Autumn Year 6 What Is Life Like in the Amazon? Week 1: Where Is The

Autumn Year 6 What is life like in the Amazon?

Week 1: Where is the Amazon?

Learning objective To understand what the Amazon is and where it is located

Key question Where is the Amazon?

Success criteria ● I know the eight countries that the Amazon region spans. ● I understand that ‘The Amazon’ may refer to a river, a river basin or a rainforest region. ● I can locate the Amazon basin and Amazon River on a map of South America.

Key vocabulary Continent, country, region Locational vocabulary: longitude, latitude, Tropic of Capricorn, North, South, East, West Names of continents and relevant South American countries and regions. River, river basin, source, mouth

Activities In this session, children work in pairs or small groups to discover facts about the Amazon, which they then share with the group using as much geographical vocabulary as they can. 1 Ask the children what they know about the Amazon. Get the children to work in pairs or small groups to share their initial ideas. Direct the discussion by posing questions such as: • What is the Amazon? Where is the Amazon? 2 You may wish to use a feedback tool such as answergarden.ch or padlet.com, to share ideas and discuss any misconceptions. 3 Establish that ‘The Amazon’ may refer to a region, a river, a rainforest or a river basin. Provide pairs with an atlas and ask if the children can find the Amazon River and rainforest, revising how to use an atlas to find a specific location. Ask them which continent and countries it is in. 4 Using either a blank world map (see Resources) or a digital resource, revise the names and locations of continents and oceans. Encourage the children to use geographical language to describe the location of South America, making reference to its global location (in comparison with other continents, the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn), its size and its latitude. Ask the children in pairs to use an atlas to identify key features of South America, such as key cities, Tierra del Fuego and the Andes (the source of the Amazon River is in the Peruvian Andes). 5 Give pairs or small groups an atlas, a blank map of South America and modelling clay of various colours (excluding blue and green). Ask the children to use the coloured modelling clay to outline the borders of the countries in South America, using cocktail stick flags to add labels. You may wish to give less able children a copy of a simpler map rather than an atlas. Give the children blue and green modelling clay, and ask them to add an additional layer by marking the Amazon basin in green and the Amazon River in blue. Some children may wish to add some tributaries too. Show the children the ‘Introduction to the Amazon River’ video clip (see link in Resources), introducing the river and explain that they will be finding out more about the region in the coming weeks. Still working in groups or pairs,

challenge the children to use as much geographical vocabulary as possible to describe the location of the Amazon. Give them some time to prepare their description. You may wish to model this yourself first. Support less able children by providing a word list. 6 Hold an informal contest: which group can speak for the longest without repetition? Which group uses the most geographical words?

Core knowledge ● The Amazon is a vast region that spans across nine countries: Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, an overseas territory of France. The Amazon River Basin is home to the largest rainforest in the world and covers almost 40% of South America. ● The Amazon River is the largest river by discharge of water in the world, greater than the next seven largest rivers combined. It is the second longest river in the world, after The Nile and has the largest drainage basin in the world, about 7,050,000 square kilometres and accounts for approximately one-fifth of the world's total river flow.

Resources needed ● Resources: ‘Where is the Amazon?’ PPT ● Class set of atlases ● Resources: Outline world map without country borders ● Resources: Outline map of South America ● Modelling clay in a range of colours including blue and green ● Cocktail sticks ● ‘Introduction to the Amazon River’ video clip – link

Week 2: What would it be like to walk through the Amazon rainforest?

Learning objective To understand the Amazon’s climate and how the native animals are adapted to it

Key question What would it be like to walk through the Amazon rainforest?

Success criteria ● I know that the Amazon has a wet and a dry season. ● I can describe how the climate in the Amazon is different to the climate in the UK. ● I understand that animals are adapted to their habitat, and can give at least one example of an animal from the Amazon rainforest.

Key vocabulary Weather, climate, seasons Forest, rainforest

Activities Children are introduced to the Amazon rainforest, and compare its climate and wildlife to their own. 1 Explain that during this lesson, the children are going to imagine what it might be like to walk through the Amazon rainforest. Ask the children if they have ever been on a walk through a forest in the UK. Ask them to describe the experience to their partner, using all of their senses. Ask the children to feed back their experiences, and record their responses in the form of a class list poem. Ask the children what the weather was like during their walk. Hopefully you will get some contrasting examples, but if not, draw out the idea that the weather will have been different on different days and during different seasons. Explain that ‘weather’ is the given conditions on a particular day, but ‘climate’ refers to average weather patterns in a given place. Ask the children what they think the climate is like in the Amazon rainforest. 2 Establish that the Amazon doesn’t have four seasons as in the UK (in the Amazon, the variation in temperature between day and night is bigger than the variation in temperature at different times of the year). However, there is a

