What have we learned about rivers?
These activities are designed for the teacher to see how much the children have learned throughout the topic about rivers and can be used for assessment purposes. There are a series of quizzes/fun activities which the children can do either as extension activities throughout the project or for fun or they can be used for assessment by the teacher.
ACTIVITY ONE : What have we learnt about rivers?
A good start to this activity is to give the children one minute to think of one thing that they have learnt about rivers which they did not know before the topic began. Then go round the class one by one and ask each child to say what it was that they learnt. If possible try to go round the class again after every has had a go.
The activity can be left at this point or the teacher may wish to give the children some or all of the quizzes or give different quizzes to different children based on their ability. There are word searches, cross words and question and answer sheets.
RESOURCES REQUIRED
ACTIVITY TWO : A River Book.
For this activity give each child an area of the river to study. Based on what they know (they can refer to their work, books, CD ROM's, photos etc. to help them) write a page of A4 with pictures about their river aspect. The teacher should let the children decide what they are going to write and how they are going to present their work but a general discussion about titles (whether they should be in capital letters or not) and format of the pages should be discussed prior to the children starting their work. Possible aspects of the river to write about are:
What a river is.
The three courses.
Waterfalls and gorges.
Mouth, delta, estuary.
Source, stream, mountains and river valley.
Meanders and Oxbow lakes.
Erosion and deposition.
Flooding - definition, causes, effects, solutions, places and dates floods have occurred.
Dams - definition, advantages, disadvantages, names of dams.
Reservoirs - their purpose and use.
Uses of water - domestic, agricultural and industrial.
Water treatment - water treatment works and sewage works.
River Pollution - types and causes.
Using rivers for leisure activities.
Using rivers for transport.
River plants and animals.*
The water cycle.
Power from rivers.
Underground rivers.*
The River Nile.
The River - local river study.
The Mississippi.
The Angara.
The Orinoco.
The Danube.
The River Severn.
Glossary - all the different river features.
Contents.
Index.
The headings with a * by them indicate topics which have not been taught in the teacher planning. It is a good idea to give these topics to the more able children to develop their research skills.
Once each child has done their heading, they will either need to word process it or hand write it, ensuring that they include pictures to illustrate their points. Scanned pictures can be imported or copied and pasted into word processed documents. Note it is best to either word process or hand write the work, a mixture of both looks untidy. When all the headings are finished, the teacher can get the book bound (or put it in a folder) to use for future years. By reading what each child has written, the teacher will get some idea of what that particular child knows about that aspect of a river. This work can then be photocopied and put in a child's Individual Pupil Profile as evidence of learning in geography for this topic. However other activities and pieces of work are also suitable for assessment purposes.
RESOURCES REQUIRED
Geography books with previous work in it.
Books, CD ROM's, newspaper articles.
Computers.
Scanner.
