is part of Our World, a Geography unit designed for students in KS1 and lower KS2 (Y1-3), but can also be taught as a stand alone lesson.
It aims to help younger students understand where they live. It looks at where Earth is in the solar system and then which continent, country and place they call home.
In the activity students write sentences about where they live. There are two differentiated worksheets:
Easier – Students fill in cloze procedure sentences to describe where they live.
Harder – Students write full sentences to describe where they live.
Extension – Students sort the names of countries, continents and planets into the correct categories.
If you like this resource, we would appreciate a review! We will happily send you a free resource in return for a review or useful suggestions/feedback. Contact us at ed@teachitforward.co.uk.
This lesson is part of Understanding Trade, a Geography unit designed for students in upper KS2 (Y5-6).
First the presentation asks students to consider how everyday products arrive in our supermarkets. It then introduces and explains the concept of supply chains, looking specifically at the chocolate supply chain. There are two activities:
Group Activity:
The group activity challenges students to order the chocolate supply chain.
Writing Activity:
An accompanying writing activity is based on ‘The Story of Our Chocolate Journey’ (available on YouTube). It challenges students to sequence and explain the processes involved in the chocolate supply chain. It is differentiated three ways:
Easier – Students use a writing frame.
Harder – Students write in an exercise book using a vocabulary prompt.
If you like this resource, we would appreciate a review! We will happily send you a free resource in return for a review or useful suggestions/feedback. Contact us at ed@teachitforward.co.uk.
This lesson is part of a wider unit called Exploring St Lucia and is designed to teach KS2 students about a contrasting non-European country.
It first introduces students to the tropical climate zone and its associated weather (i.e. high temperatures, high rainfall, dry and wet seasons) and compares this with temperate climates such as that of the UK.
Students are then encouraged to interpret data from a climate graph for St Lucia. Finally, other aspects of a tropical climate are covered including tropical storms and hurricanes.
The accompanying true or false activity helps children to recap what they have learned about the climates of St Lucia and the UK. It is differentiated two ways:
Easier – Students have 6 true or false statements.
Harder – Students have 10 true or false statements.
Extension – Students complete a cloze procedure text about St Lucia’s weather and climate.
If you like this resource, we would appreciate a review! We will happily send you a free resource in return for a review or useful suggestions/feedback. Contact us at ed@teachitforward.co.uk.
This lesson is designed for KS2 children. It can be taught as a stand alone lesson but is also available as part of two wider units, both of which are available on TES:
-Earthquakes
-Volcanoes & Earthquakes
The presentation investigates the five deadly features of earthquakes including ground shaking, tsunamis, landslides, raising/lowering of land and liquefaction.
It is followed up by an activity which is differentiated four ways:
Easier – Students match pictures of the five features of an earthquake to descriptions.
Medium – Students complete cloze procedure sentences. They then match pictures to each description.
Harder – Students complete cloze procedure sentences. They then match pictures to each description and add a title for each section.
Hardest – Students stick pictures of the five features of an earthquake in their books and write their own description next to each one.
Extension – Can students unscramble the jumbled up earthquake facts?
If you like this resource, we would appreciate a review! We will happily send you a free resource in return for a review or useful suggestions/feedback. Contact us at ed@teachitforward.co.uk.
This lesson is designed for KS2 students. It can be taught as a stand alone lesson but is also available as part of two wider units, both of which are available on TES:
-Volcanoes
-Volcanoes & Earthquakes
The presentation investigates the five deadly features of a volcanic eruption including volcanic ash, lava flows, volcanic bombs, pyroclastic flows and mud flows (or ‘lahars’).
The activity challenges students to match pictures of each feature to a description. It is differentiated four ways:
Easier – Students match pictures of the five features of a volcanic eruption to the descriptions.
Medium – Students complete cloze procedure sentences. They then match pictures to each description.
Harder – Students complete cloze procedure sentences. They then match pictures to each description and add a title for each section.
Hardest – Children stick pictures of the five features of a volcanic eruption in their books and write their own description next to each one.
Extension – Which feature of a volcanic eruption do children think is the most deadly? Can they explain their answer?
If you like this resource, we would appreciate a review! We will happily send you a free resource in return for a review or useful suggestions/feedback. Contact us at ed@teachitforward.co.uk.
