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 is the free planning overview for Our World, a comprehensive introduction to the geography of Planet Earth. A vocabulary page and topic title page are also included.
This unit is designed for students in KS1 and lower KS2 (Y1-3) and includes a variety of engaging lessons, differentiated activities and worksheets.
All the resources described in the planning are available on TES, either individually or as a bundle. Lessons include:
L1 – Completing a world map jigsaw
L2 – Identifying the continents and oceans of the world (FREE)
L3 – Where do we live?
L4 – Identifying human and natural features of the world
L5 – Investigating satellite photos of famous world landmarks
L6 – Introduction to compass directions
L7 – Identifying world climate zones
L8 – Identifying the countries and capitals of the UK (FREE)
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 Brazil, a Geography unit designed for students in KS2 (Y4-6), but can also be taught as a stand alone lesson.
It takes students on a tour of the geographical features of Brazil. First students investigate a satellite photo of South America. They then look at a map of Brazil itself to see what human and physical features they can spot (e.g. Brazilian cities, Amazon rainforest).
In the activity students identify human and physical features of Brazil. It is differentiated three ways:
Easier – Students label 10 physical features of Brazil.
Medium – Students draw in arrows and label 10 physical features of Brazil.
Harder – Students stick a map of Brazil into their book, draw in arrows and label 10 physical features.
Extension – Students use atlases to also identify 8 Brazilian cities.
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).
The presentation first introduces students to satellite photos before going on to challenge them to match satellite photos to famous UK landmarks (e.g. Wembley Stadium, Edinburgh Castle).
In the activity, students use their geography detective skills to describe satellite photos and infer which famous UK landmark or feature each one is. It is differentiated two ways:
Easier – Students write description of each satellite photo on a writing template sheet.
Harder – Students stick satellite photos into their exercise book and write descriptions next to them.
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 set of resources is designed for teaching the Great Fire of London KS1 History unit. You can download the planning for free here. It is suitable for Year 2 children and more able Year 1 children.
The presentation introduces Samuel Pepys and extracts of his diary which recorded his eyewitness account of the Great Fire of London . The activity challenges children to investigate this primary source to find out more about the events of September 1666.
There are two differentiated worksheets:
- one has an extract from Pepys’ diary and comprehension questions
- one has an extract from Pepys’ diary and comprehension questions with coloured text to help children find the answers
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 designed for teaching the Great Fire of London KS1 History unit. You can download the planning for free here. It is suitable for Year 2 children and more able Year 1 children.
The presentation explores the immediate aftermath of the Great Fire of London and how the city changed when it was rebuilt. A true/false partner activity then reinforces this learning .
There are two differentiated worksheets which challenge children to read statements about what they have learned and decide whether they are true or false. It is recommended that children do the activity in pairs to promote partner discussion.
The two worksheets include:
- a standard activity sheet which gives 14 true/false statements
- a harder activity sheet which also challenges children to come up with their own true/false statements
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 part of a wider unit called Exploring St Lucia and is designed to teach KS2 students about a contrasting non-European country.
The presentation introduces the students to satellite photos. It then challenges them to use their detective skills to identify the various human and physical geographical features of St Lucia.
It is accompanied by a writing-based activity which challenges students to identify the features in the satellite photos and explain their reasoning. It is differentiated three ways:
Easier – Students identify 1 feature per satellite photo.
Medium – Students identify 2 features per satellite photo.
Harder – Students identify 3 features per satellite photo.
Extension – Students sort the features they have found into human and physical.
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 helps students understand what trade is and introduces the concepts of imports and exports. It does this by linking these ideas to every day products we buy. It also looks at the different scales of trade – local, national and international.
The activity then challenges students to match up products with statements about the company which makes them and where they are produced/manufactured.
Easier – Match the products to the statements (on stickers)
Harder – Match the products to the statements (written)
Extension – Students complete a cloze procedure paragraph about trade.
