Theme Short Term Plan: Mighty Mountains Y3/4
Spring 2
Lesson 1: Introduction to Mountains
Geography
Objectives
Share facts about mountains
& generate further areas for
research.
1a Ask geographical
questions. 1b Collect &
record evidence. 2a Use
appropriate geographical
vocabulary. 2c Use atlases,
maps & globes at a range of
scales.
Vocabulary
Question starters: How, why,
where, what, when, who, can,
are, do…?
Success Criteria
Remember to:
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Think about what you’d
like to find out about
mountains;
Start your questions in
different ways;
Main Teaching
1) Ask children: what do they know
about mountains? Discuss briefly
with their talking partner and jot
ideas down on whiteboards. Draw a
spider diagram on the board with
“Mountains” in the middle as the title
& different info/subjects around it
with subheadings etc. Encourage
children to share information &
personal experience. Have any
children been to mountains?
2) Explain that we will be doing lots of
work on mountains. What are they
really keen to find out/learn more
about & research themselves? Ask
children if there are mountains all
over the world? Are there any in the
UK? Do they know the names of any
mountains & where they are?
4) Look at a globe ask a child to find
the U.K. (revision from last term’s
theme). Then find some of the other
countries that may have been
Pupil Activities & Differentiation
3)
Children to write some questions
about what they would like to know,
e.g. are volcanoes mountains? Remind
children they are writing non-fiction.
They are providing or seeking
information. Ask them how they might
they begin their sentences?
Resources/Preparation

List of good questions ready,
in case children struggle.
Plenary
Children to share their work. Write a
class list of some of the most popular
things that they would like to know
about mountains. Explain you will keep
this list & discuss answers as you find
them through your study of
mountains.
Application to
Literacy
Present questions in
suitable written form.
1a Choose form &
content to suit a
particular purpose.
1b Broaden vocabulary.
3 Use punctuation
marks correctly.

Use question marks.
mentioned, e.g. Nepal (Mount
Everest), France, Italy, Austria (the
Alps), etc.
Lesson 2: Locating Mountain Ranges
Geography
Objectives
Name a famous
mountain range in each
continent. Learn the
names & locations of
five mountain ranges by
heart.
1a Ask geographical
questions.
2a Use appropriate
geographical vocabulary.
2c Use atlases, maps &
globes at a range of
scales.
2e Draw & complete
maps at a range of
scales.
3a Identify & describe
places.
3b Understand the
location of places &
environments they study
& other significant
places/environments.
Main Teaching
Show children a world map – make sure it is a physical world map
showing the main mountain ranges.
Explain to the children that there are seven continents in the
world. Take ideas from children as to what these might be.
Write up on board the names – do not say where they are.
(North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Antarctica,
Asia, Australia) Children to go to tables with blank map and use
Atlases to find the where the continents are and label (SN group
with Jan, LA with Kay)
Explain that we will be finding the main mountain ranges across
the world. Explain that the term “mountain range” refers to an
area of land that is covered in mountains. Do they know any
mountain ranges? The Himalayas, the Andes, the Alps, the
Rockies, etc? Use the map to go through each continent & find
the largest mountain ranges. On the whiteboard, list the
continents & the major mountain ranges, pointing to a globe or
world map as you do so to identify the position of each range.
Look at how many ranges stretch through more than one country.
Show children how, on the map, the mountains are usually given in
a darker colour to show their height (contour lines).
Vocabulary
Demonstrate sketching the main ranges in each continent on a
Mountain ranges,
contour lines,
physical map,
continents.
Major mountain ranges: Rockies, Andes, Atlas, Alps, Himalayas,
Success Criteria
Remember to:
blank world map.
Zagros, Great Dividing Range (Austalia)
Pupil Activities &
Differentiation
Give children a blank
map of the world.
Using atlases, children
to work individually to
label the continents &
then to draw & label
the mountain ranges
we have listed as a
class.
Extension: To look in
an atlas to find other
ranges & add these to
their maps.
Resources/Preparation
Plenary
Show children a world map
with the main mountain
ranges unnamed. Ask them
if they can remember which
ones are which. Choose 5-7
mountain ranges from
around the world (include:
Himalayas, Andes, Alps) &
ask the children to try to
memorise their names &
location.
Lesson 3: Different Types of Mountains (Supply Teacher)
Geography
Objectives
Understand that volcanoes are a
type of mountain & study how
they are formed, understanding
the layers of the Earth.
1a Ask geographical questions. 2a
Use appropriate geographical
vocabulary. 2c Use atlases, maps &
globes. 4b Recognise some
important physical processes &
explain how these cause changes in
environments.
Science
Understand the composition of the
earth – crust, mantle & core. (Links
to Rocks & Soil Science Unit.)
Main Teaching (I have prepared a Notebook lesson
for you to use as you teach – saved on the desk top)


