Literacy

Narrative

Poetry

Recount

Information Texts

Guided Reading

ICT

Research

Presentation

Music

Song: Wood

Song: We Need Plants

The Leaves on the Tree

Geography

Knowledge and Understanding of

places/ patterns and processes:

Zambia

Changing Places : UK Zambia

Knowledge of Environmental Change

and Sustainable Development:

Environmental Change

Sustainabilty

PSHE

Building Learning

Power/ Thinking Skills

Science

Interdependence and

Adaptation

What Plants Need to Grow

Art

Building a classroom

forest

The Fountain of

Hope Children’s

Centre

An

Introduction to

‘Tree Tales’

The Outrageous

Oak

The Fab

Baobab

Created by Katie Goldsmith

Objective Main Activity Independent Work Plenary Project Development Adaptation

To learn about

the different

plants and

animals found

in different

habitats.

To learn how

animals and

plants in two

different

habitats are

suited to their

environment

Resources: Images of UK and Zambian animals

In pairs children research plants and animals from the UK and Zambia and how they have adapted to their environments. They then work together to present their findings in a PowerPoint presentation. The best will be shown to the class at the end of the lesson.

Using their completed PowerPoint, the best pairs come to the front to explain how their chosen animals have adapted to their environment. The rest of the class may ask questions. Are some of the features of different animals similar to one another? Why could this be?

This lesson may move into work on food chains in Zambia and the UK The further explore interdependence, children could look at the ways humans use trees in their daily lives. For information about how we use the baobab or oak:

The Fab Baobab The Outrageous Oak

Science

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Display a map of the world and discuss

climate zones. How might the climate in the

UK and Zambia be different?

Display an image of a mole. What kind of

habitat does the mole live in? Why does it

have claws in this shape? Why it blind?

Display images of animals native to the UK

and Zambia. What can we tell about the

habitat these animals live in from their

bodies? Establish that these animals have

adapted to their environment.

Display images of a baobab and an oak tree.

What are the differences between them?

Why might this be? Point out that the

baobab retains water in its trunk during the

winter for use during the summer.

Compare images of oak leaves and baobab

leaves and discuss the reasons why they are

different.

How Have Animals and Plants in the UK and Zambia Adapted to Their Environment?

Zambia

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COUNTRY NAME: Zambia

CAPITAL CITY: Lusaka

LANGUAGES: English, Bemba, Nyanja, Chewa,

Lunda, Tonga, Lozi, Luvale, Kaonde

POPULATION: 12,935,000

OFFICIAL RELIGION: Christianity

OTHER RELIGIONS: Islam, Judaism, ba’hai and

many others.

Geography Zambia’s official name is the Republic of Zambia and it is located in the south of Africa. It is a landlocked country, which means it is surrounded on all sides by other countries and has no coastline. Its neighbours are the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola. There are two major rivers in Zambia, the Zambezi and the Congo. In the south west of Zambia, near the town of Livingstone, there lies the largest waterfall in the world: Victoria Falls.

Climate and Wildlife There are two main seasons, the rainy season, between November and April, and the dry season, between May and October. Zambia has an exciting range of wildlife, including lions, giraffes, hyenas,, hippos buffalo and zebra. It is a popular place for tourists looking for safari trips.

Music Most Zambian traditional music is based on drums (and other percussion instruments) with a lot of singing and dancing. Other kinds of music from abroad are also popular, such as Congolese rumba, African-American music and Jamaican reggae. Zambian rock, known as Zamrock, is also popular.

Sport

Football is the most popular sport in Zambia. Other popular sports include boxing, rugby and

cricket.

Zambia

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Global warming is changing the climate all over the world, in Zambia it has caused problems such as drought (long periods without rainfall) and flooding.

Drought

In Zambia, many people grow crops and depend on them to live. The climate in Zambia is becoming very dry, therefore droughts are happening more often. People’s lives are becoming more difficult as there is often not enough rain to water crops and produce enough food. Experts say that if climate change continues like this, in fifty years, Victoria Falls, the world’s largest waterfall, will dry up completely.

Floods

Due to climate change, weather in Zambia is becoming more extreme. Periods of sudden, heavy rainfall on dry soil causes flooding. This can mean people have to move out of their homes and can increase the spread of disease.

Deforestation

Deforestation (chopping down trees) is a problem in Zambia. It has lots over 13% of its forests because people chop down trees in order to use the land for farming. Sometimes they burn the trees too. This makes

the soil dry and increases the chance of flooding.

Before the 19th Century the Khosian, Bantu, Tonga, and Nkoya people lived in area which we now call Zambia. There was not an official government because the individual groups made decisions among themselves.

