Year 4 · Maps and our place in the world

Countries and cities of Europe and the Americas

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

25 minutes4 checks6 exit questionsNational curriculum objective

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Key learning points

• Europe and its capitals
• Europe's physical features
• North America
• South America

This lesson at a glance

25 minutes
20 parts to scroll through
4 quick checks
No marked quiz yet
Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

locatecountrieseuropeamericaconcentrating

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 20 · Discover5%

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 20

Watch first

Countries and cities of Europe and the Americas

Take a quick trip around all seven continents of the world.

Do it for real

The practicals below use what the film shows, with a full method you can follow at home.

Track a shadow to find north

In a nutshell

What you already know

Part 2 of 20

Before we start

What you already know

You can find continents and oceans on a map and use a key.

Recap: y4-geography-1

Key words

Part 3 of 20

Key words

Words you'll need today

capital city: The city where a country's government is based.
border: The line where one country meets another.
region: An area with something in common, like its climate or landscape.
environmental region: An area sharing a climate and the plants and animals that suit it.

Learning cycle

Part 4 of 20

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Part 1 — Europe

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

Explore the idea

Part 5 of 20

Learn

Europe and its capitals

Europe holds around forty-four countries. Start with the ones nearest us: France (Paris), Spain (Madrid), Italy (Rome), Germany (Berlin), the Netherlands (Amsterdam), Norway (Oslo), Poland (Warsaw), Greece (Athens). Find each one and trace its borders with your finger.

Explore the idea

Part 6 of 20

Learn

Europe's physical features

The Alps run across France, Switzerland, Italy and Austria. The Danube crosses ten countries. The Mediterranean Sea sits along the south, giving hot dry summers and mild wet winters. Northern Scandinavia is cold, forested and lightly populated.

Quick check

Part 7 of 20

Quick check

The capital of Spain is...

Quick check

Part 8 of 20

Quick check

The Andes mountains run down...

Reset break

Part 9 of 20

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now

Learning cycle

Part 10 of 20

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Part 2 — North and South America

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

Explore the idea

Part 11 of 20

Learn

North America

North America includes Canada (Ottawa), the United States (Washington DC) and Mexico (Mexico City), plus the countries of Central America and the Caribbean. The Rocky Mountains run down the west; the Great Lakes sit between Canada and the USA; the Mississippi drains the middle.

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 20

Learn

South America

South America has twelve countries, including Brazil (Brasília), Argentina (Buenos Aires), Peru (Lima) and Chile (Santiago). The Andes run the whole western edge. The Amazon rainforest covers much of the north — the largest rainforest on Earth, and an environmental region shared by several countries.

Quick check

Part 13 of 20

Quick check

Which is the capital of the USA?

Quick check

Part 14 of 20

Quick check

The Amazon rainforest is mostly in...

Investigate evidence

Part 15 of 20

Evidence 1 of 1

map

A political map of Europe

National Geographic map collection, Present day

Each country a different flat colour, capital cities marked with a small square, seas left white and named in italics.

A political map shows borders and names rather than hills and rivers, so it answers 'who' rather than 'what the land is like'.

Think like a historian

Name three countries that border France on this map. Why is a political map more useful than a globe for that question?

Source: Reference atlas map sheet.

View the archive record ↗

Common mix-ups

Part 16 of 20

Common mix-ups

Things people often get wrong

Thinking the largest city is always the capital. Washington DC is far smaller than New York.
Confusing the continent South America with the country Brazil.
Thinking Europe is small in country count. It has over forty.

Challenge round

Part 17 of 20

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

Challenge round

Part 18 of 20

Game · Fill the gaps

Finish the sentences

Choose the word that belongs in each gap.

Europe holds around forty-four ____.

North ____ includes Canada (Ottawa), the United States (Washington DC) and Mexico (Mexico City), plus the countries of Central America and the Caribbean.

Mastery quiz

Part 19 of 20

No quiz for this one

This lesson has no marked quiz attached yet.

Lesson round-up

Part 20 of 20

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

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Games

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Points this lesson

Best run

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Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

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Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Case study

Flooding on the River Calder

The town of Harbrook sits where a steep valley opens onto a flat floodplain. In December 2015, 120 mm of rain fell in 36 hours onto ground that was already saturated. The river rose 2.4 m in five hours, and 380 homes and 54 businesses flooded. Two roads and the railway closed for eleven days.

Geographers pointed to physical causes — steep slopes, impermeable rock, heavy rainfall — and human causes: moorland drained upstream, new housing built on the floodplain, and drains designed for smaller storms.

Since then the town has planted 40 hectares of woodland upstream, built leaky dams in small streams, and raised flood walls to 1.8 m. In the storm of 2020 the peak river level was 0.3 m lower and 40 homes flooded, not 380.

Written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

List two physical and two human causes of the 2015 flood.
Explain how planting woodland upstream lowers the river's peak level.
Using the figures, judge how successful the scheme has been. Quote data in your answer.

Source for this lesson

Use this for the source work task below.

A political map of Europe

map

National Geographic map collection, Present day

Each country a different flat colour, capital cities marked with a small square, seas left white and named in italics.

A political map shows borders and names rather than hills and rivers, so it answers 'who' rather than 'what the land is like'.

Source: Reference atlas map sheet.

View the original record ↗

Case study notes
Writing
Write the place, the facts and the figures from this lesson so you can revise them later.
Half a page
Explain answer
Writing
Answer in full sentences, giving causes and effects. Use one figure or place name as evidence.
8–10 sentences
Map or sketch
Diagram
Draw the map, cross-section or field sketch with a key, title and labels, then photograph it.
1 map with a key
Data work
Working out
Plot your figures as a graph on paper and write one sentence about the pattern.
1 graph + 1 sentence

Write your answer, notes or working here

Saved as you type.

Photos of paper work, diagrams or working outHow many minutes did the written work take?

Part 1 of 20 · Watch & discover

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