This project teaches children about the history of ancient China, focusing primarily on the Shang Dynasty, and explores the lasting legacy of the first five Chinese dynasties, some of which can still be seen in the world today.  As part of this, the children use maps and atlases to locate key areas of the world map. 

This project is Year 5’s main Geography topic and it is studied in the Spring Term. This project teaches children about the features and characteristics of land use in agricultural regions across the world, including a detailed exploration of significant environmental areas.

They will begin by describing in detail the different types of agricultural land use in the UK. They will look at agricultural land use on its smallest scale, the allotment, and will consider their prevalence and distribution in the local area. Then will understand the features of what makes an allotment successful by carrying out a geographical enquiry by gathering and analysing a range of sources.

The project looks at farming in the United Kingdom and the children will focus on how the factors of climate, topography and soil determine how the land is used.  They will understand that Ordnance Survey maps can be used to locate places, and human and physical features in the landscape by using six-figure grid references. Using their knowledge taught about farming, the children will use the maps to locate local farms. They will answer questions, such as ‘Where are the farms located? What does the map tell you about the topography of the farmland? What type of farming do you think is in that area? What evidence is there to support your ideas?’ The children will look at the contour lines, map symbols and geographical features to help them to explain their reasoning.

This projects enables the children to undertake a case study on potato farming in Jersey, in particular, looking at climate, soil, problems, history, landscape, and growing and harvesting. They will look at how soil fertility, drainage and climate affect agricultural land use.

The children will continue the project looking at farming around the world. They will name and locate the world’s biomes, climate zones and vegetation belts and explain their common characteristics. They will start by looking at the Earth’s five climate zones: desert, Mediterranean, polar, temperate and tropical. They will look at the climate zones of North and South America, and they will compare them to the UK. They will understand that the two continents make up the largest stretch of land in the world and can be divided into environmental regions, or biomes, based on their physical features, climate, geology, vegetation and soil types. Then, they will look at farming in North and South America. The children will Identify and describe some of the key physical features and environmental regions of North and South America and explain how these, along with the climate zones and soil types, can affect land use. Next, the children will look at citrus farming in California. They will be taught how the soil and climate of California support citrus production. Finally, they will look at coffee growing in Peru and how Coffee is grown in Peru because the warm climate, frequent rainfall and rich soil provide perfect growing conditions. They will understand and identify some of the problems of farming in a developing country and report on ways in which these can be supported.

This project teaches the children how to describe and explain the location, purpose and use of transport networks across the UK and other parts of the world. They will understand that the journey that food travels from producer to consumer is measured in food miles. The children will look at food labels for the food’s place of origin, which they will locate on maps of the world. They will be able to discuss the number of countries represented and their distances from the UK. This will bring discussion about how to transport the food and the need to keep food fresh and transport it as quickly and cheaply as possible.

In this History focused project about the ancient Greeks, the children will look at where Greece is, using maps, atlases, globes and online tools. They will look at aerial photographs of Greece to begin to describe the landscape of Greece. They will use maps of Ancient Greece to look at the geographical features of ancient Greece, including islands, significant city states, landmarks, surrounding seas and countries. This will enabled them to gain a deeper understanding of the human Geography (population changes, migration, land use, changes to inner city, urbanisation, developments and tourism) and physical Geography (rivers, coast, weather and rocks) of Greece, and the impact this has on the environment.