Countries of the World

#TheCompleteSeries7lessons

Each of the seven lessons within this exciting scheme of work contains all the resources you need to deliver this fundamental scheme of work. Not only will children improve their locational knowledge but they also have the chance to develop crucial geographical skills, such as map reading and using directional language. Designed to cover National Curriculum objectives, this scheme of work provides a fanastic way to cover a multitude of important objectives within the KS2 geography curriculum, all through fun, engaging and challenging activities.

Are you looking for an in-depth Geography Curriculum for your primary school? Check out our Geography Curriculum Packs – curated schemes of work to seamlessly cover all Geography National Curriculum objectives from Year 1 to Year 6.

#Lesson1Continents

The first lesson in this series recaps your class's knowledge of the continents of the world and challenges children to identify them on a world map. They can then solidify their understanding of their location by using directional language to navigate from continent to continent on a world map.

The included slideshow presentation gives your children the chance to practise this together as a class before tackling some fun independent activities. Children can either label a world map with the continents using differentiated worksheets, using a key to identify each one, or work with a partner to use directional language to navigate between continents.

#Lesson2Countries

Now that your class are confident in the location of the seven continents, they can move on to explore countries! The lesson starts by defining the difference between a continent and a country, then looking at a political map of Europe to identify different countries and their bordering nations. The slides also explore how to use GIS and atlases to find and identify countries on a map.

As they explore this independently, children have the opportunity to find given countries and identify the countries that share a border with them. There is also a fun riddle activity that challenges children to identify different countries based on a set of clues!

There is also a fun and active game to bring the class together again at the end of the lesson!

#Lesson3CapitalCities

This lesson starts by exploring the difference between continents, countries and cities, and identifying the relationship between them. It then moves on to identifying some of the capital cities of the world and locating them on a world map. Children will also have the chance to look at some photos of different capital cities to explore their features.

In their independent activities, children can then either use maps to match up capital cities with their countries, or play a fun game in pairs to help them become more familiar with major capital cities around the world.

As a fun way to end the lesson, the plenary activity challenges children to work out which direction a plane would need to travel in order to get from one capital city to another.

#Lesson4TimeZones

This lesson starts by teaching children about lines of longitude and latitude, identifying key examples (such as the Equator and Prime Meridian) and finding out what they are used for. They then explore time zones of the world and why these are necessary, based on the Earth's rotation around the Sun.

Children will look at a simple time zone map, identifying the Prime Meridian as the starting point. They can then solve a variety of simple time zone problems, such as working out what time it is in Moscow (GMT +3) if it is 4pm in London.

During their independent learning activities, children can then solve some time zone problems independently using differentiated worksheets to support them, or create their own clock faces to manipulate the hour and minute hands to show the time in a given city based on their relationship to the Prime Meridian.

#Lesson5ClimateZones

After a quick quiz to identify some different countries on a world map, this lesson moves on to look at the major climate zones around the world, using a thematic map. After identifying and exploring the different climate zones, children will explore their relationship to the equator, tropics and Arctic Circle. Children can then use this knowledge to predict which out of two given countries would be hotter or colder, based on their location on the globe.

During their independent learning activities, children can then either use a climate zone map and political map to answer a varierty of questions, or explore climate graphs for six different countries and match these to the correct climate zone.

#Lesson6HumanandPhysicalFeatures

In this lesson, children will define the difference between human and physical geographical features. The included slideshow then presents some information about the human and physical features of two contrasting countries (India and Canada). Children then consider if there are any other questions they would ask to help them find out more information about either of these countries.

During their independent learning time, children then choose a country of their own to research, finding out about key human and physical features, such as mountains, lakes, seas, population, size, currency, main religion, languages and culture. There is also a pre-prepared activity where children travel around the classroom finding out the facts they need about a given country.

#Lesson7ComparingCountriestotheUK

In the final lesson of this scheme of work, your class will recap the definition of human and phyiscal geography before considering questions they could ask to identify similarities and differences in the features of the UK and a contrasting country.

Children are then challenged to draw on all the knowledge and skills they have acquired during this scheme of work to compare the human and physical features of the UK and another country. There are different ways children can research and present the information, depending on your preferred activity style.

There is then the opportunity to further consolidate their knowledge and understanding of the continents, countries and cities of the world with a fun End of Unit Quiz for the plenary!

Free Overview (Medium-Term Plan)

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Free Assessment Grid

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Curriculum Objectives covered

• locate the world’s countries, using maps to focus on Europe (including the location of Russia) and North and South America, concentrating on their environmental regions, key physical and human characteristics, countries, and major cities
• identify the position and significance of latitude, longitude, Equator, Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, Arctic and Antarctic Circle, the Prime/Greenwich Meridian and time zones (including day and night)
• understand geographical similarities and differences through the study of human and physical geography of a region of the United Kingdom, a region in a European country, and a region within North or South America
• describe and understand key aspects of physical geography, including: climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts, rivers, mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes, and the water cycle
• describe and understand key aspects of human geography, including: types of settlement and land use, economic activity including trade links, and the distribution of natural resources including energy, food, minerals and water
• use maps, atlases, globes and digital/computer mapping to locate countries and describe features studied
• use the eight points of a compass, four and six-figure grid references, symbols and key (including the use of Ordnance Survey maps) to build their knowledge of the United Kingdom and the wider world