
Innovative Ways to Teach the Geography National Curriculum
Many primary teachers feel overwhelmed when it comes to teaching the Geography National Curriculum. The brief, rather dry curriculum statements and objectives don’t give teachers much to go on when planning for Geography. That’s why we believe a creative approach to Geography planning is essential.
Do it the right way and you’ll help bring Geography to life, inspire your primary students to learn more about this fascinating topic and also meet key UK National Curriculum guidelines.
To help you get started, we’ve compiled some of our favourite hands-on Geography lesson ideas that will help get your KS1 and KS2 primary students excited about learning Geography and exploring the world around them.

Set Creative Geography Projects
Creative geography projects are fantastic for getting your students involved in hands-on learning, discovering some real-life applications of Geography, and bringing the Geography National Curriculum to life.
A creative approach, where you include opportunities for learners to develop their ‘soft skills’ such as teamwork and communication, will really help ignite curiosity and bring learning to life.
Consider including geography projects such as the following:
- Make it personal- Create maps to tell the stories of your students’ lives and where they came from
- Hunt the treasure- Boost children’s Geography skills and encourage their creativity by making maps of imaginary places such as a treasure island or ‘Dream Country’ from the classic children’s book, ‘The BFG’.
- Compass creativity- Help your hands-on learners shine by encouraging them to make their own compasses using craft materials.
- World friendship- Promote a better understanding of the world and boost literacy skills by finding penpals for your students, followed by an optional Skype chat.
- Map your world- Ask your student to create a map of the world around them, perhaps the classroom, school or local area to enhance locational awareness.
- Track my food- Create a wall display of the food items that your students’ families buy from the supermarket, marking their origins on the map with stickers or pins.
Introduce Digital Geography Resources
Digital geography resources are valuable tools that will help you bring your geography lessons right up to the 21st century. They’ll also boost your students’ engagement, get them excited about geography and also meet some of the requirements of the UK Geography National Curriculum.
Here are our favourite ideas:
- Go Geocaching: Who said geography fieldwork had to be dull? Instead, teach your students about modern navigation using GPS, then take them outside to explore.
- Google It: Challenge your students to explore an area using digital mapping such as Google Maps or Google Earth for an additional interactive element.
- Get gaming!: Most primary students will love the interactivity of online games such as GeoGuessr (a discovery geography game) and Geography Duel (a world geography trivia game, available on iTunes)
- Experience Earth Alerts: This wonderful site allows you to track major events around the world in real time, such as volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis and hurricanes.
3. Looking for more geography resources?
Use the creative Geography ideas we’ve shared so far to supplement or inspire your lesson plans, help you students feel enthusiastic and excited about their geography lessons, and to help deepen their knowledge in a fun and accessible way.
To ensure you’re meeting the geography National Curriculum requirements for KS1 or KS2, consider supplementing your Geography lessons plans with the following:
Explore Geography of your Local Area
At PlanBee, we offer an excellent scheme of work for KS1 Geography such as ‘Where Do I Live?’ and KS2 Geography called ‘Our Local Area' which will ease your lesson planning burden while also meeting the demands of the National Curriculum.
Combining essential classroom lesson plans, slides, activity sheets, handouts and other resources, this pack will teach your students about human and physical features of the your local area. This includes key geography topics such as economic activity, climate, rivers, land use and settlements which are presented in a way which help primary students put their learning into context.
We also offer a wide range of Geography lesson plans, worksheets, and Geography curriculum packs which will help ease the burden of lesson planning and allow your students to get more from the classroom.
Get your students inspired by using these innovative primary teaching ideas and you’ll boost their sense curiosity about the world while also meeting the guidelines set out in the Geography curriculum.
Get in contact with the PlanBee team
Looking for more inspiration and resources to help you deliver excellent Geography lessons time after time? Create a free account with us today to explore our exciting range of resources that are ready to download today.
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