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Year 4 pathway
Year 4 geography, step by step
Five steps covering the whole of Year 4 geography, each with short lessons, a real investigation to do outside or at the kitchen table, and a quiz.
Geography
Your progress
0 of 10 lessons finished · 0 of 9 Year 4 geography objectives covered
Try it yourself
Track a shadow to find north
Can a shadow tell you which way is north and how the Earth is turning?
Look at the real thing
An Ordnance Survey Explorer map extract
Blue ribbon winding north to south, green blocks either side, a small blue triangle labelled 'Youth hostel', thin brown lines curving tighter towards the top right.
Your question: The brown lines bunch up in the top right corner. What does that tell you about the ground there, and how do you know?
A political map of Europe
Each country a different flat colour, capital cities marked with a small square, seas left white and named in italics.
Your question: Name three countries that border France on this map. Why is a political map more useful than a globe for that question?
A world time zone chart
Vertical bands running pole to pole, each labelled with a number of hours ahead of or behind the line marked 0 running through Greenwich.
Your question: It is 2pm in London. Use the bands to work out the time in New York, then explain why the answer is not the same everywhere in the world.
Quiz
Step 1 quiz: Maps and our place in the world
6 questions from the lessons in this stage. No timer, and you can try again as many times as you like.
One quiz per lesson
Quiz
Quiz: Using maps, atlases and globes
6 questions from the lessons in this stage. No timer, and you can try again as many times as you like.
Quiz
Quiz: Countries and cities of Europe and the Americas
6 questions from the lessons in this stage. No timer, and you can try again as many times as you like.
Quiz
Quiz: Latitude, longitude, hemispheres and time zones
6 questions from the lessons in this stage. No timer, and you can try again as many times as you like.
What this step covers
- •Use maps, atlases, globes and digital/computer mapping to locate countries and describe features studied
- •Locate the world's countries, using maps to focus on Europe and North and South America, concentrating on their environmental regions, key physical and human characteristics, countries, and major cities
- •Identify the position and significance of latitude, longitude, Equator, Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, the Arctic and Antarctic Circle, the Prime/Greenwich Meridian and time zones (including day and night)
Look at the real thing
A land use table for two English counties
County A: farmland 71%, built on 9%, woodland 14%, water 2%. County B: farmland 34%, built on 47%, woodland 11%, water 3%.
Your question: Which of the two counties is more likely to contain a large city, and which figure in the table tells you?
Two photographs of a hill farm and a Mediterranean olive terrace
Left: stone-walled fields, sheep, low cloud, waterproof coats. Right: dry stepped slopes, olive trees, bare soil, strong shadows at midday.
Your question: Give one piece of evidence in each photograph that tells you about the climate of that region.
Quiz
Step 2 quiz: The United Kingdom and one other region
4 questions from the lessons in this stage. No timer, and you can try again as many times as you like.
One quiz per lesson
Quiz
Quiz: Counties, cities and land use in the UK
6 questions from the lessons in this stage. No timer, and you can try again as many times as you like.
Quiz
Quiz: Comparing our region with a region in Europe
6 questions from the lessons in this stage. No timer, and you can try again as many times as you like.
What this step covers
- •Name and locate counties and cities of the United Kingdom, geographical regions and their identifying human and physical characteristics, and land-use patterns; and understand how some of these aspects have changed over time
- •Understand geographical similarities and differences through the study of human and physical geography of a region of the United Kingdom and a region in a European country
Try it yourself
Build a rain gauge and measure a week of weather
How much rain really falls where you live in one week?
Make a river in a tray
Does a steeper slope make a river cut a deeper channel?
Look at the real thing
A river gauging station record
Mon 0.42 m, Tue 0.41 m, Wed 1.86 m, Thu 1.54 m, Fri 0.88 m, Sat 0.60 m, Sun 0.51 m. Rainfall on Tuesday night: 38 mm.
Your question: What happened on Wednesday, and what in the record explains it? Why did the level not drop straight back down?
A monthly climate record for a mountain weather station
January: mean 1 °C, rainfall 210 mm. July: mean 12 °C, rainfall 130 mm. Days with snow lying: 46 per year.
Your question: Is this record telling you about weather or about climate, and how can you tell from the way the numbers were collected?
Quiz
Step 3 quiz: Rivers, weather and the water cycle
4 questions from the lessons in this stage. No timer, and you can try again as many times as you like.
One quiz per lesson
Quiz
Quiz: The water cycle and rivers
6 questions from the lessons in this stage. No timer, and you can try again as many times as you like.
Quiz
Quiz: Climate zones, mountains and volcanoes
6 questions from the lessons in this stage. No timer, and you can try again as many times as you like.
What this step covers
- •Describe and understand key aspects of physical geography, including climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts, rivers, mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes, and the water cycle
Try it yourself
Land use survey of your street
What is the land in your area actually used for?
Look at the real thing
A 1900 town plan compared with the same town today
1900: a market square, a railway station, a mill beside the river, fields on all sides. Today: the mill is flats, the fields are housing estates, a ring road loops round the edge.
Your question: Name two ways the town has changed, and suggest one reason the settlement grew where it did in the first place.
Quiz
Step 4 quiz: People, settlements and resources
2 questions from the lessons in this stage. No timer, and you can try again as many times as you like.
One quiz per lesson
Quiz
Quiz: Settlements, land use, trade and resources
6 questions from the lessons in this stage. No timer, and you can try again as many times as you like.
What this step covers
- •Describe and understand key aspects of human geography, including types of settlement and land use, economic activity including trade links, and the distribution of natural resources including energy, food, minerals and water
Try it yourself
Traffic and footfall count
Is your road busier at one time of day than another?
Look at the real thing
A six-figure grid reference exercise sheet
A grid square 42 across and 17 up, divided into tenths. A church with a tower sits at 426 174; a public footpath crosses the corner at 429 178.
Your question: Which comes first in a six-figure reference, and what would go wrong if you gave the two halves the other way round?
A pupil's completed traffic count tally sheet
Site A, 9:00–9:15: cars 62, vans 9, buses 3, bikes 4. Site B, 11:30–11:45: cars 21, vans 6, buses 1, bikes 2. Weather: dry, breezy.
Your question: Is it fair to say Site A is always busier than Site B? Point to the part of the record that makes you cautious.
Quiz
Step 5 quiz: Fieldwork in our local area
4 questions from the lessons in this stage. No timer, and you can try again as many times as you like.
One quiz per lesson
Quiz
Quiz: Compass points, grid references and OS symbols
6 questions from the lessons in this stage. No timer, and you can try again as many times as you like.
Quiz
Quiz: Fieldwork: observe, measure, record, present
6 questions from the lessons in this stage. No timer, and you can try again as many times as you like.
What this step covers
- •Use the eight points of a compass, four and six-figure grid references, symbols and key (including the use of Ordnance Survey maps) to build their knowledge of the United Kingdom and the wider world
- •Use fieldwork to observe, measure, record and present the human and physical features in the local area using a range of methods, including sketch maps, plans and graphs, and digital technologies
Where this leads
Rivers, climate, settlements and fieldwork skills are exactly what Year 8 geography builds on, and they carry all the way to GCSE.