Follow-up 5
Objectives:
For children to develop a greater understanding of the decisions to be made and factors involved in choosing a site to settle in.
Materials:
Maps, landscape photographs, large plain/squared paper.
Class set-up:
Individuals or pairs (or could be teacher-led class session with large OHP or whiteboard).
Vocabulary:
Landscape, features, settlement, scale, key, site
Activity:
Discuss with the children what they need to survive and flourish. What sort of landscape with what sort of resources would they need? Look at some landscape photos and discuss the suitability of the landscapes for a settlement.
What facilities would a group of people need? What natural resources might be growing in the area which we could use to help us?
Show the children a map of the Indus river region (use the Geography 'Explore' section from the website).What advantages would people gain from living in a region like this? (i.e. close to a river) What resources are available to them? Why do you think they chose this site?
Explain that the children are going to produce a sketch map to show a landscape that would be suitable for a settlement. Brainstorm their ideas about what is important for choosing the site of their settlement and record on the board. They will need to think about choosing a site that has access to water, can be defended, has access to trade routes and has important resources such as wood and food sources.Explain the use of keys if this concept is unfamiliar to them and that they will develop their own key so that they can show all the important features on their map, for example a river; a forest; a hill; houses; fields with particular crops.
You may wish to do an example together on the board. You may also wish to give more able children a blank piece of plain or squared paper so as to challenge them to devise the landscape, whilst providing less able children with your own map that shows the main landscape features. They would then have to choose the best site before marking their settlement onto the map and developing a key. This could be a paired activity, particularly for those needing more support.The finished maps could be studied in small groups with the children identifying why the sites have been placed in particular places and using the keys to identify the resources available.
Background information:
This activity links with the QCA scheme of work for primary geography, Unit 9 'Village Settlers' and also supports the work in Unit 10 'A Village in India'.Climate in India
Indus River
Saraswati River
Environment
River Ganga
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