Geography at key stages 1 and 2    (Year 3/6)

• Bring local or national news items from newspapers or the internet (photographs in particular) to the attention of the whole class by displaying them on a 'class newsboard' and ask the children to do the same.
• Use images to develop an interactive display where children identify the location of a story on a local street plan or UK map. Ask the children to match headlines to stories or create headlines and perhaps write a possible news report. If an item relates to a local issue, children could be asked to complete reports on what they think about the issue.

• Ask the children to write a news report about a local issue, eg a new housing estate, closing down of a corner shop. Ask them to publish it using word-processing or desktop publishing software. The children could also create posters about the issue to display around the school, to which other children can respond.

• Use regional, national or international television weather forecasts to develop the children's understanding of where they are on the weather map. Develop the children's understanding of weather symbols and variations in weather across different countries and continents.
• Ask the children to produce and present their own weather forecasts.

• Bring local, national or international news items from newspapers or the internet to the attention of the whole class by displaying them on a 'class newsboard' and ask the children to do the same.
• Ask the children to identify the location of the story on a local street plan or UK or world map.
• Use images of geographical events, eg flooding, as a stimulus for report writing. Ask the children to write a news report about what happened before and after the event, in terms of geographical processes and the impact of the event on human lives.

• Use a local issue, eg the building of a new bypass, and collect information through fieldwork, eg photographs, land use in the immediate area, environmental quality.
• Use quote cards that outline the views of different interested parties (both for and against) as a stimulus for the children to write reports on the issue. Use word processing, desktop publishing or other appropriate software to present it. As a class, debate the issue.

• Use children's television news programmes and other selected mainstream news bulletins as a stimulus for geographical enquiry. For example a river in flood could be used to develop ideas about geographical processes and how physical and human features interact.
• Use weather forecasts to develop ideas about weather patterns and climate. (This activity could also involve weather reporting in newspapers.)

• Use daily traffic news on the radio as a stimulus for problem solving about journeys. Ask the children to use Ordnance Survey maps to plan alternative routes to 'work' or school when normal routes are not usable. For each route, ask the children to note grid references and distance and to use Ordnance Survey symbols to identify what they might see on each journey.

• Discuss with the children a local issue that they have heard about on the radio.
• Divide the children into small groups and ask each group to develop a radio news report about a local issue considering different arguments by interviewing each other in different roles.