Physical features

Match these terms with their definitions.

In this photo can you see mostly human features or mostly physical features?

Human features

A river is an example of a human feature.

What human and physical features can I find in my settlement?

﻿Hello and welcome to geography. I'm Mr. Hutchinson, and we're learning all about settlements. We're learning about villages, towns, cities, different types of settlements. And recently we have been learning about and thinking about our own settlements, where we live, and we're going to continue that work today. We've got a really exciting lesson because in today's lesson, I'm going to ask you to sketch a map of your own settlement. I'm going to show you how I make a map of my settlement, and then you're going to have the chance to draw a map of your own settlement right where you live. So that was going to be a great activity for us to do later on. But first of all, let's take a look at what our lesson looks like. Well, we need to find out what a map is, don't we, if that's what we're going to be doing, if we're going to be drawing a map? What is a map, and what goes into a map? So that's what we'll look at first. Then I'm going to show you a video of me going out into, doing some field work. So field work is what geographers call going out into the actual world. And that could be a field, it could be a real field, but field is just the word that they use for anywhere outside in the environment. So I'm going to go and look at my street and I'll show you how, as a geographer, I look at my street and my local settlement, my local community. I'll then show you how I sketch in the key features to make my own map. And then it will be over to you, and it will be your chance to do the same based on what you've seen me do in making a map, you can make your own map, and I'm sure you're going to do a really good job of that and draw a really great map of your settlement. We'll finish with our quiz as usual. So our first question, what is a map? This is what we're going to be doing. So are we really clear on exactly what a map is? Do you know, could you explain what a map is? Could you explain really clearly what a map is? Have a go, have a think. How would you describe a map to somebody if they didn't know what a map was? How would you explain to them what it is? Well, let me tell you what I think a map is. I think a map is a kind of special drawing of a place. It's kind of like you're looking at the place from above, like a bird or a plane, and you're looking down, but you're making a special drawing of that place, which shows all of the main human features and physical features. And that map could be helpful for people to see what the place is really like from above. And maps can be really big or they can be really small. They come in different shapes and sizes and types. They have slightly different purposes. Sometimes people might want to see what a whole country looks like in terms of the shape of a whole country and some of the main physical features like mountains or rivers. And sometimes we might want quite a small map. We might even just want a map of a house or a small area so that we can navigate around nice and easily. So maps come in all shapes and sizes, but the things that they have in common is they're a kind of special drawing from above to show the main physical and human features. Here's a picture of a map here. What does this look like? What do you think? Take a close look. I think it kind of looks like a treasure map, doesn't it? That looks very exciting. But that's not the only type of map there is. There are maps that look more like this. You might have seen one of these. There are maps that look like this on a tablet or a phone. These are becoming much more common now, having maps on a phone or a tablet to get around. This looks like a map of a town, and this looks like a zoomed out map. This looks like a map of a whole country, a whole area, a whole country. So can you remember what a map is? What's the best definition of a map? Can you choose from this list here? Is it a picture of the nicest buildings in the local area? Is it a photograph of one of the natural features in a particular place? Is it a photograph of the land taken from an aeroplane? Or is it a diagram of an area which shows the different human or physical features? What's the best definition of a map there? Can you choose? You could write down the definition. If you've got your pen and your paper or your book ready, you could write down your definition if you think that you know the correct one. Or you could just point to the screen. If you're going to write it down, pause the video now, and let's see if you were right. There we go. A map is a diagram of an area which shows the different human and physical features. Well done if you got that right. I tried to trick you in this bit 'cause I put about the picture from the aeroplane. And I did talk about how a map is kind of like looking down from an aeroplane, but it's not just a photograph. A map shows those different human and physical features. So now we're going to take a look. We're going to observe our own street now, okay? So we're going to take a look at observing our own street. And I'm going to show you my local area. And this is my local area here, I live in London. You can see that there's, this is quite a map. It's zoomed out to show all of London. And so I'm going to show you how I can zoom in with this map. So here we go. I'm going to move over to where I live. So just move the map a little bit, and then I can zoom in. It's like, I'm getting closer to the ground, zooming in closer and close to the ground from the sky. I'm looking for my street. The streets are starting to appear now as I get a little bit closer. And I can see some of the human and physical features like green spaces. If I put the satellite picture, then it shows a real picture but with the human features, like the roads and the physical features, like the green spaces and rivers added in as well. And so now I've zoomed in and showed you my local area from above. I need to really spot and see which features, if I'm going to draw my own map, I need to go out into my settlement and see if I can spot the different things that I will draw on my map in the correct place, in the correct location, and where they are in relation to each other. So I'm going to show you a video now of me doing just that so that when you go out with your parent or carer into your local settlement, you'll know what you need to look for. And as I do this, you should be trying to spot how many different physical features you can see and the different human features you can see. I point out some of them, but you might actually be able to pick out some that I miss. So I'm walking all down my road and taking a close look at all of the different human and physical features so that I know what to... Now, at the end of my road, I've noticed that there is this big, lovely... Can you see what this is? There's a playground outside. I can see some classrooms inside the building. This is a primary school, and at the end of my road, there's this primary school so I'm going to make sure I include that in my map as well. I've got a primary school on one side and a shot of the other side of my street. So I've already spotted some of the physical features and some of the human features that I'd like to include in my map. And I'm going to show you now how I would sketch my map so that when it's time for you to sketch your map, you'll know exactly what to do. Okay, so you're going to need a nice, fresh piece of paper and then just something to draw with for your settlement. I've got a few different, I've got a charcoal pencil and a Biro here to label with. The first