Maps and plans

The students are almost ready to tackle the summative assessment which they will start in the next couple of weeks. Already they have been inquiring into and finding out about the many systems we use to locate ourselves and find our way around.

They have worked with globes, atlases and a range of different maps including google earth during ICT lessons. In maths they have made connections by working with coordinates, compass points and directions, right angles and scale.

We are just beginning to work with how people have organised the earth as a whole. Here is some of the vocabulary we will be using in the next few days:

lines of longitude
lines latitude
Equator
Greenwich Meridian
International Date Line
Tropic of Cancer
Tropic of Capricorn
North Pole
South Pole
Northern Hemisphere
Southern Hemisphere
Continents
Arctic Circle
Antarctic Circle

Unit of Inquiry

The first unit of inquiry this year is under the theme: "How we organise ourselves."
The title of the unit is: "Where in the World?"

The central idea is:

Systems have been developed which help us to locate ourselves and find our way around the planet.

Lines of inquiry:
The system we have developed to help us interpret the geographical features of the Earth.
How we locate and navigate around the Earth.

Welcome

Welcome to the Year 5 weblog for 2008-2009. Throughout the year this space will be used both to keep you up to date with what is going on in class and as a forum for the students to share and display some of their work. It will also operate as a links page to the many interesting and useful websites we may encounter during the year and so will hopefully become a great homework resource for the students.