Our planet, from far away
From space, our planet looks mostly blue. That's because most of Earth โ about two-thirds โ is covered by water.
The land that ISN'T water is broken into seven big pieces called continents. The water between them is broken into five big areas called oceans.
Today we'll meet them all.
The seven continents
Memorise these in any order โ they're ALL the land on Earth:
๐ฆ Australia / Oceania ยท ๐๏ธ Europe (we live here!)
๐ฝ North America ยท ๐ด South America
Trick to remember: all seven start with A or E. Three As, one E, two more As, and South Am... almost!
The five oceans
From biggest to smallest:
๐ Atlantic Ocean (between Europe & America โ touches the UK!)
๐ Indian Ocean (south of India)
๐ง Southern Ocean (around Antarctica โ the coldest)
โ๏ธ Arctic Ocean (the smallest, at the top of the world)
Fun fact: the Southern Ocean was only officially named in the year 2000. Before that, some maps only had four oceans!
Europe โ our continent
The continent we live on is Europe. It's smaller than Asia or Africa but has lots of countries packed in.
Famous places in Europe: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece โ and our own home, the United Kingdom!
Europe has the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Arctic to the north, and Asia to the east (where the borders are tricky).
The United Kingdom
The United Kingdom is made of four countries:
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟ Scotland โ capital: Edinburgh
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ท๓ ฌ๓ ณ๓ ฟ Wales โ capital: Cardiff
Northern Ireland โ capital: Belfast
The UK is surrounded by sea. We are an island nation. The North Sea is to our east, the English Channel to the south, the Irish Sea to the west, and the Atlantic Ocean wraps around us.
Geographer's words
Geographers (people who study the world) need special words to describe places. Try to use these:
beach, cliff, coast, forest, hill, mountain, river, sea, valley
Human features (made by people):
city, town, village, farm, factory, house, port, harbour, shop
Now you can describe almost any place you visit.
Why this matters
Knowing the shape of the world helps you understand:
- where your food comes from (a banana might travel from South America!)
- why some places are hot and others are cold
- where the news happens
- how big the world is, and how small your bit of it is
You're now a junior geographer. Time to try the worksheet or the game!
Well done!
You finished this lesson. You worked hard and learned something new today. ๐
Next module โ