Teach Primary Issue 19.6

Town design activities provide children with the opportunity to merge creativity with core STEM skills. The freedom to consider the ideal town design enables pupils to develop critical thinking skills and to reflect on the practical aspects of city planning, including the importance of meeting the population’s needs, as well as the environmental challenges and demands involved. This lesson will also encourage pupils to engage in important conversations about sustainability and prepare them for future challenges by allowing them to connect theoretical concepts to real-world situations. 1 | INTRO TO MAPS Explain that children will be working in small groups to design their ideal town. You may choose to give pupils a specific location or allow groups to choose their own. Remind children that they will need to consider where the town is located, for example, near a river, forest, mountain, or the sea. How will the location affect their town design? Remind pupils to refer to the working wall (or board, or wherever else you have displayed the ideas they came up with in the starter activity) to ensure they include the key features discussed. Encourage pupils to think about the facilities that people across the whole population might need. For example, what will they need to include for children and young families or the elderly? Remind them to also think about roads and transport. For example, they might include a train station, specific bus routes or perhaps they want their town to have a dedicated cycle route. Explain that children will also need to think carefully about where they place different features (for example, a fire station located near the river so it is easy to access water, a play park near the school, or the GP surgery near a bus stop so it is more accessible). Highlight potential dangers they might need to take into consideration, START HERE MAIN LESSON WHAT THEY’LL LEARN l What key infrastructure is essential in town designs l The importance of considering the needs of different groups within the population l The importance of sustainability in town planning l How to design a town map using symbols for features Geography Start by asking children to consider what a town is. Encourage them to think about what key features or infrastructure we can find in towns, and what people might need. For example, does your town (or one nearby) have a supermarket, a school, a doctor’s surgery or hospital, library, pharmacy, police station, fire station, etc? Allow children to discuss these with a talk partner and to consider why we need these features. Pupils should then share their ideas with the class, while you note the ideas on the board, on a working wall, or project them using a visualiser. Ensure these ideas remain visible to the class for the rest of the lesson, so pupils can keep referring back to them as they design their own towns. Promote creativity, critical thinking and sustainability skills through designing your own settlement, with Paul Ian Cross KS2 LESSON PLAN questfriendz.com @questfriendz What would your ideal town look like? 100 | www.teachwire.net