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.
The presentation explores the main geographical features of St Lucia and asks students to categorise these into human and physical.
The activity then challenges students to identify these features on a map of St Lucia. It is differentiated three ways:
Easier – Students identify human & physical features of St Lucia (with clues)
Medium – Students identify human & physical features of St Lucia (no clues)
Harder – Students identify human & physical features of St Lucia (no clues and students also have to draw arrows)
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).
N.B. If students are new to compass directions, use Introduction to compass directions to introduce the topic prior to this lesson.
First the presentation reminds students of the four cardinal compass directions. It then encourages them to use compass directions to describe the position of towns and cities around the UK.
In the activity, students have to find UK cities using compass clues. There are two differentiated activity worksheets:
Easier – Students locate cities using compass clues and starting letter clues.
Harder – Students locate cities using compass and harder starting letter clues.
Extension – Students complete cloze procedure sentence about the location of cities in the UK.
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 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 part of Exploring Spain, a Geography unit designed for upper KS2 students (Y4-6), but can also be taught as a stand alone lesson.
Students first learn about the Iberian peninsula. They then explore some of the main geographical features of Spain itself and categorise these into human (e.g. cities) and physical (e.g. mountains).
The activity challenges students to identify these features on a map of Spain. It is differentiated two ways:
Easier – Students identify human & physical features of Spain using a colour-coded map and word bank
Harder – Students identify human & physical features of Spain using a map & word bank
Extension – Students complete a cloze procedure text about the human and physical geography of Spain.
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 Spain, a Geography unit designed for upper KS2 students (Y4-6), but can also be taught as a stand alone lesson.
In the presentation students embark on a tour of Madrid, learning interesting facts about Spain’s capital city along the way. They visit sites including the famous Royal Palace, the Sun Gate and the Santiago Bernabeú Stadium, home of Real Madrid.
The lesson has two activities:
Quiz activity:
Students use an online encyclopedia to answer questions about Madrid.
Guided tour writing activity:
Students give their very own guided tour of Madrid.
Easier – Students write a guided tour of Madrid using a writing frame.
Harder – Students write a guided tour of Madrid by sticking images into their exercise books.
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 Spain, a Geography unit designed for upper KS2 students (Y4-6), but can also be taught as a stand alone lesson.
In the presentation students recap the 8 points of the compass and locate Spanish cities using these compass directions. They also learn how to locate cities in relation to each other (e.g. Valencia is north of Alicante).
The activity challenges students use all 8 compass directions to locate Spanish cities. It is differentiated three ways:
Easier – Students locate Spanish cities (with answer clues + cities marked on the map)
Medium – Students locate Spanish cities (with answer clues)
Harder – Students locate Spanish cities (no answer clues)
Extension – Students locate Spanish cities in relation to each other.
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).
In the lesson, students learn about the four seasons and characteristics associated with each. First they have to guess each season using different clues. They then find out about the different types of weather associated with each season.
The colourful activity is differentiated three ways:
Easier – Students match 16 pictures (with labels) to the seasons.
Medium – Students match 20 pictures (with labels) to the seasons.
Harder – Students match 20 pictures to the seasons and label them.
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 Geography unit called Great Missenden – A Village Settlement which is designed for students in upper KS2 (Y4-6).
First the presentation uses satellite photos and maps to locate the village of Great Missenden which is located in the Chilterns to the north-west of London.
The activity then challenges students to identify and label geographical features in and around London and the Great Missenden locality.
In the extension activity, students classify the features they have found as human or physical.
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
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.
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 first asks students how they would go about finding information about earthquakes. It then introduces them to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia.
The activity then challenges students to research the world’s 12 biggest earthquakes:
Easier – Students use Wikipedia to find one piece of information per earthquake.
Harder – Students use Wikipedia to find two pieces of information per earthquake.
Extension – Students answer questions about the world’s famous earthquakes using Wikipedia.
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.