‘All about Rivers’ is a great KS2 project and a fantastic starting point to the topic can be found at the webpage created by The Schoolrun.com’s homework help page.
The page opens with a description of what a river is, it gives a set of top ten facts followed by many more statements of fact in the ‘Did you know?’ section. There are photographs of different stages of rivers – the estuary, meanders, a spring starting point and tidal rivers – for children to begin to build a picture of all that a river can be. There is a really interesting ‘About’ section that links rivers to the development of towns. It deals briefly with erosion and the use of water, making things work historically. There is also a useful glossary explaining the river words and a video to demonstrate river formation – this webpage is a very good introduction to rivers.
Also to learn all about rivers, the following video is an excellent but quite advanced film showing the development and journey of the River Severn. It is an great introduction to a proper river as many children will be able to relate to it in some way. Many pupils will have crossed one of the bridges into Wales, visited Gloucester, Worcester or comparatively local places where they will have seen the river. It shows clearly how the river starts, how it develops and the complete journey to the sea, all in five minutes. Teachers may need to stop the video in places to answer questions, but it is so much better than most of the animations showing how rivers form – it is worth being prepared to answer questions.
To help support a Rivers project, there is also an excellent, free Rivers poster set for display showing some of the World’s most important rivers, shared by Instant Displays:
