Year 4 · Rivers, weather and the water cycle

Climate zones, mountains and volcanoes

Describe and understand key aspects of physical geography, including climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts, rivers, mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes, and the water cycle

25 minutes4 checks6 exit questionsNational curriculum objective

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Describe and understand key aspects of physical geography, including climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts, rivers, mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes, and the water cycle

Key learning points

• Sunlight and latitude
• Biomes and vegetation belts
• Height changes everything
• Plates, mountains and volcanoes

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

aspectsphysicalgeographyclimatebiomes

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 20 · Discover5%

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 20

Watch first

Climate zones, mountains and volcanoes

Follow a drop of water as it rises, makes clouds and falls as rain.

Do it for real

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

Build a rain gauge and measure a week of weather Make a river in a tray

In a nutshell

Describe and understand key aspects of physical geography, including climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts, rivers, mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes, and the water cycle

What you already know

Part 2 of 20

Before we start

What you already know

You know about latitude, the Equator and the water cycle.

Recap: y4-geography-3 Recap: y4-geography-6

Key words

Part 3 of 20

Key words

Words you'll need today

climate zone: A wide band of the world sharing a similar climate.
biome: A large area with its own climate, plants and animals.
altitude: Height above sea level.
tectonic plate: A huge slab of the Earth's outer layer that slowly moves.

Learning cycle

Part 4 of 20

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Part 1 — Why climates differ

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

Explore the idea

Part 5 of 20

Learn

Sunlight and latitude

Near the Equator sunlight hits the ground almost straight on, so it is hot all year. Near the poles the same sunlight spreads across much more ground and passes through more air, so it is cold. That gives us tropical, temperate and polar zones.

Explore the idea

Part 6 of 20

Learn

Biomes and vegetation belts

Each climate suits different plants. Tropical rainforest sits in the hot wet band near the Equator; hot deserts a little further out; grasslands, then temperate forest where we live; coniferous forest, tundra and ice towards the poles. Plants tell you the climate without a thermometer.

Quick check

Part 7 of 20

Quick check

Why is it hot near the Equator?

Quick check

Part 8 of 20

Quick check

Which biome sits in the hot wet band near the Equator?

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 — Mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes

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

Explore the idea

Part 11 of 20

Learn

Height changes everything

The higher you go, the colder it gets — about 6 degrees cooler for every kilometre of altitude. That is why mountains near the Equator can still have snow on top, and why the plants change as you climb.

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 20

Learn

Plates, mountains and volcanoes

The Earth's surface is broken into tectonic plates that creep about. Where they push together, rock crumples upwards and makes mountain ranges like the Himalayas. Where they pull apart or one dives under another, magma rises and volcanoes form. Sudden slips along plate edges cause earthquakes.

Quick check

Part 13 of 20

Quick check

Going up a mountain, temperature...

Quick check

Part 14 of 20

Quick check

Mountain ranges like the Himalayas form where plates...

Investigate evidence

Part 15 of 20

Evidence 1 of 1

primary

A monthly climate record for a mountain weather station

Met Office station records, Thirty-year averages

January: mean 1 °C, rainfall 210 mm. July: mean 12 °C, rainfall 130 mm. Days with snow lying: 46 per year.

Averaging thirty years of readings turns weather, which changes daily, into climate, which describes a place.

Think like a historian

Is this record telling you about weather or about climate, and how can you tell from the way the numbers were collected?

Source: Met Office public station data.

View the archive record ↗

Common mix-ups

Part 16 of 20

Common mix-ups

Things people often get wrong

Thinking it is hotter at the Equator because it is closer to the Sun. It is the angle of the sunlight.
Thinking mountains are cold because they are nearer the Sun. Higher air is thinner and colder.
Thinking volcanoes and earthquakes happen anywhere at random. They cluster at plate edges.

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.

Each ____ suits different plants.

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 monthly climate record for a mountain weather station

primary

Met Office station records, Thirty-year averages

January: mean 1 °C, rainfall 210 mm. July: mean 12 °C, rainfall 130 mm. Days with snow lying: 46 per year.

Averaging thirty years of readings turns weather, which changes daily, into climate, which describes a place.

Source: Met Office public station data.

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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