KS1 - Capitals and countries

Explore the UK’s capital cities and key geographical features through a series of engaging, outdoor KS1 lessons that combine natural resources, map skills, and creative collaboration. With minimal resourcing required, these hands-on activities will spark curiosity while deepening children’s understanding of human and physical features across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Lesson Plans

Understanding settlement types

Deepen your children’s understanding of settlement types and human features, using only natural resources and some map outlines. Within this outdoor lesson, children will develop their map reading skills to locate settlements and explore geographical vocabulary.

Learning objective:

To know the difference between city, town and village.

Identifying characteristics of England

During this outdoor lesson your children will focus on some of the key characteristics of England and develop their understanding of the terms human and physical features. This lesson requires minimal resourcing and will enable your children to work creatively.

Learning objective:

To identify the characteristics of England.

Identifying characteristics of Scotland

The main activity of this outdoor lesson will give your children the chance to work collaboratively to learn about Scotland’s physical characteristics with a uniquely fun challenge! They’ll also need to locate the capital and use locational language in relation to some human features.

Learning objective:

To identify the characteristics of Scotland.

Identifying characteristics of Wales

Deliver an engaging and hands-on learning experience centred around Wales and its human and physical features! Your children will need to use geographical vocabulary to describe characteristics of this country, while also using a variety of natural resources.

Learning objective:

To identify the characteristics of Wales.

Identifying characteristics of Northern Ireland

Combine active games with collaborative learning to give your children an opportunity to explore the characteristics of Northern Ireland. This outdoor lesson focuses on the Giants Causeway, enabling children to secure their understanding of geographical vocabulary to describe physical features.

Learning objective:

To identify the characteristics of Northern Ireland.

Using atlases to locate UK countries

Have your children apply their atlas skills to identify and locate the UK’s four countries and their capital cities using this outdoor lesson. Children will need to use their knowledge of compass points when describing locations and will have a chance to explore the flags of each country.

Learning objective:

To name, locate and identify the four countries and capital cities of the UK.

Before you get started

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