Geography Fieldwork Week- 1st to 5th March 2021
Hello everyone!
As part of Geography across the whole school, we are going to complete a Geography Fieldwork week. Now, I’m sure that you are all wondering what that is and what will we need to do? The following blog will help you to understand this.
Before we start, I want everyone to embrace this week. We are all doing different things at the moment. Some children are learning at home, some at school. I know that many of you will not have seen many other people for quite some time. I would like to use this week to draw us all together with a shared goal. Therefore, whether you are at school or at home, I would like us all to complete the same tasks.
Obviously, we need to take into account what year group you are in and what experience you have all had previously. However, whether you are in Nursery or Year 6, you will all be able to contribute to this project!
Early Years
Use your senses- With an adult, stand outside your front door. What can you see. smell, touch and hear?
Look under your feet- Look down at your feet. What can you see? Are you standing on grass, concrete, gravel? Is that the same if you stood somewhere else? What is it made of? Why is it made of that? Is it hard because its a path that people walk on or soft because it’s a grassed area?
Imagine you are a bird- Imagine you are a bird flying around Winshill. What would you see? Houses? Roads? Shops? Lamp posts? Cars?
(Reception) Look at a satellite map- Follow this link to Google maps. You can look at Winshill and the surrounding areas. I have added some photos below as examples. Can you find the following:
a car our school your house roads St Mark’s Church a field
Year One and Two
Find out about fieldwork by following the link for BBC bitewise.
Contrasting locations- Choose 2 contrasting locations near to your house to investigate and compare. (This could be your front and back garden.) Take photos, make sketches, use your senses to make observations. List similarities and differences between each area.
Map work- Find the location of your house on a map. Use this google maps link and look at the satellite and map images (you can change from satellite to map using the button in the bottom left corner of your screen). Where is your house in relation to school? Can you find the route that you take to school? Write a list of directions of how you get to school for someone who doesn’t know the way. What landmarks or places of interest do you pass along the way?
Land and Building use- Choose somewhere on the map that interests you. Discuss with an adult where it is. What will you be able to see when you are there? With an adult, go to that point and discuss what you can see. Were you right? Is there anything significant or unexpected that you can see? From this point, use a compass to find North and stand facing North (most phones have a compass app on them). Make a sketch of what you can see. Write words and captions around your sketch describing what you can see.
Year Three and Four
Find out about fieldwork by following the link for BBC bitesize.
Contrasting locations- Choose 4 contrasting locations around the local area to investigate and compare. This could be in front of your house, at a park for exercise or in your garden. Take photos, make sketches, use your senses to make observations. What the What human features can you see? What physical features? List similarities and differences between each area.
Create a graph- Before visiting each location, decide what physical and human features you might see. Create a graph of your findings.
Conduct a survey- From outside the front of your house, create a traffic survey. What traffic goes past? Cars, buses, bikes, horses, people? Pick a time to carryout a 5 minute survey. What goes past your house? Create a bar graph with the information that you have collected. Repeated this activity at a different time of day, maybe between 4 and 5 pm. Compare your findings.
You can also use this link to the Oak National Academy to support your learning, if you would like to: Local Fieldwork.
Year Five and Six
Find out about fieldwork by following the link for BBC bitesize.
Carryout an investigation- Investigate what happens to water on different surfaces and slopes around your house. Where does it go? How can I measure it? How could I record this information?
Quadrat sampling- In your front or back garden, or an area outdoors near to your house, use a quadrat. (A quadrat is a square frame that you place in an area so that you can look closely in that one place. You can make one out of card or you could use a hula hoop or something of a similar size.) Decide what you are going to look for and record. This could include a flora and fauna count, vegetation (type, height, %cover), erosion, litter. Repeat this is 3-4 different areas within your garden or local area. Draw a map and identify on your map where you completed your quadrat sampling.
Analyse and Communicate Data- Use what you have found in your quadrat sample to analyse and communicate your findings This could be a sketch, a graph, a report or a table. Consider the following. What time of year, time of day was it completed? Would this change on a different day? What does it tell us? What can we learn from it? What does it tell us about the use of different areas? Use this link to find out How do you analyse, present and evaluate your findings?
Changes in the area- Use NLS maps to look at maps over time. How has the local area changed? Research the age of the school, how long it has been there and how could it change in the future? (E.g. growth because of building houses etc)
You can also use this link to the Oak National Academy to support your learning, if you would like to: Local Fieldwork.
We hope that you enjoy our Fieldwork week. Please send any photos of your work to your class teacher. If you have any questions, please email your class teacher or Mrs Williams.
Stay safe and have fun!
Mrs Williams