UKS2: Africa Theme 2: Land of Diversity

UKS2: Africa Theme 2: Land of Diversity

Session 1: Continent not Country! Geography / Session 1a: Oceans, seas, rivers and lakes Geography
Range and Breadth Geog: 7b Study a range of places & environments in different parts of the world. / Range and Breadth Geog: 7b Study a range of places & environments in different parts of the world.
PoS / Geography: Knowledge and understanding of places [Main] / PoS / Geography: Knowledge and understanding of places [Main]
Objectives / To understand Africa is a continent not a country. To begin to name and locate some of the countries of Africa.
3c Describe where places are.
3g Recognise how places fit within wider geographical context.
2c Use atlases, globes, maps and plans at a range of scales. / Objectives / To identify oceans and seas surrounding African Continent. To begin to name some of the rivers and lakes found in Africa.
3c Describe where places are.
3g Recognise how places fit within wider geographical context.
2c Use atlases, globes, maps and plans at a range of scales.
Whole class teaching
Ask chn if they have African heritage or have visited any of the countries in Africa. Discuss countries and what chn know/want to know. Show large map of Africa - explain this is the continent of Africa. Find countries mentioned by chn or that they know. Ask a child to come and find Africa on a globe and another to find it on the world map (Peters projection). Describe its position showing the equator, tropics, Europe and Asia. Comment on the size of the continent: it is the second biggest continent on the earth, 20.2% of the Earth’s land. Discuss how vast it is and ensure chn know it is a continent; not a country. Look at the Map of Africa (see resources) and ask chn to guess how many countries. Count them: 53 countries! Discuss how many that is – how many are there in other continents? Use world map to count, discussing answers. Look at the size of the continent of Africa, it is vast, a fifth of the worlds land. Ask chn to look at map again - which country is the largest (most land)? Sudan. Where is it? Discuss countries as coastal, central, in the North, South, East and West etc. Talk about how, since Africa is so large, countries are often grouped e.g. West Africa, North Africa. Look at the countries in each grp. Could use interactive map at http://www.oddizzi.com/. / Whole class teaching
Look at collage map of Africa (previous session) then look at globe and world map. Explain we have to write the oceans and seas onto the map. Give groups of chn an atlas and ask them to help you write labels for the oceans and seas around Africa to stick around the collage. Discuss where each label goes, and then look at what countries have a coast on that ocean/sea. Look at the countries which border the Mediterranean and Red seas, the Mozambique channel, Indian, Atlantic and South Atlantic oceans.
What about lakes and rivers? Ask chn to look at their countries they made in the previous session. Does their country have a coastline? If so what ocean or sea is it on? Ask chn to work in pairs to find their country in the atlas. Does it have lakes and rivers? Explain that chn will be marking any lakes and rivers on their map of their country. They will also mark the seas and oceans if their country has a coastline. Point out the major lakes and rivers in Africa: Lake Victoria, Lake Nyasa, Lake Tanganyika, Lake Turkana, Lake Tchad, River Nile, River Zambezi, River Niger, River Congo, River Limpopo…etc.
Easy/Medium/Hard
Explain to chn we are going to make a huge map of Africa. Show chn the countries ready to cut (see resources – enlarge onto A3). Each child will cut out, paint and write the name on a country (or two). Demonstrate explaining to cut carefully so you can piece it together like a jigsaw puzzle for display. Point out that countries should be a different colour when they are touching to make borders clear (plan before starting with dots of colour on map of Africa). / Easy/Medium/Hard
Chn find and name the lakes and rivers flowing through their country. They use an atlas, a map of Africa and the internet to add major rivers and lakes to their piece of the collage. Ensure chn who have countries with same river/lake in them work together (E.g. rivers, Nile, Congo, Niger, Zambezi etc.). Encourage chn who work fast to use the internet to find out a few facts – longest river, largest lake, etc.
Plenary / Piece together Africa on a wall to make a huge map for display. Remind chn this is a map of the African continent with all 53 countries. Ask chn to name and point to their country. / Plenary / Discuss inland countries - how many have no coast? How many countries are on the coast? Reassemble collage for class display showing detail of major rivers and lakes.