The Arrival of the British (Colonisation)

In the 18th and 19th centuries people began to arrive in Africa from all over Europe. British people arrived in the area we call Zambia today and took charge of the region. It became a British colony (under British control) and it was given the name Northern Rhodesia. The original population continued to live there, but their land was, in some places, taken over by the British.

Independence

On 24 October 1964 the country became independent

of the UK and was given the name Republic of Zambia.

The first prime minister was Kenneth Kaunda.

Zambian History Climate Change in Zambia

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Objective Main Activity Independent Work Plenary Project Development To identify how and why places change and how they may change in the future

Skills: Ask geographical questions Collect and record evidence. Analyse evidence and draw conclusions.

Resources: Images of the school from the past. Maps of the local area from the past.

Over one or two lessons, children plan and carry out their own investigation into the land use of the area around the tree. At regular intervals, children should share any obstacles/ difficulties they have faced in their investigation so that other groups may learn from their mistakes.

Children’s research should be displayed on their tables. Each group walks around to look at what the other groups have done. Do the findings of each group differ? Is this related to the research method chosen? How reliable are our results?

Children could prepare a class assembly for the rest of the school, to share what they have found out. They could prepare a display in the main hall to show the changes the tree has seen at their school.

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Geography What Changes Have Trees Experienced in Your Community?

Show children a picture of several trees at

different ages. Take children to a tree in or close

to the school grounds. Ask children to estimate

its age.

Looking around at the local environment, invite

children to suggest what may have changed

around the tree. Which buildings would have

been here when the tree was just a sapling?

Which have been built since? Would there have

been more/ other trees around it?

In small groups, ask children to suggest ways of finding out how the land use of the area has changed. (i.e asking local people, looking at old maps etc) Considering the following questions:

Which of the methods you have chosen are the most reliable?

Which would provide the most information?

Which are the most difficult to carry out?

How would you present your results in a visual way? (2 contrasting land use maps/ a series of facts?)

Objective Main Activity Independent Work Plenary Project Development Geography To identify how and why places change and how they may change in the future

History To identify and describe reasons for and results of historical events, situations and changes in the periods studied.

Using the second page of the information text children should work together to find the answers to their questions. They should use the internet or other sources to find any answers not given in the text.

As a group, children present their findings to the rest of the class. Using the success criteria, children assess the effectiveness of each group’s presentation. If possible their presentations could be recorded and played back for self assessment.

This lesson could be preceeded by more in depth exploration of Zambian culture. It could also lead into more in depth work on climate change and sustainability For useful websites on this subject: Web Resources

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History and Geography What Changes Have Trees Experienced in Zambia?

Reflect upon the changes which have taken place

around the tree in the school grounds. Read the first

page of the information text Zambia as a class to give

background knowledge about the country. How might

the changes witnessed by a tree in Zambia be similar/

different?

How can we find out what the changes may have

been? (Internet/ books etc)

Aside from the land use, what other changes might a

tree witness in its life? (Consider social and

environmental factors such as climate change, political

developments, fashion, way of life, music etc)

In groups, on large sheets of paper, children should list

questions they would like to answer about changes in

Zambia. Explain that their research will be presented

to the rest of the class. How could this information be

presented in interesting way? Develop a short success

criteria for giving an effective oral/ visual presentation

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Literacy Exploring Information Texts

Cross Curricular Objectives:

Further Literacy: Reading for information

Draw on different features of texts to obtain meaning Use organisational features and systems to find texts and information. Geography To identify and describe what places are like. The location of places and environments they study.

There are three information texts available in his unit for exploration either in Literacy

lessons or during Guided Reading. They are designed to cover many aspects of Assessment

Focus 4 in reading: Identify and comment on structure and organisation. Suggested AF4

questions for each text are listed below:

The Outrageous Oak

What is the purpose of the

captions beneath the photos?

Why are certain words written in

bold?

Why are the star shaped boxes

used?

How does the layout of the text

make it easier to read?

Zambia

What is the purpose of the box

beneath the map?

Why have sub- headings been

used?

Why does the author change

paragraphs after the word

“October”?

The Fab Baobab

What is the purpose of the

caption beneath the picture on

page 1?

What is the purpose of the

arrows on page 2?

How does the layout of page 2

help the reader to find the

information they are looking for?

The Outrageous Oak

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What Can Oak Trees Be Used For?

Many years ago, oak wood was used to make ships. Most of these were used in

the Navy.

Nowadays the wood from the oak tree is mostly used for making furniture,

flooring and building frames.

It is also used make barrels to carry wine, and some types of oak bark are used to

make wine stoppers called corks.

