What will your child be learning in Foundation Stage geography? We take a look.
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Foundation Stage geography is where your child begins to gain a wider experience of the world around them.
Your child will learn through first-hand experiences to explore, observe, problem solve, predict, think critically, make decisions and talk about the creatures, people, plants and objects in their natural environments and in real life situations, for example in the shop or in the garden.
The practitioner will ask your child open-ended questions, for example, ‘What can you see here?’ and ‘Can you find a way to?’ to help your child to think and make connections between ideas. Children learn about seasons, the weather, features in the local area and the buildings that surround them. They may be shown photographs of the local area to help them identify features, for example library, railway, church, mosque or postbox. They will also be encouraged to record their findings, perhaps through drawing, writing, and modeling.
Foundation Stage geography lesson examples
- Malika pushes the button at the pedestrian crossing and watches for the green man.
- During the spring and summer, the children observe the life cycle of frogs, butterflies and annual plants in the garden and pond and describe and draw the changes over time.
- On the way home, Joe notices the different road signs and asks what they mean.
- A group of children talk about the different shapes of windows and sizes of buildings on the walk to the shops.
Help your child at home
- Develop your child’s geographical vocabulary and awareness of the local environment by talking about topics such as the weather, seasons, the features you pass on the way to and from nursery or school (buildings, the postbox, the zebra crossing).
- Talk about the journey a letter takes, the role of people who help to sort and deliver the mail – where does the postman get all the letters he delivers?
- Expose your child to as wide a range of places and cultures as you can. Remember, you can do this through the resources around you (such as pictures, maps, television programmes, posters, visitors, stories, artwork, music) as well as through travel.
- Introduce your child to maps, an atlas or a globe. You can use these to tell stories about different places in the world, talk about hot and cold climates, or to point out countries where people you know come from.
- Find the geography in your home. Where in the world did your furniture, ornaments or kitchenware come from?
