Topic: What is around us?

Author: Zyta Sendecka

Target group

Students of the 4th grade of an elementary school.

Core curriculum

The general aim of education

The students distinguish between natural and anthropogenic elements of the selected landscape.

Criteria of success

• You will name three examples of natural, animate, inanimate and anthropogenic landscape components;

• You will name two features of natural, cultural and devastated landscapes.

Key competences

• communication in the mother tongue;

• communication in a foreign language;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn;

• social and civic competences.

Methods/forms of work

Work with text.

Individual work.

Teaching aids

• abstract;

• interactive or traditional board;

• tablets/computers.

Lesson plan overview (Process)

Introduction

1. The teacher gives the topic, the goals of the lesson in a language understandable for the student, and the criteria of success.

Realization

1. The teacher asks the students to read the first fragment of the abstract entitled „Landscape components”, and make a note on their own, explaining the following terms:

• natural landscape components;

• animate landscape elements;

• inanimate landscape elements;

• anthropogenic landscape components.

2. The teacher instructs the students to compare their notes with a graphic depicting the types of landscape components.

3. Using only their own notes, the students perform interactive exercise no. 1 on their own (work time - 90 seconds).

4. After the time passes, the teacher checks the completion level of the exercise by individual students. After checking the results of its implementation, the teacher talks with the students and asks why they could not do it (if due to an incorrect or imprecise definition of the terms, then the students correct the notes).

5. The students explain the following terms in their own words:

• natural landscape;

• cultural landscape;

• devastated landscape.

The teacher gives guidance, corrects the statements.

6. The teacher asks the students to determine the order in which they are presented in a film that is to be played and write the order on their cards, while using abbreviations: natural landscape - N, cultural landscape - C, devastated landscape - D.

7. The teacher instructs the students to pick up the cards with the sequence of the landscapes they have written down, and then counts the correct answers. If they are wrong - the teacher writes the correct order on the board and displays the film again.

Summary

1. The students do exercise 3 themselves.

2. The teacher displays photos from gallery no. 1. The teacher selects a student and asks the student to name the type of landscape depicted in the photograph, and name two features based on which the student identified it.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

What is around us?

All of us like to enjoy the beauty of nature. However, we do not enjoy everything we see to the same extent. Some of us prefer woodlands, others prefer the view of a village amidst picturesque fields. What does a landscape consist of exactly and how is it formed?

Depending on where you are, the landscape around you looks completely different. In the seaside, you admire beautiful beaches and hear the sound of the waves. In the mountains, you trek across the steep slopes and climb mountain peaks. Going to a forest or a park you may observe the life of animals and watch interesting plants. In the countryside, you rest amidst fields and in cities you visit interesting buildings and heritage sites. Landscape comprises of many components.

Some of them, like the terrain, rocks, plants and animals, are natural landscape components. They existed long before people came along. Natural landscape components can be subdivided into animate and inanimate components. The community of living organisms (plants, animals and others) is the animate part of landscape called biocenosis. The air, rocks, water and land forms that do not manifest symptoms of life but influence living components, are the inanimate part of landscape called biotope. Animate and inanimate landscape components interact with each other forming a whole called the ecosystem. There are many ecosystems that we may observe in our landscape, e.g. forest, lake or meadow.

We are also surrounded by numerous man‑made objects. We call them anthropogenic landscape components. This group includes buildings, roads, train tracks, fences, walls, pipelines and road signs.

• Natural landscapes are those that contain hardly any anthropogenic components. People sometimes go there, but leave no irreversible traces of their activity. In Poland there are very few natural landscapes. This group includes parts of Białowieża Forest in the east of the country, small fragments of the Baltic Sea shore, certain marshlands, and mountains.

• Cultural landscapes are formed as a result of human activity. They include farmland, meadows, pastures, orchards, and gardens. Changes in the environment are visible, but the landscape comprises of many natural components. Also, majority of woodlands are, in fact, cultural landscapes, because they were planted by people.

• Degraded landscapes were formed as a result of industrial activity. They contain only a few natural landscape components, because only a few organisms are capable of surviving in such harsh conditions. Degraded landscape examples include industrial facilities, landfills and airports.