Use colours to show how

Discuss answers. What evidence do we have? What
are mountains exactly? According to some experts a
mountain is a peak that is 600m higher than the
surrounding land – anything less is a hill. This means
volcanoes are mountains – they are a particular type
of mountain. In the next session we will be thinking

about the types of mountains, how they came to be…
how they are formed?

About a quarter of all the Earth’s land mass is
mountainous. Some mountains are volcanoes which
are mostly situated at points where the plates that
form the Earth’s crust meet. Use a globe to point
4a (extended) Understand that the Earth
is approximately spherical & of what it
consists.
Vocabulary
Earth’s crust, mantle, core,
magma, volcano, volcanic.
Success Criteria
 Label each part carefully;
Ask children if they think volcanoes are mountains?
Pupil Activities &
Differentiation
out the main volcanic areas. Show some famous
volcanoes on an atlas, e.g. Mt St Helens, Krakatoa,
Vesuvius, Etna, etc.

Volcanoes are formed by openings in the Earth’s
crust where fiery clouds of hot ash, gas & magma
spit out. This cools into layer upon layer of solid
rock. Display a diagram of the Earth on IWB. The
land/oceans are on the Earth’s crust (outer layer).
Below this is a thick layer called the mantle – this is

On a cross section
of the Earth,
children to label
the parts Crust,
Mantle, Core. They
should colour these
appropriately.
Extension (not for
SN/LA children):
add extra
information to the
labels to explain
what each part is
like. Non-fiction
books in the
classroom to
research.
If time allows, the
children could also
draw their own
cross section
diagram of a
volcano, using nonfiction books.
Resources/Preparation
A hard-boiled egg.
Plenary
Which part of the Earth
am I describing…?
Has anyone found out
any facts about
volcanoes?
Has anyone answered one
of their own questions
posed from last week’s
lesson? If so, write
down your answer.
hot each part is;

Add more info to explain
what each part is like.
liquid rock & it is where the magma comes from.
Right in the centre of the Earth is the core which is
very hot. Use a hardboiled egg as a model of the
layers: shell = Earth’s crust, white = mantle (it should
be liquid), yolk = core.
Lesson 4:
Geography
Objectives
Understand about the three
ways in which mountains are
formed.
1a Ask geographical questions. 2a Use
appropriate geographical vocabulary.
3e Identify how & why places change.
4b Recognise some important physical
processes & explain how these cause
changes in environments.
Science
Understand the composition
of the earth – crust, mantle
& core.
4a (extended) Understand that
the earth is approximately
spherical & of what it consists.
Vocabulary
Volcanic Mountain, Fold
Mountain, Dome Mountain,
Block Mountain, Plateau
Mountain, erosion, continental
Main Teaching
Ask a child to remind the class how volcanoes (a type of mountain)
are formed. Show a diagram of the Earth’s layers that the Easy
group drew in the previous session. Explain that the Earth’s crust
is like eggshell. Imagine it is all cracked & so made of about 30
different pieces called plates these plates move over time.
Demonstrate this with the hard boiled egg, break the skin gently
by rolling it on the table. Let the chn look at it. Show pictures of
the earth’s land masses over time and clip of time lapse
simulation. Discuss how the Earth’s continents have moved –
encourage children to comment on how America has moved, where
Africa was 100 million years ago, etc. Explain that as these plates
move the Earth changes – it is constantly changing. Use the egg to
show two large pieces moving & hitting each other. What do you
think happens when this occurs?
Explain that mountains are formed in 5 basic ways:
 Volcanic Mountains: when molten rock (magma) deep within
the earth, erupts, and piles upon the surface. Magna is called
lava when it breaks through the earth's crust. When the ash
and lava cools, it builds a cone of rock. Rock and lava pile up,
layer on top of layer. E.g.s - Mount St. Helens in North
America, Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines and Mount Kea and
Mount Loa in Hawaii. Make a model erupting volcano.
Resources/Preparation

