Primary Geography and I'C'T' Local Studies

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Primary Geography and I.C.T.- Local Studies

• Chris Beverley

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Day 1 - Cambridge

• Well here we are! Ive really enjoyed the day
  and am looking forward to getting my teeth into
  some work with the children.
• Job number 1 upgrade so that Local Studies
  is on all computers!

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Initial thoughts

• The topic for my Reception class next term is
  
• Fairy Stories so I have decided to work on
  making maps to go with each story.
• We will start out by making a class map for
• The Three Little Pigs. We will look at adding
  features and
• some hot spots with text before the children
  start to make their own maps for the other fairy
  stories we will cover.
• Heres hoping!

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The plan
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How this fitted in with the whole topic
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Day 1 with the children.

• Wow! The children were really keen and
• had some brilliant ideas about what we
• should include on the map. I was allowed
• to draw a road, following their
• instructions, of course, and the children
• learnt how to drag things into the correct
• place.
• The Smart Board was a boon for
• this as it was so easy to explain and show
• everyone at once. The children added 4
• Houses (1 for Mummy Pig), an apple tree
• orchard and a potato field (the nearest
• thing to turnips!)

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Day 1

• The children were so inspired that they
• went off and drew some maps of their
• own and spent the next half an hour
• chatting about what else we needed to put
• onto the map.

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We carried on adding more features before trying
some Hot Spots!
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The finished map

• The children added 1 hotspot for each house,
  telling a little of the story in each one. They
  also added hotspots for the orchard, the turnip
  field and the funfair.
• All in all this was a very successful
  project and the children really enjoyed using the
  programme.
• Unfortunately this took up rather more time
  than I had hoped so we were not able to get the
  children making their own maps for any other
  fairy stories!

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Key Stage 2

• I am also responsible for teaching
  Humanities in the top Key Stage 2 class (Year 5
  6). In the Spring Term we were due to be
  studying the local area and this seemed an ideal
  opportunity to introduce Local Studies to these
  children.

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The Plan

• INVESTIGATIONS
• MAPS

• Paper maps
• Draw a map for the story of Little Red Riding
  Hood include key and reasons for putting things
  on the map.
• Bawburgh
• Use base map of the village, group children in
  threes, 1 person at a time to come and look at
  the map, go back and draw what they have seen.
  The next person continues, then the third. Each
  child to have 3 goes. Check maps with the
  originals.
• Use panoramic photo of view of village, mark 4
  features, find view and features on map. Locate
  by 4-figure grid reference. Plan a route to visit
  all four points and draw on maps.

• Local Studies
• Introduction to get used to the programme
• Make a map for the story of Little Red
  Riding Hood. Include Hot Spots explaining why
  they have included these features on their maps.
  Print out and discuss which things they would
  change if they did this again.
• Bawburgh
• Use base map of Bawburgh and add Hot Spots with
  pictures and text to illustrate buildings and
  features of the river. Use Symbol Key to add
  buildings for the Hot Spots.

• The children will be divided into 2 groups, 1
  group using the computers, the other working on
  paper maps. The groups will have half on the
  lesson undertaking each activity.
• The children will work in pairs on the computer
  with a different partner for each activity.

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Little Red Riding Hood

• The children coped very well and were able
  to follow the instructions quite easily. They did
  get annoyed when they couldnt add more than 99
  items and couldnt use more than 4 keys on each
  map valuable lessons we decided!

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Bawburgh

• The Bawburgh maps proved to be quite a
  challenge for the children as most do not live in
  Bawburgh and they suddenly realised that they
  knew very little about the village. We began by
  walking around Bawburgh and taking pictures of
  some buildings. Back at school the children used
  the internet to carry out research on some of the
  older buildings. The local free newspaper proved
  to be an invaluable source of information.
• The children produced their maps and added
  information about various buildings using
  hotspots. The children became adept at inserting
  pictures and adding text.

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Other maps

• 10 of the children in the class were asked to
  think about what they would like to see happen
  with the nature area and the pond. 2 girls and 1
  of the boys decided to use Local Studies to draw
  a map. Unfortunately the boy got frustrated with
  his as he wanted more than 99 things on his map,
  so he didnt save or print it!
• (Boy was he upset when I said that I wanted
  to use it for this presentation!)

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The future?

• I led a Staff Meeting and we looked at using
  Local Studies across the curriculum. This time I
  used the base map of Struay and after reading a
  Katie Morag story the staff made their own maps
  of Struay. This proved an excellent way to
  generate interest in both Key Stages and many
  ideas for using the software across the
  curriculum were thought up there and then.
• During the summer term there are plans to use
  Local studies for
• Minibeast habitats around the school and grounds
  (Foundation Stage)
• Maps of the village (KS 1)
• Habitats (lower KS 2)
• A map of West Stowe Anglo Saxon settlement (upper
  KS 2)

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Review

• Local Studies has proved to be a good resource
  for the teaching of more than just map work. The
  children have certainly learnt more about maps
  and map reading but they have also improved their
  ICT and Literacy skills often without realising!
• I did find it hard to locate a map of Bawburgh
  initially as I wanted a street plan with no
  buildings on it. However, I found one eventually
  and managed to use that as the base and away we
  went.
• I am looking forward to using the software again
  this term and can see great possibilities for
  next year when Key Stage 2 are looking at rivers
  and the coast and Key Stage 1 will be looking at
  Katie Morag.