wet and a dry season. Show the children climate graph for Manaus and their local area (see links in Resources) and ask them to write a description of the climate in both localities, noting the key differences. 3 Identify the plants and animals that the children may have observed in a British forest. Would the children expect to see similar or different plants and animals in the Amazon rainforest? Why? Establish that plants and animals are adapted to their environment, giving a few simple examples to illustrate this point. 4 Ask the children what plants and animals they would expect to see in the Amazon rainforest and why. Using print or digital resources, ask the children to work in pairs to research an Amazonian animal of their choice, finding out how it is adapted to its habitat. Ask the children to produce a poster about their chosen animal. Allow the pairs to share their findings with the rest of the class and create a class display of their posters. 5 Ask the children to imagine walking through the Amazon rainforest. Ask them to describe the walk to their partner, referring to all of their senses. Record their responses in the form of a class list poem.

Core knowledge ● Weather is the given conditions on a particular day, whilst climate refers to average weather patterns in a given place. ● The Amazon has a tropical climate, typical in areas close to the Equator (12 degrees North or South of the Equator). There are only two seasons: wet and dry. ● The region consists of a variety of ecosystems including rainforests, seasonal forests, deciduous forests, flooded forests and savannahs. However, the region is most renowned for its rainforest, which covers most of the Amazon Basin. 5,500,000 square kilometres of the basin are covered by the rainforest, 60% of which is in Brazil. The Amazon represents over half of the planet's remaining rainforests and has an estimated 390 billion individual trees divided into 16,000 species. ● The Amazon is home to an estimated 10% of all species found on earth. Scientists estimate that there are at least 40,000 plant species, 427 mammals, 1,300 birds, 378 reptiles, more than 400 amphibians and around 3,000 freshwater fish. ● The Amazon is also home to more than 30 million people and about 9% is still made up of indigenous people – 350 different ethnic groups, more than 60 of which still remain largely isolated.

Resources needed ● Resources: ‘Where is the Amazon?’ PPT ● Internet enabled computers or tablets ● ‘Climate data for your local area’ – link ● ‘Climate data for Manaus’ – link

Week 3: What is Manaus like?

Learning objective To research the Amazonian city of Manaus

Key question What is Manaus like?

Success criteria ● I know the key human and physical features of Manaus. ● I can describe some of the ways in which Manaus differs from where I live. ● I understand how to research a distant city.

Key vocabulary Primary and secondary source Human and physical features, with examples City, state, rainforest

Activities This session introduces or revises the concept of primary and secondary sources, which are used to explore the state of Amazonas and its capital, Manaus. The children work in groups to write a non-chronological report about Manaus. 1 Explain to the children that this lesson is going to focus on a region of Brazil within the Amazon basin – the state of Amazonas and its capital, Manaus. Support the children to locate Amazonas and Manaus using a digital mapping tool which allows you to zoom in and change the scale (e.g. Google Maps or Google Earth), and add it to their modelling clay map from the previous lessons. Introduce or revise the concepts of primary and secondary sources with the children. Ask the children to think of primary and secondary sources that they could use to develop a better understanding of what life is like in the Amazon. Create a class mind map of the primary and secondary sources the children suggest. 2 Explain that the children are going to research the Amazonian city of Manaus, and work in groups to write a non- chronological report about the city. Show the children a selection of books from the school library on different cities. Ask them to identify the pages or sections that relate to the geography of the cities. What type of information is Rising Stars Geography Year 6 © 2019 Rising Stars UK Ltd 1 What is life like in the Amazon?

included? Support them to identify information on a range of physical and human geography such as: location, population, climate, landscape, rivers, settlement and land use, industry and trade, transport, energy, food, water, environment, leisure and tourism. Ask the children what textual features have been used to explain the geographical ideas, e.g. explanatory text, diagrams, maps, photographs, fact boxes, etc. 3 Show the children ‘Photos of Manaus’ PPT and ‘Meeting of Waters’ PPT. Ask if there are any specific geographical features of that they feel should be included in a report about Manaus e.g. the Meeting of Waters. 4 In small groups ask the children to decide on areas that they feel should be included in their report (from the list of geographical topics identified, as well as any features specific to Manaus). Ask them to agree who is to take responsibility for which section. 5 Share the mind map of sources created earlier in the lesson and ask the children to decide which sources would be best suited for this research task. Support the children to choose and use appropriate sources, and to take appropriate notes. Give the children time to research their section and encourage them to write at length. They could also accompany their writing with appropriate maps and illustrations. Each group presents their report to the class, sharing what they have learnt about Manaus and about researching the geography of a distant city.