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Hard-boiled egg
Smart Notebook prepared with
pictures of the Earth’s land masses
over time & diagrams of the
different types of mountains.
Erupting volcano instructions:
‘Young Discoverers Mountains &
Volcanoes – Geography Facts &
Experiments’ p.23.
Pieces of paper for children to
make fold mountains.
http://boingboing.net/2009/07/16/
time-lapse-sim-of-ea.html
http://www.learner.org/interactive
s/dynamicearth/drift3.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
Jy3ORIgyXyk
plates, Earth’s crust, magma,
lava,
Success Criteria
Remember to:

Fold Mountains are formed when two plates slowly crunch into
each other & the Earth’s crust is pushed up. Play youtube clip
Pupil Activity
– a song about how Fold Mountains are formed! See Pupil
Activity 1. E.g.s - Himalayan Mountains in Asia, the Alps in
Europe, the Andes in South America, the Rockies in North

America and the Urals in Russia. The Himalayan Mountains
were formed when India crashed into Asia and pushed up the
tallest mountain range on the continents. In South America,
the Andes Mountains were formed by the collision of the
South American continental plate and the oceanic Pacific
plate.

Block Mountains are formed by part of the crust being
squeezed up between two cracks called faults. These
faults are where earthquakes happen. This is why many
1) Children to make their own fold
mountain: long piece of paper on a table
top, place hands at each end, push down
and move hands together. Imagine
that our hands are the giant plates
moving beneath the Earth’s surface.
What happens to the middle section of
the paper?
2) Children to draw & annotate a diagram
of how Fold Mountains are formed. If
time, do the same for other types of
mountains.
mountain ranges also experience earthquakes. Instead of
the earth folding over, the earth's crust fractures (pulls
apart). It breaks up into blocks or chunks. Sometimes
these blocks of rock move up and down, as they move
apart and blocks of rock end up being stacked on one
another. E.g.s - the Sierra Nevada mountains in North
America and the Harz Mountains in Germany.

Dome Mountains: are the result of a great amount of melted
rock (magma) pushing its way up under the earth crust.
Without actually erupting onto the surface, the magma pushes
up overlaying rock layers. At some point, the magma cools and
forms hardened rock. The uplifted area created by rising
magma is called a dome because of looking like the top half of
a sphere (ball). The rock layers over the hardened magma are
Plenary
Discuss what they have learnt from the
lesson. How many facts can they
remember?
warped upward to form the dome.
Plateau Mountains (erosion mountains): are not formed by
internal activity. Instead, these mountains are formed by erosion.
Plateaus are large flat areas that have been pushed above sea
level by forces within the Earth, or have been formed by layers
of lava. Plateau mountains are often found near folded mountains.
As years pass, streams and rivers erode valleys through the
plateau, leaving mountains standing between the valleys. The
mountains in New Zealand are examples of plateau mountains.
Lesson 5: Looking at the U.K.
Objectives
Vocabulary
Success Criteria
Remember to:
Main Teaching
Pupil Activity
Resources/Preparation
Plenary
Lesson 6: Looking at somewhere else
Objectives
Main Teaching
Pupil Activity
Vocabulary
Success Criteria
Remember to:

Resources/Preparation
Plenary
Lesson 7:
Objectives
Main Teaching
Resources/Preparation
Pupil Activity
Vocabulary
Success Criteria
Remember to:

Plenary
Lesson 8:
Objectives
Main Teaching
Pupil Activity
Vocabulary
Success Criteria
Remember to:

Resources/Preparation
Plenary
Lesson 9:
Objectives
Vocabulary
Success Criteria
Remember to:
Main Teaching
Resources/Preparation
Pupil Activity

Plenary
Lesson 10:
Objectives
Main Teaching
Resources/Preparation
Pupil Activity
Vocabulary
Success Criteria
Remember to:

Plenary
Lesson 11:
Objectives
Main Teaching
Resources/Preparation
Vocabulary
Success Criteria
Remember to:
Pupil Activity

Plenary