The Everyday Guide to Primary Geography: Story

This Guide shows how to use high-quality picture, story and fiction books to stimulate, enliven and enrich geography at key stages 1 and 2. It demonstrates a wide range of practical classroom strategies for using fiction to develop pupils’ geographical thinking, knowledge and understanding, and extend their geographical skills. It also explores some rich possibilities for cross-curricular work through linking geography with literacy and other subjects.

The aims of the Guide are to:

• demonstrate the value of story as a vehicle for promoting geographical thinking, including geographical vocabulary and positional and locational language
• exemplify strategies for developing geographical skills, such as enquiry, map work, fieldwork, visual literacy, making comparisons, etc., through picture, story and fiction books
• illustrate creative ideas for enhancing pupils’ knowledge and understanding of places, and of physical, human and environmental geography through story
• provide valuable ideas and resources to use in the classroom.

The Guide is accompanied by web-based resources, including key vocabulary, cross-curricular links, activity sheets and examples of pupils’ work. As an additional resource, this Guide has an downloadable spreadsheet featuring over 200 different children’s books organised by key stage and geographical places/themes.

CONTENTS

• Geography through story
• Investigating the school grounds - Eliza and the Moonchild by Emma Chichester Clark
• Life on a sheep farm in northern England - The Shepherd Boy by Kim Lewis
• Fantasy introducing rainforest, desert and high mountain environments - Oliver Who Travelled Far and Wide by Mara Bergman and Nick Maland
• A balloon flies from the UK to an island in the Nile - A Balloon for Grandad by Nigel Gray 
• Counting story set in the East African Plains - We all went on Safari by Laurie Krebs and Julia Cairns
• A walk in a local urban park - Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne 
• Retelling of the classic story with an environmental twist - Eco-Wolf and the Three Pigs by Laurence Anholt and Arthur Robins 
• Parallel stories of everyday life in Australia and Morocco - Mirror by Jeannie Baker 
• Environmental story set in the African savannah - Hey! What’s that Nasty Whiff? by Julia Jarman and Garry Parsons
• A story of life and change set in Chile - Mia’s Story by Michael Foreman 
• An ancient camera travels the oceans - Flotsam by David Wiesner 
• Picture book illustrating the greening of an urban neighbourhood - Belonging by Jeannie Baker 
• Two Nigerian children find themselves refugees in London - The Other Side of Truth by Beverley Naidoo 
• A camping trip in the Australian outback - In the Bush: Our holiday at Wombat Flat by Roland Harvey 
• A round the world sailing trip ends in shipwreck on a tropical island - Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo
• Useful resources and websites