Core knowledge ● The Meeting of Waters is the confluence between the Rio Negro, a river with dark water, and the sandy-coloured Rio Solimões, which run side by side without mixing for 6km. The reason for the phenomenon is differences in temperature, speed and water density of the two rivers. ●

Resources needed ● Resources: ‘Where is the Amazon?’ PPT ● ‘Photos of Manaus’ PPT ● ‘Meeting of Waters’ PPT ● Resources: Information sheet plan ● Access to internet enabled tablets or computers ● Google Earth – link ● Non-fiction books about cities from around the world

Week 4: Do people live in the Amazon rainforest?

Learning objective To understand what life is like in the Amazon and how it is changing

Key question What is life like in the Amazon rainforest?

Success criteria ● I know that communities can change over time. ● I can explain ‘shifting cultivation’. ● I understand that there are differing communities, both urban and rural in the Amazon basin.

Key vocabulary Settlement, tribe, indigenous, shifting cultivation, agriculture, fallow, fertile, nomad/nomadic

Activities In this session, children learn about the traditional way of farming for communities living within the Amazon rainforest, and compare the advantages and disadvantages of nomadic vs a settled lifestyle. 1 Review learning from the previous lesson about Manaus. Explain that during this lesson the children will be learning about smaller communities in the rainforest. Tell them that some estimates say there are approximately 30 million people living in the Amazon rainforest, with 3.8 million of these people living in Amazonas. While many of these people live in Amazonian cities (1.7 million people live in Manaus alone), many live in smaller communities in the rainforest, including several uncontacted tribes. Show the children photos of smaller Amazonian settlements (see Slide X of the Unit PPT). Explain that the tribes living in the Amazon are indigenous to the area and their ancestors lived in the Amazon long before settlers from Europe arrived. The people of the rainforest traditionally live sustainable lifestyles, using the natural resources found in the rainforest for food, clothing and housing. 2 One of the farming techniques used by some Amazonian communities is called ‘shifting cultivation’. Show children the ‘Shifting cultivation’ animation (see link in Resources) which explains this farming process (it will also give them

ideas for their own animation later in the topic). Ask the children to draw a series of labelled diagrams in a storyboard format to explain ‘shifting cultivation’. This could be presented on paper or digitally using programs, such as Comic Life or Explain Everything. Despite the fact that shifting cultivation has no adverse effects on the environment, communities are being asked to stop using this previously sustainable farming technique. Ask the children to think with a partner why this might be. Allow the children time to share their ideas and then explain that, due to commercial deforestation and the destruction of large parts of the rainforest, there is less land available. This has resulted in ‘shifting cultivation’ being less sustainable than it used to be, and some people of the Amazon are being encouraged to farm just one piece of land continuously. They are being offered incentives to do so, such as electricity, better schools and healthcare for their families, as well as training on farming techniques that will avoid the need for fallow years. 3 Ask the children to write a list of advantages and disadvantages for the Amazonian communities for living a nomadic or a settled lifestyle. (See ‘Advantages and disadvantages ideas organiser’ in Resources.) Encourage the children to think about the physical and human effects, such as the protection of the rainforest, traditional lifestyles, education, etc.

Core knowledge ● Some estimates say there are approximately 30 million people living in the Amazon rainforest, with 3.8 million of these people living in Amazonas. While many of these people live in Amazonian cities (1.7 million people live in Manaus alone), many live in smaller communities in the rainforest, including several uncontacted tribes. ● Shifting cultivation: an agricultural system where plots of land are used temporarily. It consists of clearing a plot of land of the trees/plants, then burning (slash and burn). The ash is used to fertilise the land. After a few years, the land is abandoned, so its fertility can be naturally restored. The farmers move on to cultivate another plot of land.

Resources needed ● Resources: ‘Where is the Amazon?’ PPT ● ‘Shifting cultivation’ animation – link ● Resources: ‘Advantages and disadvantages ideas organiser’ ● Resources: Storyboard sheet

Week 5: How can people protect the Amazon?

Learning objective To understand how the Amazon is being damaged and how it can be protected

Key question How can people protect the Amazon?

Success criteria ● I know why the Amazon is important. ● I can explain some of the reasons why deforestation is occurring in the Amazon. ● I understand how the Amazon is being protected and can suggest what else might be done to protect it.

