Subject: Western Europe – features of the natural environment

Author: Magdalena Jankun

Addressee

The material goes beyond the core curriculum and can be used, for example, on interest circles.

VI grade elementary school student

Core curriculum

VII. Geography of Europe: the location and boundaries of the continent, the main features of the natural environment in Europe. Agriculture, industry and services in selected European countries.

Purpose of the lesson: The student will discuss the characteristic features of the natural environment of Western Europe.

Success criteria

• you will discuss the geographical location and features of the shape of the surface of Western Europe;

• you will identify countries included in the Western Europe region;

• you assess the features of the natural environment of Western Europe and their importance for the economic development of individual countries.

Key competences

• communicating in the mother tongue;

• communicating in foreign languages;

• IT competences;

• learning to learn.

Methods / forms of work

• using ICT tools;

• work with educational and multimedia material on the epodreczniki.pl platform;

• discussion;

• poster;

• individual work, work in pairs, work in groups.

Teaching measures

• e‑manual for teaching geography;

• interactive whiteboard;

• physical map of Europe;

• Google Earth;

• geographical atlases;

• projector;

• tablets / computers.

Lesson plan

Introduction

1. The teacher informs students about the topic and goals of the lesson.

2. Ask the willing student to launch the Google Earth application and search for an area included in Western Europe. The teacher initiates a short discussion about what students can say about the countries of Western Europe based on the images from the application.

3. The teacher displays on the interactive whiteboard a map from the e‑textbook: Western Europe – hypsometric map. It discusses the division of Europe into great physical geographic regions – provinces.

Realization

1. Students, working in pairs, use geographical atlases and analyze which countries and which geographical areas are included in the Western Europe region. Eager learners identify countries and geographic areas on the wall map of Europe.

2. The teacher divides the class into 4 groups. Each group receives a sheet of paper and markers. The task of the teams is to develop the assigned issue related to the region of Western Europe:

• group I – geographical location and the shape of the surface of Western Europe;

• group II – features of the Western European climate (including factors influencing the climate in this part of Europe, exemplary diagrams);

• group III – river network of Western Europe (rivers, catchment areas, types of estuaries);

• group IV – plant formations of Western Europe (also mountain vegetation), searching for illustrations of characteristic plant types.

Students can use geographical atlases, various source materials and the Internet while working.

3. Each group distributes tasks among its members. He creates a poster, which he then discusses on the class forum, using the interactive whiteboard and the wall map of Europe.

4. The teacher draws attention to the elements of the natural environment that favored settlement and economic human activity in Western Europe. Indicates elements of the environment that limit the human economy.

Summary

1.At the conclusion of the lesson, students perform exercises on the interactive whiteboard.

2.The teacher assesses students within the group, taking into account the contribution and their possibilities. A good way to objectively evaluate is to focus on the assessment of one team and to pay attention to the self‑esteem of students – what I did well and what I could not do and what the reason is.

3.Homework task. Complete the tasks from e‑manual 10, 12, 13.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Western Europe - features of the natural environment

Western Europe is the most diverse physiographic region of Europe. It is divided into four main units – also called provinces. These are:

• the archipelago of the British Isles on the continental shelf of Europe;

• the North European Plain spreading from the North Sea down the middle section of the Vistula River;

• a central range of old fault‑block mountain and uplands as well as vast lower terrains (the so‑called basins), spreading from the west coast of France to the Sudetes and the Polish Highlands;

• young fold mountains – the Alps and the Carpathians with forelands and intermountain basins.