Geography | Northfields Infants and Nursery School

Our children will experience:

Fun and practical experiences
Using technology to develop children’s geographical understanding
Asking and answering questions
Outdoor sessions of Forest School that help to develop children’s geographical skills and fieldwork.

Visits/Visitors

Walks around local area
Visits and resources from Museum Service
Year 2 visit to Standalone Farm
Visits to The Grange Church

Progression in vocabulary:

Year 1

Map, key, left, right, up, down, north, west, south, east, United Kingdom, England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland, countries, seasons, weather, continent, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Europe, Australia, Antarctica, city towns, house, shop, forest hill, mountain, seas

Year 2 (Year 2 also reinforce previous vocabulary learnt)

Compass, atlas, globe, locate, ocean, Indian, Pacific, Atlantic, Southern, Arctic, equator, north pole, south pole, Urban, Rural, human features, physical features, north, west, south, east

Topics covering Geographical skills in Year 1:

Castles

Around the World

Seaside

On our Doorstep

Forest School

Topics covering Geographical skills in Year 2:

Letchworth Lives

April Showers

Fire, Fame and Fortune

The Wicked and the Wise

Growing

Forest School

Geography Curriculum Map- Northfields Infant School and Nursery

Geography at Northfields Infants and Nursery School

Develops children’s understanding and knowledge about the local area of Letchworth Garden City.
Provides children with hands on experiences.
Encourage children to be curious about the natural world and its people by asking and answering questions.
Fun and engaging topic-based curriculum that expands children’s knowledge and understanding.
Cross-curricular learning that enables all children to access the curriculum and reach their best abilities.
All children experience Forest School sessions that take place on the school grounds and allows children to develop their fieldwork skills.
Encourage children to make observations about their learning and take notice of the natural world around them.

ELG

Talk about changes in their immediate environments.
Make observations and ask questions about their own environment, places and living things.
Look at similarities and differences in places, objects, materials and living things.

Locational Place and Knowledge

Year 1

Children to look into the local area, mainly the school and the surrounding grounds.
Name and locate the four countries and their capital cities of the United Kingdom.
Find and name the seven continents on a world map.

Year 2

Name and locate the seven world continents and the 5 oceans.
Use globes and atlases to locate the United Kingdom and the four countries. Identify and find the seven continents and five oceans.
Compare Mexico City to Letchworth Garden City.

Human and Physical Geography

Year 1

Comparison between a seaside UK town and Non-European seaside town (Brighton beach and Bondi Beach)
Hot and cold climates compared and identified.
Basic geographical terminology covered in Forest School sessions and Seaside Topic, including; Key human features; city, town, house, shop; Key physical features; beach, cliff, coast, season and weather

Year 2

Identify the location of hot and cold areas of the world in relation to the Equator and South and North Poles (Mexico, The Wicked and the Wise topic)
Basic geographical terminology covered in Forest School sessions, including;
Key human features; city, town, village, factory, farm, house, office, port, harbour and shop
Key physical features; beach, cliff, coast, forest, hill, mountain, sea, ocean, river, soil, valley, vegetation, season and weather

Geography skills and fieldwork

Year 1

Children to take part in Forest School sessions in Spring and Summer terms to help develop geographical skills and fieldwork.
Use aerial images to locate the school and key landmarks in and around Letchworth Garden City.
Introduction of key language (e.g. left, right etc.) and simple map work of the school (including messy maps).

Year 2

Children to take part in Forest School sessions in Autumn, Spring and Summer terms to further develop geographical skills and fieldwork.
Children to further their key language (north, west, south, east) and map work, creating maps on simple coordinates, using keys and grid references.