thing I'm going to draw is I'm going to draw my main road, I'm going to draw one of the main human features, the main roads. So my street, the road goes in a nice, straight line. So let's just draw that in, one side of the road and another side of the road. When you get to the end of my road, there's a main road crossing across as well. So I'll draw that in. I'm going to try and keep these lines straight. If you've got a ruler, you can use that. I'll draw the other side of the road here. And then when I walked down to the other side of my road, same sort of thing happened, there's another sort of main road coming off it. So my road's sort of like a side street coming off these main roads. And my house, let's add in my house next. My house is towards this end of the road. So I'm just going to draw in a sort of square to show where my house is. And I'll label that as well, I'm just going to label it my house. And then there were more houses all down my road so maybe I'll just add those in to show on my map that there are houses all along my road. And there are houses on the other side as well. So I'll add those in too so you can see on either side of my road. Now if you want to be really, really detailed, when you're mapping your local area, you can count exactly how many houses there are on each side of the road. I'm going to stop here 'cause actually a little side road, just opposite my house, there's a little side road, so I'm going to draw that in. And then there's a big block of flats. So I'll draw in that big block of flats, where lots of people live. So far I've added in some of the main human features, my flats and houses and my road. There were also, what else were there? On this side of the road, when we first looked at that video, you would've noticed that there were some shops, so let's draw those in. I think that there are five shops. One, two, I'm just going to draw in these shops, three, four, five. Let's label those so I just know what they are. These are my shops. Another important feature of my settlement is the transport links, and the main transport link near to where I live was that train station, the underground station. So I'm going to draw that in, it's just here, and I'm going to draw that in as well. And I can label that train station. What else do I need to add to my map? I can get as detailed as I like, it's a lot of fun mapping my local area. I also remember that at the other end of my road, once I got to the end of my road, on the other side of this road, there was a big, do you remember what building it was on this side of the road? That's right, it was a big school. It was a primary school. So I can add that in. It's really big, that primary school, lots of children go there. And I'm going to write in primary school. Now, I haven't added many physical features. There aren't too many physical features around where I live. It's very built up and lots... It's very been built upon and developed by people a lot, but there were those trees all along the road. So maybe I could add those in, I'm going to add them as in as little clouds, 'cause I'm looking at them from above. And they went all down my road. Again, if you want to be really detailed here, then you could count exactly how many trees there are. Maybe I should have made a note of that in my notebook as I went along, that would've been a good idea to be an even better geographer, to be a nice and accurate. But for now I can just draw those leaves from above, and there are all my trees. Maybe I'll just draw some lines to show that this is a road, and that this is a road here. And there we have it. I've drawn a basic map of my local settlement near to where I live. It shows where I live, it shows my train station, it shows where I have all of my shops, and it also shows the primary school nearby. I'm already interested to think if I can fit in some of this other space and find out what's in my local area and what's in my community so that I can have a really nice map of my local area. I can't wait to see yours. So there we go, that was me mapping mine. It's kind of on the side there, but you can see that you're mapping. That was me mapping my local area, adding in as much detail as I could after I'd been out and had a look at what was in my local area. Now it's your turn. So, it's your turn to map your local area. For you to be able to do that, there were a few things that you need to remember to do. Number one, I would start by sketching your roads in, okay, I would start off by sketching the different roads that are in your local area, in your settlement, then you can add in your house. Okay, so where's your house? You can add in any other buildings that you know of after you've done that. Where are they in relation to your house? Then you could add in any physical features, for example, any rivers or any hills, or if maybe if you live on the coast, you could sketch in the coast, any other physical features, including any forests or woods. And you can also add in any other human features, like train stations or railway tracks or any other human features. So it's your turn to do that now, okay? It's time for you to sketch your local area, and I think that you're going to do a really wonderful job with that. There are some things that you'll need to be able to do that. So I think that you probably will need a parent or a carer or a teacher. I know that some of you are watching these lessons in school, and you'll need to do a little bit of a trip out into your local area so that you can see what you can find and make sure you know everything that you're going to map in your local map. You'll need a notebook or a piece of paper to take out with you to jot down what you can see. And you might even do a sketch, a rough sketch of the area before you do it, in more detail and more neatly. If you've got a clipboard or a hard book or something to rest on, it will stop your pen or your pencil going through, and you need a pencil or a pen as well as your paper. If you've got a camera, you could even take a camera, you could take a photo so that you can just remind yourself of what the local area is like. And you might think a ruler, you might use a ruler for any particular straight lines to make sure that they are straight with a ruler. Your eyes will need to be very observant, looking really closely, not like normal when we're walking along normally. We're sort of just like, "Oh yeah, I've seen this area loads of times." We're not looking really closely at what we can see. So make sure your eyes are really observant as well. They need to be set to geography mode, ready to map the local area. And once you've got all of those things, then you're ready to go. You're ready to map your local area. And I'm sure that you will do a brilliant, brilliant job. If once you've finished your map of your local settlement, your local area, you'd like to share it, then you can do that by asking your parent or carer to share the work on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter, and just tagging in @OakNational or #LearnwithOak. And I'd love to see your maps. I'm sure that they are going to be detailed and accurate and great geography work. Have great fun being geographers and mapping your local settlement, and I'll see you in our next lesson.

What is a map?

Maps are usually drawn from a 'bird's eye view'.

Around how many people currently live on Earth?

You can make a map of an entire country.

A physical feature is:

Can I sketch a map of my settlement?

In this lesson, you will learn all about maps. What are they, and why do we use them? You will have the chance to draw a map of your own local area.

Lesson overview:Can I sketch a map of my settlement?

Core Content

Pupils Will Learn

Villages, Towns and Cities: