An Island Home

Be familiar with a contrasting environment in the UK; recognise the main similarities and differences between their local area and a contrasting place; extract information from secondary sources.

Lesson ideas l Teaching resources and websites

The Island of Coll (the fictionalised 'Struay' in the Katie Morag books)

The Isle of Coll is a beautiful Hebridean Island 50 miles off the west coast of Scotland. It is 13 miles long and 3 miles wide and famed for being shaped like a fish. The island has a small population of around 200 people

Katie Morag Read Katie Morag and the Two Grandmothers and Katie Morag delivers the Mail to the children. (Struay is a fictional name for the real Isle of Coll in the Inner Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland. The ferry comes from Oban.)

The story Katie Morag Delivers the Mail focuses on the delivery of mail around the island and thus has the potential to be used effectively to develop map reading and map-making skills. Geographical vocabulary is rich within this text and could be used to further develop geographical accuracy of maps used and produced.

(Watch and listen to the author reading Katie Morag and the New Pier.)

Painting Program ICT Link Unit 1A
Using a simple painting program, children create a picture / map of the island of Struay

Word bank ICT Link Unit 1B
Children insert a picture of the island and write a sentence about the picture using a word bank to help them.

Pictogram ICT Link
Create a class pictogram of the types of transportation use in Struay. Ask children to use the pictogram to answer some simple questions. Compare the pictogram with one on the transport used where your school is.

Word Processing ICT Link Unit 1B
Using a WP package children write about the island from a visitor's point of view. Can the children describe a route around the island for the visitor?

Model writing about different features of the island on a big screen. Children can then do their own writing with help of a word bank

Control ICT Link Unit 2D
Help the children to draw a large floor map (in this case, to map out Struay). Mark on the map the places mentioned in the story, and their physical and human features.

Explain to the children that they will use the techniques learnt in this unit to program the robot or turtle to visit parts of the island. The robot could become a character, e.g. Katie Mora g, who has post to deliver.

The children work in groups to test and amend, where necessary, a sequence of instructions which will guide the turtle to different parts of the island to deliver the post. They should use a common recording method, e.g.‘F’, a red arrow, for ‘forwards’, and include the turtle units. Remind the children that a right angle is a measure of a quarter turn and that they need to use half and quarter turns. Refer to quarter turns as right-angled turns in both clockwise and anti-clockwise directions.

Encourage the children to talk about their sequences as a group, to predict results, and to modify the sequence of instructions as it develops. When they have completed the task, they could describe their methods to the whole class and compare their route with others, explaining why they chose a particular route and how they made their final decisions.

Learning Outcomes

• develop and record sequences of instructions for moving along a route in straight lines and round right-angled corners.

Teaching Resources

Examples of activities based on Katie Morag and the two grandmothers.
PDF 49Kb | RTF 11Kb | (Helen Martin, Shelley Primary School, West Sussex)

Powerpoint - Where is Katie Morag set? (Staffordshire Geography)

PDF Lesson plan and resources (LCP)

Flash The imaginary Scottish Island - Isle of Struay (TLFE)

PDF The Katie Morag Books Teachers' notes, information about the Katie Morag books and characters and some ideas for activities. (Randomhouse.co.uk)

You can find very good powerpoints on www.ks1resources.co.uk

Classroom display of Struay Island by Burnsall School

Angus Bear lives on the imaginary Struay Island

General Websites about the Isle of Coll

Photographs, map and information of the island

www.visitcoll.co.uk	Virtual Tour	BBC Weather for Isle of Coll

www.scotland-info.co.uk	Multimap.com	BBC - Landscapes of Scotland

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