What is flooding?

For these activities, video footage and newspaper reports of recent floods are useful, but floods do not always occur at the time of doing a project. Therefore it is a good idea for the teacher to have a video tape in a useful location (i.e. close to the video recorder) so that if a flooding new report is given, the majority of it can be taped for use. Collect two or three reports over a few days. The same is true of newspaper reports - anything connected to flooding should be cut out and stored in a safe place. It is also important for the flooding report to be fairly up-to-date so every year or so, new flooding footage from newspapers and TV news reports should be added to the existing footage (do not erase the existing footage as it may be better than the new ones).

ACTIVITY ONE : Flood Pictures.

Organise the children into groups of 3. The children need to use books, internet, newspapers and other sources to find some pictures of flooding. If there has been a recent flood in the World, this work is a good homework task as the children can cut out pictures and articles from newspaper and can also video tape (with their parents permission) news reports from the TV.

The pictures can then be organised as a class on a display board or alternatively they could be glued into a scrapbook. This scrapbook could be used for future years, as could the pictures from the CD ROM's, books etc. and the pictures brought in by the children (if the children do not want them back). The children need to make labels to describe when and where the flood occurred.

RESOURCES REQUIRED

Books.

CD ROM's.

Newspaper Reports.

Glue.

Scrapbook or Display Board.

ACTIVITY TWO : Causes, Effects and Solutions to Flooding.

For this activity, the teacher needs to have (on video tape) two news reports or television programmes about flooding so that the children are shown that floods cause different effects and are caused by different factors. Both the BBC and ITV new services report floods when and where they occur, but there are other sources of programmes on flooding such as the ITV/Meridian Programme Eye of the Storm (often there are several reports about flooding over the course of the 6-10 programmes), Sky One sometimes has drama programmes such as The World's Worst Natural Disasters, and there are flooding documentaries on the Discovery Channel (Satellite TV) and other associated channels (these might be too advanced for children so they need to be watched by the teacher before showing the children). Alternatively the section about flooding in the BBC Landmarks : Rivers of the World - The Mississippi or the BBC Landmarks : A Portrait of Europe - The Netherlands by the Sea could be shown as they have sections on flooding.

Explain to the children that floods are caused by lots of different things. The effects are what happens like the damage. The solutions are what people do to try to prevent a flood from occurring.

Watch the video reports pausing the tape after each one to discuss the causes, effects and solutions and giving the children the chance to write down their answers. At the end of the video reports, discuss what the children have found out about floods. Worksheet 88 is a nonspecific worksheet with headings for the children to fill in about flooding (the children need two copies each).

RESOURCES REQUIRED

Two video news reports/documentaries about flooding.

Video Recorder and TV with remote control.

Clipboards.

Worksheet 88 - 2 copies per child.

ACTIVITY THREE : Flooding Leaflet.

Based on the children's answers to the flooding video, the children can design a leaflet to include the following aspects:

1) Definition of a flood.

2) Causes of flooding.

3) Effects of flooding.

4) Solutions to prevent flooding.

5) Pictures.

The children also need to use books and other sources to find out more causes, effects and solutions to flooding other than those shown in the videos. The books will also be useful in defining terms such as embankments, levees etc. It is a good idea to set the children a task to find out more causes and effects of flooding (the children should write down answers in their geography books), give them 20 minutes and then discuss their answers after this 20 minutes has elapsed. Writing their answers on the board will act as a useful reference guide for the children when they write their leaflet. The children can present their leaflet as a series of questions followed by bullet points to answer the questions. Full answers are required i.e. one cause of a flood is an undersea earthquake which causes a tsunami. This is a giant wave in the sea which when it flows onto land, will flood the area. Worksheet 89 provides the children with some information about flooding

RESOURCES REQUIRED

Video sheets.

Extra information from books, CD ROM's, newspaper articles etc.

Worksheet 89

Worksheet 90

Computers.

Worksheets Teacher Planning Key Questions Page