World Around Us — Local Area History & Geography Activity Pack (NI)
A P3–P5 activity pack aligned to the NI Curriculum 'World Around Us' strand — local area investigation, community history fieldwork, map skills, and how to use the local environment as a starting point for integrated history/geography/science learning.
Preview
Page count: 3. Print-ready PDF — letter / A4 friendly. Click image to see all pages.
Local area investigation checklist
- Walk around the school neighbourhood — what can you observe?
- Identify the age of local buildings (plaques, architectural styles, census records)
- Map the school and its surroundings (OS map, Google Maps comparison)
- Interview a member of the local community about how the area has changed
- Visit the local graveyard — read names, dates, occupations
- Identify local street names — are any in Irish? What do they mean?
- Photograph 'before and after' using old postcards from the local library
- Find out when your school was built — who built it? For whom?
- Identify plants and animals in the school grounds — make a species list
- Measure rainfall, wind direction, and temperature over two weeks
The World Around Us — NI Curriculum structure
What the integrated area covers
- ▶ HISTORY STRAND: change over time, my local area and community, history of Ireland, history of Britain and the wider world
- ▶ GEOGRAPHY STRAND: my local environment, natural environments, human environments, global citizenship
- ▶ SCIENCE STRAND: living things, materials and their properties, energy and change, forces and motion
- ▶ TECHNOLOGY STRAND: ICT, design and making, using materials
- ▶ INTEGRATION: the great strength of World Around Us is connecting these four areas. A local history walk can cover: History (when was this built?), Geography (where does the river go?), Science (what lives in the hedgerow?), Technology (how did they build the bridge?).
- ▶ ASSESSMENT: World Around Us is assessed through teacher observation and portfolio evidence. There are no standardised tests for this area.
Learning objective
Use the local area as a starting point for integrated history, geography, and science investigation; apply observation, interviewing, and mapping skills; connect curriculum learning to the immediate environment.
About this resource
World Around Us fieldwork resources
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For P3–P5
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O OSNI map 1:50,000 Discoverer — your area
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F Fieldwork magnifying glass set class 30
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L Local area study recording sheet primary NI
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