Geography is all around us and is an important subject for your child to learn about. We give advice on what they will be learning in Key Stage 1 and how you can help.
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What will your child learn in Key Stage 1 geography? What will they experience? We take a look.
In Key Stage 1 geography, children learn about their local area and a contrasting area in the United Kingdom or abroad. They investigate the environment in both areas and the people who live there. They also begin to learn about other places in the world.
Children learn to ask geographical questions about people, places and environments. For example, they will ask what is it like to live in a particular place and how places have become the way they are, and they will develop the vocabulary to talk about this (such as hill, river, north and south). In order to answer these geographical questions your child will engage directly with the environment through fieldwork outside of the classroom as well as through using resources such as maps and photographs in the classroom.
Help your child's geography learning at home
- Provide your child with a map, atlas or globe and encourage him or her to use this to find out more about places and environments. Which countries are hot or cold? Can your child identify where different people come from, perhaps children in his or her class?
- Read stories that include different geographical locations and ideas. Ideas include The Jungle Book (tropical rainforest) and Aladdin (desert).
- Find the geography in your home. Where in the world did your furniture, ornaments or kitchenware come from? What’s been recycled? What materials were used, how far did they travel, are there any environmental issues?
- Is there geography in your family tree – talk about migration in first, second, third or fourth generations.
- How many vegetables and fruits from different parts of the world can you eat in one week?
- Develop a geographical scrapbook. Take a walk in your local area and collect anything that represents or reflects the locality – people, plants, buildings, landmarks and so forth. Create a map.
- Use postcards, posters and pictures to discuss other places. Think about where the image was taken. Are there any people in the image – what might their lives be like, what are they doing, what might they be saying? What objects are in the image, and what are they for? What is the environment like? How does the image make you feel?