This lesson is designed for KS2 students and is a great introduction to any volcanoes or earthquakes topic. It can be taught as a stand alone lesson but is also available as part of three wider units, all of which are available on TES:
-Volcanoes
-Earthquakes
-Volcanoes & Earthquakes
The presentation investigates the structure of the Earth and looks into the basic composition of the inner core, outer core, mantle and crust.
Students then complete an activity which is differentiated three ways:
Easier – Students label layers of the Earth and complete cloze procedure paragraph (6 gaps).
Medium – Students label layers of the Earth and complete cloze procedure paragraph (10 gaps).
Harder – Students label layers of the Earth – including drawing arrows – and complete cloze procedure paragraph (10 gaps).
Extension – Students think about what they would like to find out about volcanoes or earthquakes or both, depending on which topic you are doing.
If you like this resource, we would appreciate a review! We will happily send you a free resource in return for a review or useful suggestions/feedback. Contact us at ed@teachitforward.co.uk.
This lesson is part of Mountain Environments, a Geography unit designed for students in upper KS2 (Y4-6).
First the presentation introduces some of the most famous mountain ranges from around the world.
The differentiated activity then challenges students to locate the world’s mountain ranges and encourages them to use and explore atlases. It is recommended that students do the activity in pairs.
Easier – Students identify the world’s famous mountain ranges (less writing).
Medium – Students identify the world’s famous mountain ranges (first letter clues)
Harder – Students identify the world’s famous mountain ranges (no clues)
If you like this resource, we would appreciate a review! We will happily send you a free resource in return for a review or useful suggestions/feedback. Contact us at ed@teachitforward.co.uk.
Volcanoes is an exciting Geography unit designed for students in KS2.
The planning overview, topic title page and vocabulary page can be downloaded for free here. Lessons include:
L1 – Understanding the structure of the Earth
L2 – Investigating the structure of a volcano (FREE)
L3 – Locating the world’s famous volcanoes
L4 – Investigating the five deadly features of a volcanic eruption
L5 – Understanding tectonic plates
L6 – Exploring the effects of volcanic eruptions on Montserrat
L7 – Why do people live near volcanoes?
Each lesson includes a presentation and differentiated activities/worksheets.
A FREE newspaper report template is also included in this unit.
If you like this resource, we would appreciate a review! We will happily send you a free resource in return for a review or useful suggestions/feedback. Contact us at ed@teachitforward.co.uk.
Great Missenden – A Village Settlement is a Geography unit suitable for upper KS2 (Y4-6).
Located in the Chilterns in Buckinghamshire, the village of Great Missenden was once home to famous children’s author Roald Dahl. It is a great case study for helping students understand the similarities and differences between urban and rural settlements.
The planning overview and topic title page can be downloaded for free here. Lessons include:
L1 – Locating Great Missenden in the UK
L2 – Investigating satellite photos of Great Missenden
L3 – Locating features of Great Missenden using grid references
L4 – Identifying the features of settlements
L5 – Surveying Great Missenden High Street using Google Street View
L6 – Interpreting a high street survey of Great Missenden
Each lesson includes a presentation and differentiated activities/worksheets.
If you like this resource, we would appreciate a review! We will happily send you a free resource in return for a review or useful suggestions/feedback. Contact us at ed@teachitforward.co.uk.
This lesson is part of Our World, a Geography unit designed for students in KS1 and lower KS2 (Y1-3), but can also be taught as a stand alone lesson.
This Geography lesson is a fun introduction to satellite photos. The presentation first helps students understand what satellite photos are. It then challenges them to investigate satellite photos of a variety of world famous human and natural landmarks (e.g. Eiffel Tower, Victoria Falls).
It is accompanied by two activities:
Speaking and Listening Activity
In mixed pairs or trios, students match the photos of 16 world famous landmarks to their satellite photos, explaining their reasoning as they do so.
Writing Activity
Students investigate satellite photos and write sentences explaining which landmark they think each one is. E.g. “I think this photo is Stonehenge because I can see a circle of huge stones surrounded by grass.”
If you like this resource, we would appreciate a review! We will happily send you a free resource in return for a review or useful suggestions/feedback. Contact us at ed@teachitforward.co.uk.
This lesson is part of Our World, a Geography unit designed for students in KS1 and lower KS2 (Y1-3), but can also be taught as a stand alone lesson.
The presentation first helps students understand the concepts of ‘human’ and ‘natural’. It then takes them on a journey around the world and challenges them to identify human and natural features of our planet (e.g. mountains, airports).
There are two associated activities:
Group activity:
Students match pictures of features of the world to their names and sort them into human and natural categories.
