Author: jmcminn

Years 5
Autumn

Change for the Better?
Geography — World climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts – physical aspects;

In this unit the children will:
Explore the physical geography of the World climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts
Use maps, atlases, globes and digital/computer mapping including Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to zones and belts and describe features
Use 8 points of the compass
Record results and geographical information in a variety of ways, appropriate to audience, including writing at length
Create detailed, labelled maps of locations identifying physical aspects

Key Vocabulary
Physical geography - the study of the natural features of the Earth’s surface including land formation, climate, flora and fauna
Climate zones - The weather changes in different parts of the world. Where there are similar weather patterns this is known as a climate zone
Ecosystem - An ecosystem describes a specific area where the organisms work together as a unit. It could be any size from a tiny pool of water to hundreds of square miles of desert.
Biomes - A biome is way to describe a large group of similar ecosystems - Biomes have similar weather, rainfall, animals, and plants.
Vegetation belts -

Key Vocabulary
World Climate Zones
The Earth has three main climate zones—tropical, temperate, and polar. These zones can be further divided into smaller zones, each with its own typical climate.
The Polar Zone encompasses the areas around the North and South Poles. The climate is harsh, cold and dry, with some areas experiencing less than 250mm of precipitation a year. Which is why Antarctica is considered a ‘cold desert’. The temperatures can remain below freezing for 6 months of the year. In the winter time day light hours are very short and in the summer it remains light nearly all of the time.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/clips/zr7hyrd
https://www.oddizzi.com/teachers/explore-the-world/weather/climate-zones/polar/

Key Knowledge
The Temperate Zone - The temperatures go up and down with the seasons but there aren’t any extremes in temperature and rainfall tends to be spread over the year. Temperate zones have 4 distinct seasons.
Tropical Zone - Lying between the Tropics of Cancer in the northern hemisphere and Capricorn in the south, tropical climates are home to the world's rainforests, where rainfall and humidity are high. Although temperatures are not that extreme, generally 25-35 °C, and vary little. Because these regions are so close to the Equator, the length of day and night hardly varies throughout the year.
Biomes A biome is way to describe a large group of similar ecosystems. Biomes have similar weather, rainfall, animals, and plants. There are a number of biomes on planet Earth. See below.
Rainforest - Tropical rainforests are located in the tropics, near the equator. Rainforests receive a lot of rainfall and are also very humid and warm. Because they are close to the equator, the temperature stays between 20 and 30 C for most of the year. There are three major areas of tropical rainforests:
Africa - The major tropical rainforest in Africa is in the southern central portion of the continent with the Congo River running through it. There are also rainforests in western Africa and Madagascar.
Southeast Asia - Much of Southeast Asia is considered part of a tropical rainforest biome.
South America - This is the world's largest tropical rainforest. It covers much of the northern part of South America as well as the southern portion of Central America. The area is often called the Amazon basin and has the Amazon and Orinoco Rivers running through it.
The tropical rainforest has the most biodiversity of all the land biomes. Despite only covering around 6% of the Earth's surface, scientists estimate that around half of the planet's animal and plant species live in the world's rainforests.

