KS2 > Geography

Environment > River Features

LESSON
PLAN
6

Describe and understand key aspects of:

  • physical geography, including: climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts, rivers, mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes, and the water cycle
  • human geography, including: types of settlement and land use, economic activity including trade links, and the distribution of natural resources including energy, food, minerals and water
  • Use the eight points of a compass, four and six- figure grid references, symbols and key (including the use of Ordnance Survey maps) to build their knowledge of the United Kingdom and the wider world.

Geographical Skills and Fieldwork

Comparing satellite images and ordinance survey maps to analyse the flow of the River Thames and look at river features.

  1. Print the outline of the Thames in London (shown below) and use it with an online map such as Google, Bing or the Ordnance Survey to find the river and Teddington Lock. Put a dot on the map in the correct location and label it Teddington Lock.

  2. Which way does the River Thames flow on the map, West to East, or East to West? Use the compass rose to help you.

  3. Draw an arrow to show the flow of water towards the Thames Estuary. On the upstream side of the lock put Upper Thames, and on the downstream side put Tideway. This is the tidal part of the Thames in London where the tide makes the river level rise and fall every day, just like at the seaside.

  4. Try to work out where you live and if it is near the Thames put a dot on the map. Name it with the London borough in which you live, for example Kingston or Southwark.


  5. Draw your own copy of the Compass Rose.


  6. What is the curve of a river called in geographical terms, as shown above in a painting from 1670? The curves look like a letter S or a big snake. Use the clues in the title of the painting to find the location in a map of London. What is the area within the curve of the river now called?


  7. Compare the view in the painting of 1670 to a modern photo of the same location (as shown above). Why is harder to see the big S shape of the river today?

  8. Draw a sketch map to show the curve of the Thames at this point with some place names. Also look at the mouth of the River Lea (also known as Bow Creek), a tributary of the Thames at the point the two rivers merge opposite the O2 Arena in Greenwich.

  9. Draw a sketch map of the curves of Bow Creek, show Bow Creek Ecology Park and how Bow Creek meets the Thames. Use the terms meander, river mouth and isthmus to label your map. Add Canning Town station and the railway lines that cut across this area. Add a compass rose to show North.


  10. Using J2E Animate, create an animation of how Teddington lock works to match the water level of the Upper Thames and the Tideway.

Download Resources

  1. geography6.pdf