Wherever children live – be it in a small village, market town or city or even an isolated farm – they all come to school knowing something about settlements.
This provides an ideal starting point for them to learn not only about what makes up their own home environment and surroundings, but also the issues and changes that are occurring in and around them, all the time.
Your class may well have already covered work on village settlers and so this lesson aims to bring their experience of settlements right up to date by looking at what is happening locally right now, incorporating other aspects of learning such as literacy and citizenship in a natural and supportive way.
They will learn about the variety of buildings found in different settlements, to develop skills that will help you find clues in photographs and pictures about the character of different houses, to make decisions about what are important features in houses, and to recognise the use of persuasive language used to sell houses and flats.
