When developing my children's comprehension skills, I don't like using photocopies from text books and meaningless expectancy sheets. I prefer to use purposeful, educational and REAL LIFE examples to engage and inform them, while still challenging them and looking for those reading skills. Therefore a lot of my comprehension challenges are based around interesting newspaper articles. In this example, taken from the BBC News website in April 2017, a village in the South West of England has declared itself as being 'hedgehog-friendly' in a bid to stop numbers falling. Included in this pack is a copy of the article and linking comprehension questions suitable for KS2. Enjoy!

This is a five-lesson half-term resource on the cross-curricular topic, Earth Matters. Containing a Notebook flip and a worksheet, the KS2-suitable resource develops children's understanding of biomes and eco-systems in a range of engaging lessons, including research project, making a poster, making a 'dome biome' and making group powerpoint presentations which could then be used in a class assembly. The Learning Intentions/Objectives over the five lessons are: 1) To understand the features of biomes 2) To understand the interdependency of organisms in a biome 3) + 4) To understand that eco-systems are delicate / To know about global environmental problems and solutions 5) To know about global environmental problems and solutions / To prepare a presentation about a topic

This resource is a worksheet with a clear outline of a world map, on which children are challenged to draw key world rivers on. This can be used in a Water topic or to simply develop geographical knowledge / map reading skills. Using atlases and/or Google Maps, the children will locate each river, match it to the area on their map and try to accurately draw it on and label it. The rivers children are challenged to locate are: 1. Mississippi 4. Thames 7. Nile 2. Danube 5. Huang Ho 8. Niger 3. Ganges 6. Amazon

This lesson would be a good introduction to direction in either Geography or Maths. It introduces what a compass is and what it is used for, before focusing on NESW and the points in between. This could easily be demonstrated in the classroom by putting up NESW posters on each wall of your classroom, but my lesson uses a map of the counties of England to develop compass skills and direction. This is first modelled by the teacher, e.g. Cumbria is NW of North Yorkshire using the Notebook presentation, before the children have a go themselves, completing either missing compass directions or places in each statement. Suitable for KS2. Enjoy!

Having taught in an East London primary school, it was great to see Stratford change right in front of our eyes when the Olympic site and surrounding parkland was changed. Therefore, I wanted to use this experience in the teaching of human geography - comparing how East London changed before to after the 2012 Olympic Games through different photographs. I hope this resource can be enjoyed by classes all over the country - not just in London!

This lesson activity developed two learning objectives: 1) To understand that Canada is made up of different provinces and 2) To be able to use Google Maps to locate places. My class studied the human and physical geographical features of Canada as part of their cross-curricular topic work (mainly focusing on rivers and mountains) therefore I wanted them to get to know the geography of Canada itself more, especially because it is so diverse. Therefore I made this activity which required children to: • Understand what a ‘province’ is • Understand why countries like Canada are split into different provinces • Use Google Maps to find global locations • Use the physical shape of a country to estimate the location of key places They then used the internet to research information about provinces, and then to locate key provinces, cities, and physical geographical features (e.g. Hudson Bay), marking them as accurately as possible on to their own blank map. I have included one blank map example, but others are readily available on Google images.

This activity gets children to compare the UK and Egypt's most important rivers; the Thames and the Nile. Using ICT, they will compare their size and overall importance by researching their length, depth, origin, mouth and major cities that they pass through and how each river has been used historically by their country. This would be a good cross-curricular activity to use if you are studying the Ancient Egyptians or Water/Rivers in your topic work and want to cover lots of skill sets.

This activity develops children atlas skills with a focus on the UK. Not only does it require children to study a map and locate places so they can mark them on a blank map, but it will also require them to understand the best page(s) to use to find particular information or country, especially when a place is too small to spot and they need to use the index. This activity will require children to locate 8 cities, 4 rivers, 4 national parks, 3 mountain ranges and (as a challenge), one ancient monument using specified colours. I have included example blank maps, but others are readily available under a Google search. Enjoy!

These three worksheets would be perfect for children's independent work when learning about / understanding the difference between human and physical geographical features of locations. In this example, I chose a task involving the whole of the UK, a task focusing on London and another focusing on Edinburgh (these cities due to their visual differences and geographical distance, which could then lead to good plenary discussion when evaluating outcomes.) Children cut out pictures from each location, try to stick them by the matching place name in the table, then decide whether it is a physical or human feature. The London/Edinburgh sheets can both be used either in one or two lessons. The UK sheet will require atlases or Google Maps for children to look up key locations.

This worksheet develops children's understanding of maps and atlases by addressing the following criteria: • I can explain what ‘latitude’ is • I can explain what ‘longitude’ is • I know why we use latitudinal and longitudinal lines on maps/atlases • I can estimate the latitudinal/longitudinal points of a location • I can use given latitudinal/longitudinal numbers to find a point on a map It would be most suitable for KS2 classes and is differentiated to suit different learners.

This worksheet challenges children's atlas skills as they try to locate 8 major world rivers and then accurately draw them onto the map. Rivers: 1. Mississippi 4. Thames 7. Nile 2. Danube 5. Huang Ho 8. Niger 3. Ganges 6. Amazon

When I make a good display (and I do like displays!) I like to take photos of it to remember it, to include in my personal profile and to share with others. Why take so much time over something and then take it down, never to be seen again?! A free resource to share as inspiration to others. UPDATED 13/12/16 to include extra Rivers and WII display ideas! UPDATED 09/02/18 to include extra Science display ideas!