Mountains Topic - The Complete Topic (17 lessons)

Find out about mountain animals, mountain climates and a mountainous range of other aspects of the highest peaks in the world in this engaging and inspiring Mountains series. Intended for Year 5 and 6 but easily adaptable for other age ranges, these Mountains lessons contain everything you need to teach this area of the curriculum in a creative and interactive way including lesson plans, differentiated worksheets and a host of other resources.

Download two Art lessons based on the topic 'Mountains' - part of a complete classic cross-curricular topic for Year 5/6.

Download two Computing lessons based on the topic 'Mountains' - part of a complete classic cross-curricular topic for Year 5/6.

Download five Geography lessons based on the topic 'Mountains' - part of a complete classic cross-curricular topic for Year 5/6.

Download four RE lessons based on the topic 'Mountains' - part of a complete classic cross-curricular topic for Year 5/6.

Download four Science lessons based on the topic 'Mountains' - part of a complete classic cross-curricular topic for Year 5/6.

Introduce your class to an artist famous for his portrayals of the American West, Albert Bierstadt, looking in particular at his artwork of the Rocky Mountains, Sierra Nevada and other American mountains. Children are then challenged to create a piece of mountain artwork based on Bierstadt’s style.

Russian artist, author and thinker, Nicholas Roerich, created over 7000 paintings in his life, many of which portrayed mountains. Explore these paintings with your class before thinking about the techniques and materials that could be used to recreate mountain artwork in the style of Roerich.

This lesson allows your class to put their computing skills to the test as they prepare a multimedia presentation about a particular mountain, including text, pictures, sounds and more.

This lesson allows your class to improve their data handling skills as they input and analyse data on the heights of some of the world's tallest and most famous mountains.

The first of these Geography lessons informs your class of some of the ways in which mountains are formed, some of the different types of mountains and how mountainous areas can be seen on topographical map. They will also identify where the major mountain ranges of the world are located.

This lesson allows your class to investigate the height, population, features and origins of a particular mountain in detail, such as Mount Everest, Kilimanjaro, K2, Ben Nevis or many others, and encourages them to think about the questions they will need to ask for their investigation.

Mountains have their own climate due to their high altitude. This lesson gives your class the chance to find out the climate data of a particular mountain and challenges them to analyse the data they have found.

This lesson looks briefly at the uses of mountains before taking a closer look at mountains as tourist destinations, encouraging your class to think about what they could do on a mountain holiday and which mountain or mountain range they would most like to visit from what they have found out so far.

The final lesson in this Geography series looks at the effects of tourism on the mountain environment and gives your class the opportunity to consider both the positive and the negative aspects of enjoying a mountain holiday.

This lesson introduces your class to some of the fundamental beliefs of Buddhists, as well as background information about who Buddha was and where Buddhism originated.

This lesson looks at Buddhism in Tibet, set on a high plateau amongst some of the highest mountains in the world. As well as looking at some of the features of Tibetan Buddhism, your class will also be able to voice their own opinions on the Chinese occupation of Tibet and how this has affected religious life.

Lhasa, a city with one of the highest elevations on earth, is Tibet's most holy city. Introduce your class to some of the most important religious sites of the city, such as the Potala Palace, former home of the Dalai Lama, before thinking about why Lhasa is important to Buddhists today.

This lesson looks at why pilgrims undertake long journeys to the holy city of Lhasa, performing prostrations to make a difficult journey across the Himalayas even harder, and thinks about why such journeys are important to Buddhists.

Identify animals typically found on the highest peak in the world in this lesson, as children learn about snow leopards, red pandas, langur monkeys and many other mountain creatures.

In this lesson, identify similarities and differences between the animals on Mount Everest and Ben Nevis, then challenge children to classify them into different groups.

Find out how mountain animals have adapted to their unique environment as your class learn what physical adaptations are and how they help animals to survive in the harsh mountain environments.

This lesson looks at what food chains and food webs are, using vocabulary such as producer, consumer, carnivore and herbivore, before giving your class the opportunity to order mountain plants and animals into food chains and food webs.