Key vocabulary Rainforest Deforestation

Activities In this session, children consider the reasons for deforestation. They investigate one reason in detail and research ways the rainforest can be protected. 1 Review what the children have learnt so far about the Amazon. Divide the class into pairs and ask the children to talk to their partner about why they think so many people believe the Amazon is important. Ask them to note down their ideas. Give each pair a copy of ‘The Rainforest: a Status Report’. (See link in Resources) Ask the children to read the report and add any further ideas to their notes. 2 Show the children photos of Amazon deforestation (see Slide X of the Unit PPT). Hand out a selection of charts relating to levels of deforestation, which show the rate of rainforest destruction (see Resources). Underneath each chart, ask them to write what they have deduced about deforestation from the data displayed. You may also wish to show the children aerial photos of the Amazon, showing deforestation over time (see Slide X of the PPT). Reasons for the deforestation of the rainforest are numerous, but include: mining, cattle pasture, hardwoods, housing, agriculture, roads and medicines. Ask the children to investigate one of these causes of deforestation by looking at the issue from various perspectives. (The children can use the ‘Ideas organiser’ provided for help with this.)

This will help the children see why people might choose to destroy areas of the rainforest, and to support them in thinking about how and why this might develop in the future. 3 Ask children to recall what they learnt about the climate of the Amazon in Week 2. Deforestation has been linked to reduced rainfall: evaporation from the trees, driven by the sun, generates the rain. Explain to the children that protecting the rainforest is complicated, as there are lots of people with different needs and lifestyles to consider. One of the ways of protecting the forest is to designate areas as National Parks, where the forest is protected. In Brazil there are 19 National Parks in the Amazon, which cover just 5% of the total area. The UN has also passed resolutions making it illegal to trade endangered animals. 4 Ask the children to research ways in which the rainforest can be protected by looking at the work of various charities, such as: Rainforest Concern, Rainforest Trust, Greenpeace, Rainforest Alliance or The Amazon Charitable Trust. Give the children the ‘Protecting the Rainforest ideas organiser’ to complete.

Core knowledge ● Reasons for the deforestation of the rainforest are numerous, but include: mining, cattle pasture, hardwoods, housing, agriculture, roads and medicines. ● The region is under-going change due to commercial development, particularly mining (iron ore/gold), hydro-electric schemes, road building (Trans Amazon highway), logging and forest clearance fires. ● Deforestation has been linked to reduced rainfall: evaporation from the trees, driven by the sun, generates the rain.

Resources needed ● Resources: ‘Where is the Amazon?’ PPT ● Resources: ‘The Rainforest: a Status Report’ – link ● Resources: ‘Ideas organiser’ ● Resources: ‘Deforestation charts’ ● Resources: ‘Protecting the Rainforest’ Ideas organiser

Week 6: Why should we protect the Amazon?

Learning objective To understand the value of the Amazon and how it can be protected

Key question Why should we protect the Amazon?

Success criteria ● I can communicate my geographical ideas in an animation. ● I can explain how I can help to protect the Amazon rainforest. ● I can explain the value of the Amazon rainforest.

Key vocabulary All vocab used throughout the topic

Activities In this session, children consolidate their learning about the Amazon by making a short animation. 1 Explain to the children that they are going to use what they have learnt about the Amazon to make a short animation, which can be shared on the school website or in an assembly. Tell them that the animation must explain where the Amazon is, and its value to the wider world. They should end their animation by suggesting ways that we could help to protect the Amazon rainforest. 2 Explain to the children that they will create a stop-motion animation, like the animation about ‘shifting cultivation’ that they saw in Week 4. Stop-motion involves taking still photos and then putting them together to make a film. They will then be able to add music and a voice over. Ask the children to work in small groups to plan their animation, making a simple storyboard for the images and a script for the voice-over. Following this, the children will need to make their props for their animation. Simpler is usually better here, so props are best made from paper or card. However, some adventurous children may wish to use modelling clay. 3 Once everything is prepared, the children need to take several photos of each ‘scene’. It is advisable to keep the

camera still for the entire process, either by using a tripod or suspending it above the children’s work space. Once the children have taken all of their photos, upload them into the movie-maker package of your choice and add music, text and voice-overs. 4 When the children have finished their animations, give them time to assess their finished product against the geographical criteria provided. What have they done well? How could their work be improved?

Core knowledge ● Making an animation – link. You may choose to share clips with the children.

Resources needed ● Resources: ‘Where is the Amazon?’ PPT ● Materials for props eg paper, card or modelling clay ● Digital cameras, preferably with a tripod ● Movie-making package ● Access to computers or tablets ● Resources: Storyboard sheet