Individual activity:
Children identify photos of features of the world.
Easier – Students identify features of the world (no writing).
Harder – Students identify features of the world (writing).
Extension – Students label each feature as human (H) or natural (N).
If you like this resource, we would appreciate a review! We will happily send you a free resource in return for a review or useful suggestions/feedback. Contact us at ed@teachitforward.co.uk.
This lesson is designed for KS2 children. It can be taught as a stand alone lesson but is also available as part of two wider units, both of which are available on TES:
-Earthquakes
-Volcanoes & Earthquakes
The presentation looks at three famous earthquakes from the previous decade including Haiti (2010), New Zealand (2011) and Japan (2011).
The activity then challenges students to research an earthquake online (e.g. Simple Wikipedia) and write a fact file about it. A completed fact file about the earthquake in Christchurch in 2011 is included as an example.
Easier – Students research and create a fact file about their chosen earthquake.
Harder – Students research and create a fact file about their chosen earthquake plus insert a map and add photo captions.
If you like this resource, we would appreciate a review! We will happily send you a free resource in return for a review or useful suggestions/feedback. Contact us at ed@teachitforward.co.uk.
This resource is part of Exploring Australia, a Geography unit designed for students in upper KS1 and lower KS2 (Y2-Y4). All resources are compatible with both Microsoft Office and Google Workspace.
This lesson is a great introduction to any Austalia topic. First the presentation looks at Australia’s location in the Southern Hemisphere before exploring the country’s vast size and the countries surrounding it.
In the activity, students are challenged to locate Australia on a world map and label other significant features:
Easier - Students label a world map (with hints).
Harder - Students label a world map (no hints)
Extension - Students use a map to identify countries surrounding Australia.
If you like this resource, we would appreciate a review! We will happily send you a free resource in return for a review or useful suggestions/feedback. Contact us at ed@teachitforward.co.uk.
This resource is part of Exploring Australia, a Geography unit designed for students in upper KS1 and lower KS2 (Y2-Y4). All resources are compatible with both Microsoft Office and Google Workspace.
First the presentation investigates how Australia’s position closer to the Equator impacts its climate. Next, students are introduced to Australia’s three climate zones (tropical, arid and temperate) and find out how this effects weather in different parts of the country.
The activity challenges students to identify the climate zones of different Australian towns and cities:
Easier - Students identify the climate zones of 12 towns/cities.
Harder - Students identify the state and climate zones of 12 towns/cities.
Extension - Students investigate which climate zone has the most towns/cities and what this indicates about Australia’s population.
If you like this resource, we would appreciate a review! We will happily send you a free resource in return for a review or useful suggestions/feedback. Contact us at ed@teachitforward.co.uk.
Exploring the UK is a Geography unit suitable for KS1 and lower KS2 (Y2-4).
The planning overview, topic title page and vocabulary page can be downloaded for free here. Lessons include:
L1 – Identifying the countries and capitals of the UK & Ireland (FREE)
L2 – Locating UK cities using compass directions
L3 – Identifying human & physical features of the UK
L4 – Investigating satellite photos of the UK
L5 – Comparing the city and the countryside
L6– Identifying famous features and characteristics of countries of the UK
L7 – Identifying flags of the United Kingdom
L8 – Identifying the four seasons of weather in the UK
Optional lesson – Identifying the countries and capital cities of Europe
Each lesson includes a presentation and differentiated activities/worksheets.
If you like this resource, we would appreciate a review! We will happily send you a free resource in return for a review or useful suggestions/feedback. Contact us at ed@teachitforward.co.uk.
This lesson is part of Exploring the United Kingdom, a Geography unit designed for KS1 and lower KS2 (Y2-4).
This lesson encourages students to identify geographical features found in the city/countryside and think about the similarities and differences between urban and rural areas in the UK.
First the presentation shows small segments of images from around the United Kingdom and challenges students to work out whether they are from the city or countryside.
Children then complete a Venn diagram-based activity which can be done in two ways:
Group activity:
In pairs or trios, children sort images of the city and countryside using a Venn diagram. This can also be done using two PE hoops and makes a nice classroom display.
Individual activity:
Students sort city and countryside vocabulary using a Venn diagram:
Easier – Students sort 12 city/countryside words
Harder – Students sort 18 city/countryside words
If you like this resource, we would appreciate a review! We will happily send you a free resource in return for a review or useful suggestions/feedback. Contact us at ed@teachitforward.co.uk.