Year 4 · Maps and our place in the world

Latitude, longitude, hemispheres and time zones

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)

25 minutes4 checks6 exit questionsNational curriculum objective

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Key learning points

• Latitude goes across
• Longitude goes up and down
• Two hemispheres, opposite seasons
• Why time changes as you travel

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

positionsignificancelatitudelongitudeequator

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 20 · Discover5%

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 20

Watch first

Latitude, longitude, hemispheres and time zones

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 countries and continents on a globe or map.

Recap: y4-geography-2

Key words

Part 3 of 20

Key words

Words you'll need today

latitude: How far north or south of the Equator a place is.
longitude: How far east or west of the Greenwich Meridian a place is.
hemisphere: Half of the Earth, north or south of the Equator.
time zone: An area that keeps the same clock time.

Learning cycle

Part 4 of 20

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Part 1 — Lines across the Earth

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

Explore the idea

Part 5 of 20

Learn

Latitude goes across

Lines of latitude run east to west, like rungs on a ladder. The Equator is 0 degrees, halfway between the poles. The Tropic of Cancer sits above it and the Tropic of Capricorn below; near the poles come the Arctic and Antarctic Circles. The nearer the Equator, the hotter the year usually is.

Explore the idea

Part 6 of 20

Learn

Longitude goes up and down

Lines of longitude run pole to pole. The 0 degree line, the Prime or Greenwich Meridian, runs through London. Give a latitude and a longitude together and you have named one exact point on Earth — that is how sat-nav works.

Quick check

Part 7 of 20

Quick check

The Equator is at latitude...

Quick check

Part 8 of 20

Quick check

The Prime Meridian runs through...

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 — Day, night and time

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

Explore the idea

Part 11 of 20

Learn

Two hemispheres, opposite seasons

Everything north of the Equator is the Northern Hemisphere; everything south is the Southern. Because the Earth is tilted, the hemispheres take turns leaning towards the Sun. That is why it is summer in Australia while it is winter here.

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 20

Learn

Why time changes as you travel

The Earth spins once in about 24 hours, so it is only midday for the part facing the Sun. To keep clocks sensible, the world is split into time zones, roughly one per hour of spin, counted from Greenwich. Fly to New York and you set your watch back five hours.

Quick check

Part 13 of 20

Quick check

Why is it summer in Australia in December?

Quick check

Part 14 of 20

Quick check

Time zones exist because...

Investigate evidence

Part 15 of 20

Evidence 1 of 1

primary

A world time zone chart

Royal Observatory Greenwich, Present day

Vertical bands running pole to pole, each labelled with a number of hours ahead of or behind the line marked 0 running through Greenwich.

The Greenwich meridian was agreed as the world's zero line of longitude in 1884, which is why clocks everywhere are set from it.

Think like a historian

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.

Source: Royal Observatory public information sheet.

View the archive record ↗

Common mix-ups

Part 16 of 20

Common mix-ups

Things people often get wrong

Mixing up latitude and longitude. Latitude is the flat 'lat-ladder' running across.
Thinking the Earth's seasons are caused by being nearer the Sun. They are caused by the tilt.
Thinking the whole world shares one time.

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.

Lines of ____ run east to west, like rungs on a ladder.

The ____ is 0 degrees, halfway between the poles.

Lines of ____ run pole to pole.

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

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

Best run

0 in a row

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

Ask Luna

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 world time zone chart

primary

Royal Observatory Greenwich, Present day

Vertical bands running pole to pole, each labelled with a number of hours ahead of or behind the line marked 0 running through Greenwich.

The Greenwich meridian was agreed as the world's zero line of longitude in 1884, which is why clocks everywhere are set from it.

Source: Royal Observatory public information 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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