Transform your Year 1 geography lessons with this engaging, enquiry-led unit, carefully designed around Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction to build children’s geographical knowledge through retrieval, modelling, guided practice and purposeful independent learning.

This resource contains the first three lessons from the complete six-lesson unit How Do Maps Help Us Understand the World Around Us?, introducing children to their local area, the wider world and the purpose of maps through high-quality texts, practical fieldwork and hands-on learning.

Each lesson plan includes:

Detailed step-by-step teacher guidance
Clear learning objectives
Success criteria
Key geographical vocabulary
Common misconceptions
Retrieval and check-in questions
Skills progression
Independent learning tasks
Continuous provision enhancement ideas
Cross-curricular links and opportunities for discussion

The unit uses rich, engaging children’s literature including:

Here We Are by Oliver Jeffers
Martha Maps It Out
How to Catch a Monster by Bethan Woollvin

These texts provide meaningful contexts for exploring maps, places and the world around us while encouraging curiosity and discussion.

Lessons Included

Lesson 1 – Where in the World Are We?

Understanding that we live in a place that is part of a wider world
Identifying the UK, continents and oceans
Human and physical features
Cold task assessment

Lesson 2 – What Makes Great Missenden Special?

Observing and describing features of the local area
Fieldwork around the school
Exploring aerial photographs and Google Earth
Developing a sense of place and community

Lesson 3 – Human or Physical?

Identifying and sorting human and physical features
Applying geographical vocabulary
Designing an imaginary place using both feature types

This resource also includes a unit overview, outlining all six lessons, key vocabulary progression and the learning journey across the unit.

Coming Soon
The remaining lessons in the unit, along with:

An accompanying editable PowerPoint for every lesson
Printable classroom resources
Vocabulary cards
Sorting activities
Provision enhancement resources
Fieldwork materials and map-making templates

Perfect for Year 1 teachers looking for a well-structured geography unit that combines explicit teaching with practical, engaging learning experiences.