Lesson plan: My bonnie lies over the ocean

Song Bank link

My bonnie lies over the ocean (Traditional)

Subject links

• Geography QCA Unit 3: An Island Home

Duration

Minimum 1 hour

Learning objectives

Geography

• Children will be able to recognise how an island is different from the mainland.

• Children will be aware of the nature and character of an environment different from their own.

• Children will be able to identify main features and places of interest and construct a map to record them.

• Children will be able to identify types of transport and how land and buildings are used.

• Children will be able to identify likes and dislikes about a place.

Singing

• Children will be able to perform and extend a familiar song by adding actions and alternative lyrics.
  
  

Resources

• My bonnie lies over the ocean - all tracks

• Copies of the ‘Katie Morag’ books by Mairi Hedderwick

• A large map of the Isle of Struay (downloadable from the Random House website at www.randomhouse.co.uk)

• A blank A3 map of an island

• Photographs of other real islands in different climate zones (optional)

• ICT software that explores landforms (optional)

• Art materials
  
  

Prior Learning

• Children should have explored their local environment and compared this to other locations; had some experience of using photographs and simple maps to locate features; used and understood simple geographical terms such as transport, features, land, sea, coast etc.
  
  

Introduction

• Share the Learning objectives with the children at the start of the session.

• Read one of the Katie Morag books to the children and encourage them to talk about the fictitious island in simple terms by asking relevant questions, eg. What is an island? Has anyone visited one? Have you heard about an island in any other story? How is Katie Morag’s post office different from your home? What kinds of jobs do the islanders have?

• Listen to the song My bonnie lies over the ocean and encourage the children to join in with the chorus.

• Learn the song using the echo track(s). Encourage a light singing tone to keep the melody moving and flowing.

• Once the song is familiar, try a fun version which uses standing and sitting actions every time you sing a word beginning with the letter ‘b’. Start sitting down. When you sing the first word ‘bonnie’ you stand, and when you sing the next word beginning with ‘b’ you sit. Changing positions becomes very rapid when you reach: ‘Bring back, bring back, oh bring back my bonnie to me, to me!’
  
  

Singing tips

• Sing My bonnie lies over the ocean but change the words to suit the island’s characters and physical feature, encouraging the children to offer ideas for new verses, eg. ‘Grannie Mainland lies over the ocean - Oh, bring back my grannie to me!’, ‘Alecina lies deep in the Boggy Loch - Oh, rescue Alecina for me!’ or ‘The ferry comes far from the mainland - Oh, who will be visiting me?’
  
  

Main Activity

• Draw a large-scale map of the Isle of Struay, or download one from the Internet, and ask the children to point to key locations described in the stories: High Farm, Grannie Island’s home, the Boggy Loch or the Jetty. Encourage them to talk about these places in their own words and praise their use of appropriate geographical terms, (eg. High Farm is on a hill because it’s high; the Jetty is where the sea meets the land because it’s where the boats come in; the Redburn Bridge goes over the river…).

• Discuss different forms of transport that the islanders use; many are referred to in the stories and shown in the illustrations, eg. Neilly Beag’s boat, Grannie Island’s tractor, the postman’s bicycle and the ferry. Compare these to transport used in your local area.

• Talk about the island features that the children like and dislike.Can they back up their preferences with answers that use ‘because’? Eg. ‘I don’t like the Boggy Loch because it’s muddy and smelly!’, ‘I really like the Jetty because all the boats moor there!’ etc.

• Explore some conventional symbols on simple maps and then encourage the children to invent new symbols for the key locations on the Isle of Struay.
  
  

Independent Activity

• Offer the children A3 blank maps of another invented island outline called ‘Adventure Island’. These maps should be marked with simple symbols for forests, rivers, bridges, lakes, caves, roads, railway lines and buildings. Talk about the symbols and establish that the children can recognise the features represented.

• Ask the children to work in pairs or small groups to choose and give names for these places, matching the island’s theme.

• Support this activity by talking about some likely place names: Pirates’ Harbour, Ghostly Castle. Link ideas to familiar adventure stories, TV series or films that are familiar to the group, eg. Thunderbirds and Tracy Island or Pleasure Island in Pinocchio.

• Some children may be able invent some symbols of their own.
  
  

Differentiation

Support

• Work in pairs and small groups of mixed ability.

• Use ‘Speaking and Listening’ sessions to share, discuss and embed geographical terms and concepts, eg. mainland, coast, island, harbour etc.

• Use additional adults to support children who need help with vocabulary or map work.

Extension

• Write an adventure story using ‘Adventure Island’ as the setting.

• Alternatively, use the same idea outlined in the Independent Activity but base it on the festival of Diwali, using features from the island where Rama and Sita were banished.
  
  

Plenary

• Ask the children to imagine that they are going on an island holiday and ask them to choose one of these locations: The Isle of Struay; a Caribbean Island or an island near the North Pole.

• Encourage them to justify their choices with appropriate geographical vocabulary and to decide which kind of transport they would use to get there, eg. ‘I’d go to Jamaica because it’s tropical and the sea is blue and there are mountains’, ‘I’d fly there because there’s an airport’, ‘I’d like to go to the North Pole because it’s cold and icy and slippery’ or ‘I’d go by ship and see icebergs on the way’.
  
  

Assessment for learning

Can the children:

• Identify some of the characteristics of an island?

• Talk about features and places of interest on the Isle of Struay?

• Talk about how transport and buildings are used on Struay?
  
  

Next steps

• Design and make 3D models of the Isle of Struay, showing the sea, high and low ground, woodlands and buildings.

• Use photographs, simple atlases or IT software to identify islands and ask children to talk about features such as cliffs, coastline, hills, lakes and harbours that they have explored in this unit.
  
  

Differentiated Success Criteria

All children will:

• Identify main features and places of interest and construct a map to record them.

• Recognise different types of transport and their relation to the environment.

• Identify whether they like or dislike a place.

Some children will:

• Recognise the main similarities and differences between their local area and a contrasting place.

• Extract information from secondary sources.

• Recognise the meaning of symbols on a map.

• Use appropriate terminology to describe geographical features and places.

A few children will:

• Express a like or dislike for a place and back up their answers.

• Invent their own map symbols.