Topic: Nature in a Mediterranean climate

Supplementary material for use in lessons in the group of natural sciences (nature, biology, chemistry, geography, physics), additional classes, science clubs. It can serve as a resource for expanding knowledge, preparing students for science competitions.

Target group

5th‑grade students of elementary school

Core Curriculum

Grade V Geography
IV. Landscapes of the world: humid equatorial forest and temperate forest, savannah and steppe, hot and ice desert, taiga and tundra, Mediterranean, high altitude Himalayas; zonation and climatological vegetation in the world. Pupil:
3) presents the main features and compares the known landscapes of the world and recognizes them in descriptions, films and illustrations;
4) recognizes plants and animals typical of the landscapes that are known;

General aim of education

Students recognize and name organisms typical of the Mediterranean climate.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• indicate adaptation of plants to living in a Mediterranean climate;

• discuss the human influence on the vegetation on the Mediterranean;

• exchange plants grown in the Mediterranean;

• recognize selected wild animals of this region.

Methods/techniques

• expository

  • talk.

• activating

  • discussion.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers;

• large sheets of paper with a continental outline, glue, scissors, crayons.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

• Students get acquainted with the content of the abstract. They prepare to work on the lesson in such a way to be able to summarize the material read in their own words and solve the tasks themselves.

Introduction

• The teacher explains the aim of the lesson and together with students determines the success criteria to be achieved.

• The teacher plays the recording of the abstract. Every now and then he stops it, asking the students to tell in their own words what they have just heard. This way, students practice listening comprehension.

Realization

• Participants familiarize themselves with the content presented in the interactive illustration. Then the teacher discusses the issues with the students.

• Teams receive their own work – a map of the world. The task of each team is to make a collage of photos depicting life in the Mediterranean..

• Work of the whole class team. Students stand in a circle. The teacher encourages them to play: throws a ball or mascot to one of the students, saying the English word or notion learned in the lesson. The student gives the Polish equivalent, mentions another word in English and throws a ball or mascot to a friend or colleague.

Summary

• The teacher asks students to carry out the recommended interactive exercise themselves.

Homework

• Make at home a note from the lesson using the sketchnoting method.

• Listen to the abstract recording at home. Pay attention to pronunciation, accent and intonation. Learn to pronounce the words learned during the lesson.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Nature in a Mediterranean climate

Trees and shrubs of the Mediterranean zone have adapted to the survival of several months of drought. Their leaves are hard, leathery and covered with wax to reduce water loss. They do not fall seasonally, forests and thickets in the Mediterranean are, therefore, evergreen. Often, there are spiny bushes and low trees: thorny holly, spiny oak, oleander, wild olives, pistachio and juniper. They form a characteristic plant cluster called maquis. Nowadays, more and more often imported from America, drought‑resistant prickly pear and agaves and Australian eucalyptus. In the place of former fields, pastures were formed, where sheep and goats graze.

Many plants in this region are planted for ornamental purposes or for shade, for example cypresses. Characteristic of the Mediterranean landscape are the cultivation of olive trees, vines, fig trees, chestnuts and trees giving citrus fruit, that is, oranges, lemons and mandarins. It also grows many plants that serve as spices (laurel giving bay leaf, marjoram, rosemary, sage, basil, fennel, thyme and others) or giving aromatic oils (lavender, rose, mint).

Thousands of years of cultivation of fields, and grazing herds, caused almost no places where the natural environment has survived, apart from the rocky mountains. Therefore, among land vertebrates, we mainly meet reptiles and birds. Among the reptiles there are numerous turtles and snakes, as well as chameleons, geckos and other lizards. Many birds of our region (especially swimming and insectivorous) spend the winter on the Mediterranean, because in our conditions they do not find adequate food. From Poland to the Mediterranean, for example, starlings, skylarks, lapwings, grebes and herons fly off for winter. Among the land mammals, the wild, hedgehogs, rabbits and foxes are characteristic of the region, and at higher altitudes – sousses, chamois, moufflons and ibexes. Life at the coast is thriving. Among the underwater plants and coral reefs live numerous marine invertebrates, such as lobsters, crabs, oysters and octopuses. These animals are massively fished for culinary purposes.

• Vegetation in the Mediterranean basin usually has thick, leathery leaves covered with a protective layer to prevent excessive evaporation.

• In the Mediterranean climate grows many plants commonly used in cooking – spices and fruit.

• Many cultivated plants have been imported to Poland from Mediterranean countries.