Savanna - The savanna is a type of grasslands biome, it is sometimes called the tropical grasslands.
Savannas are generally found between the desert biome and the rainforest biome. They are mostly located near the equator. The largest savanna is located in Africa. Nearly half of the continent of Africa is covered with savanna grasslands. Other major savannas are located in South America, India, and northern Australia.
The savannah is characterised by grasses with scattered trees and shrubs.
Savannas have two distinct seasons- there is a rainy season in the summer and a dry season in the winter.
There are often large herds of grazing animals on the savanna that thrive on the abundance of grass and trees.
The savanna stays pretty warm all year. It cools down some during the dry season, but stays warm and humid during the rainy season.
Desert - Deserts are primarily defined by their lack of rain and are characterized by an overall lack of water. They have dry soil, little to no surface water, and high evaporation. They are so dry that sometimes rain evaporates before it can hit the ground! (Not all deserts are hot though, some are icy and cold).
Because deserts are so dry and their humidity is so low, they have no "blanket" of cloud to help insulate the ground. As a result, they may get very hot during the day with the sun beating down, but don't hold the heat overnight. Many deserts can quickly get cold once the sun sets. Some deserts can reach temperatures of well over 38 C during the day and then drop below freezing at night.
The largest hot and dry desert in the world is the Sahara Desert in Northern Africa. The Sahara is a sandy desert with giant sand dunes. It covers over 3 million square miles of Africa. Other major deserts include the Arabian Desert in the Middle East, the Gobi Desert in Northern China and Mongolia, and the Kalahari Desert in Africa.
Only certain types of plants can survive the harsh environment of the desert. These include cactus, grasses, shrubs, and some short trees. Animals have adapted to survive in the desert despite its extreme temperatures and lack of water eg. Many of the animals are nocturnal so they avoid the hottest parts of the day. Desert animals include meerkats, camels, reptiles such as the horned toad, scorpions, and grasshoppers and have either adapted to needing little water or are able to store up water that they can use later.
Temperate Forest - These are located in several locations around the world, around halfway between the equator and the poles. Temperate means "not to extremes" In this case temperate is referring to the temperature. It never gets really hot or really cold.
There are four distinct seasons in temperate forest biomes: winter, spring, summer, and autumn. Each season is about the same length of time. With only a three month winter, plants have a long growing season and there is lots of rain throughout the year.
The rotting leaves that fall from the trees and other decaying matter provide a rich, deep soil that is good for trees to grow strong roots.
Animals that live in the temperate forest areas have adapted to be able to survive the winter months eg. Some of the animals hibernate.

Temperate Grasslands - Grasslands are wide expanses of land filled with low growing plants such as grasses and wildflowers. The amount of rain is not enough to grow tall trees and produce a forest, but it is enough to not form a desert. The temperate grasslands have seasons including a hot summer and a cold winter.
Grasslands are generally located between deserts and forests. Each major area of grasslands in the world has its own characteristics and is often called by other names:
Prairie - Grasslands in North America are called the prairies.
Steppes - The steppes are grasslands that cover southern Russia
Pampas - The grasslands in South America are often called the pampas.
There are actually thousands of different kinds of grasses that grow in this biome. Where they grow usually depends on the amount of rain that area gets. The grassland biome plays an important role in human farming and food. They are used to grow staple crops such as wheat and corn. They are also good for grazing livestock such as cattle.
Taiga Forest - These forests are located in the far north typically between the temperate forest biome and the tundra biome.
The forest is covered with evergreen, or coniferous trees that don't drop their leaves, or needles, in the winter. They keep their leaves so they can soak up as much sunlight for as long as possible.
The taiga has the coldest weather of the forest biomes. Winters can get as cold as -50 C. Winter can last for six months with the temperature averaging below freezing. Summers are warmer, but very short.
Precipitation falls as rain in the summer and snow in the winter and because the leaves don't fall from the trees the soil is thin with poor nutrients.
Animals that live in the Taiga need to be able to survive the cold winters, they have thick fur and feathers eg. moose, the snowshoe hare, deer, elk, bears
Tundra - The tundra biome is a barren cold and treeless plain where harsh conditions make it hard for plants and animals to survive.
The Arctic tundra is located far north in the northern hemisphere along the Arctic Circle. There are large areas of tundra in northern North America, northern Europe, and northern Asia.
The average temperature in the tundra is around -27 C. It gets much colder in the winter and warmer during its short summer. The tundra is dry, gets about as much precipitation as the average desert, most of this is snow.
Below the top soil, the ground is permanently frozen year round this is known as permafrost.
https://www.ducksters.com/science/ecosystems/world_biomes.php

North West England

Vegetation Belts
Vegetation Belts are altitude bands. Plant life varies with altitude. As altitude increases, temperature decreases and weather conditions become harsher which impacts upon the vegetation that is able to grow.