It was even used to make the main chamber of the House of Commons!

There are around 600 species of oak tree in the world today.

Oak trees can be found in many parts of the Europe, North America and Asia.

Some species of oak are deciduous and some are evergreen

The flowers from the oak tree are called catkins and the fruit is called an

acorn.

Fascinating Fact! Oak leaves and acorns are poisonous to cattle,

horses, sheep and goats.

Sadly...

Many species of oak are in danger of becoming extinct. This is because the way humans use the land around them has changed. Lots of oaks have been chopped down to clear land for farming or because their wood was needed to make things.

Did You Know..? The Oak is the national tree of England and many other countries

Glossary: Species: Types of plants/animals. Deciduous: Sheds its leaves each year. Evergreen: Doesn’t shed its leaves. Extinct: A species of

animal/plant which no

longer exists.

An oak in summer

An oak in winter

In winter the Baobab drinks lots of water, and stores it in the trunk– making it thicker.

In the summer, when there is less water around, the Baobab uses the water it stored in the

winter, so it gets thinner!

The Fab Baobab

The Baobab tree is known as the “upside down tree” because its branches look like

roots!

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Go to Page 2

It is very difficult to kill the Baobab

tree, and the can live for over 2,000

years! However, when the Baobab

dies, it is very sudden. It rots from the

inside and crashes to the ground with

a BUMP!

The Baobab can grow up to 20m tall

and 15m in girth (all the way around

the trunk).

In winter the Baobab drinks lots of water, and stores it in the trunk– making it thicker.

In the summer, when there is less water around, the Baobab uses the water it stored

in the winter, so it gets thinner!

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How Does the Baobab Help People?

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Trunk In older trees the trunk is normally hollowed out because it provides a great place to keep food and drink cool.

Bark Baobab bark can be

used to make a strong rope.

It can also be used as a

medicine to treat fever.

Leaves Baobab leaves can be use in a

cooking sauce.

They can also be used as a medicine to treat, fever, stomach ache, diarrhoea and asthma.

Wood Baobab wood is ideal for making paper and canoes. It can also be used as firewood. However, the wood is only usually

only used after the tree has died.

Fruit Baobab fruit can be used

to make a nutritious drink and a medicine to treat the common cold.

Its seeds can be used to

make flour.

The hard shell makes a container, and is often

turned into a musical

instrument!

Roots The roots are crushed in order to make a dye for textiles and paint.

http://www.heritagewoodsonline.co.uk/schools/Wonderofwood.htm

Web Resources

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For Teachers: Forest Posters to download http://www.offorestsandmen.org/en/posters

Downloadable posters showing how 10 different trees in Africa are used. http://www.offorestsandmen.org/en/posters

Downloadable Classroom Activities: Woodland Theme

http://www.naturedetectives.org.uk/childrensuniversity

http://www.heritagewoodsonline.co.uk/schools/Wonderofwood.ht

m

Sustainability

The Centre of Alternative Technology

http://www.footprintfutures.org.uk/

Eco- Schools http://www.keepbritaintidy.org/ecoschools/

Planting Trees at Your School

Tree Appeal http://www.treeappeal.com/Schools.html WWF http://www.wwf.org.uk/what_we_do/working_with_schools/plantatree.cfm

For Pupils:

What do trees need to grow? How do they change according to

location/ season?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/wwww/scottishwoodla

nds/

Environmental Protection:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/sysm/eco/eco_friendly.

shtml

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Narrative

The Giving Tree Shel Silverstein

This fantastic book tells the story of a tree’s life and its relationship with a boy. It shows the interdependence of humans and trees and could be used to start a series of lessons on this theme.

As this book uses very simple language, it is ideal for use in a Talk for Writing unit in Key Stage 2. It can be easily memorised and “improved”. Children could build up to writing a story like this using the baobab or another tree from their research as the subject.

Poetry

A Baobab is Big Jacqui Taylor

This great poem gives lots of information about the baobab tree and uses a regular rhyme scheme. Why not study how it is written during a literacy lesson and then ask children to write their own similar poem about the oak tree!

Literacy – Extra Ideas

Recount

When this series of lessons is

complete, why not ask the

children to write a diary

entry from a tree’s point of

view?

They could choose to write

from the viewpoint of a tree

in their own community or in

Zambia (or anywhere else in

the world!) It would be a

good opportunity to recap

the features of a recount.

.

Katie Goldsmith is a KS2 teacher and is passionate about Global Citizenship education. Her resources aim to inspire

young people in their discovery of other cultures and to break down cultural and religious stereotypes. See more at

www.awindowtotheworld.org

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ or send

a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA

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