Well blow me down - Year 8 Hurricanes

In preparation for our virtual hurricane experience, you need to do some background research. Follow the links below to answer the questions and be prepared to use these in our starter next week. We are basing our study on the The Caribbean. So as a starting point write down 5 facts about The Caribbean - these links will help

General background, The people, Tourism, Data file.

Now move on with these specific questions:

What are hurricanes?

Can you find the little rhyme that the Islanders teach their children reminding them to be ready? Can you tell when the hurricane season begins and ends?

In September 2004, Hurricane Ivan was the worst hurricane to hit Jamaica for a generation - Read the eyewitness reports on the BBC website and write down 15 words to describe the effects of a hurricane.

Watch and listen to Tim and Toby explain how hurricanes are formed.

Other link you might want to visit are: FEMA for kids,

Extra: got a hurricane named after you - find out? How are they named? When are the retired?

Year 8 Living Space revision

In preparation for the test you will find it useful to consider the following questions and pieces of advice:

What skills will I be expected to complete in the exam?
Drawing and interpreting a range of graphs.
Using photographs to write about places and urban issues.
Structuring longer pieces of extended writing to answer a specific question.
What topic areas do I need to know about?
Urban areas in MEDCs and LEDCs, migration and shanty towns, sustainability, internet shopping and its impact on the urban area.
Key words you should be able to use (see you glossary if you are unsure):
Barrio, CBD, city, informal job, informal settlement, rural-to-urban migration, urbanisation, urban sprawl, sustainability, mega-city, shanty town.

Also why not look at the following animation on shanty towns it was produced by other students

http://www.sln.org.uk/geography/geoweb/ click on the volcano (blow me down) and then on 'future favelas'

Creating Your Model City - Year 8 WORK IN PROGRESS

In the last few lessons we have been looking at the problems that face many cities in both developed and developing worlds. You have an extended series of homeworks to complete the following tasks:
1) Create a model/map of your perfect city - look here for my help sheet which also includes the success criteria.
2) Produce a poster that advertises your city and would make people want to live here again look at the advice and success criteria.
3) Give a 1 minute presentation on your city.

We have talked about this homework a lot and I have kept on using the idea of sustainability. Most of you seem to be coping with it, but you might want to read the following links for a wider perspective. Remember the skills we said you would need to use when gathering information from the internet!
An excellent starting point is the Global Eye website. This looks at many of the ideas we have been covering.
Making the modern world looks at Curitiba in Brazil and the attempts to make it sustainable. Want to know more about Curitiba? Then look at this website for some ideas or this one which is quite easy
I like the Tate Modern Global Cities Exhibition which has some interesting ideas about urban areas.
The video ''Cities in a Changing World'' on the same site does not offer any solutions, but does set the scene with some super facts and searching questions. Nice backing track as well! Look at the 'speed' section for an idea of the Highway Parks of Istanbul.
This is interesting!

Report writing time

For homework I have asked you all to write your own reports. This should be done on paper, ready to hand in. The instructions and advice on how to do this are here. Copies of the review sheets are here: Year 7, Year 8, Year 9.

The connectives word mat is posted on the blog (posted Jan 2006 - have a look and print off!)

Years 7,8 and 9

Struggling to revise, cannot concentrate, fed up - make revision fun -

Why not try out the crosswords below. Have a go at your year group and then see if you can complete another one.

Year 7 crossword

Year 8 crossword

Year 9 crossword

Exam time again - How can I use this blog for my revision?

One way to view all the postings that are relevant to you is to click on the ''labels'' button for say ''Year 7''(can you see it below each posting?)

All the Year 7 postings will then appear. You could then use these to revise.

Year 7,8 and 9 Exam Revision Sheets

Want to know what to revise for the exams. Then look no further:

Year 7 Revision sheet is here,

Year 8 Revision sheet is here,

Year 9 Revision sheet is here.

Exam time!

Want advice on how to revise?

Need new ideas on techniques for revision?

Beat exam stress?

Why not try BBC ONION STREET (it might make your eyes water!)

Keep watching the blog for more exam advice

Year 8 Extreme weather watch - compare these two extreme weather events.

The UK is suffering from a heavy bout of snow - watch the news video here

Jakarta has been hit by floods - read and watch more here

What are the differences, what are the similarities?

WORD MATS - all years loads of topics

As promised here is the link to the wordmats on SLN.

Click here for the connectives and starters mats

Click here for a list of other wordmats you could print off and use at home

Climate graph homework for Year 8

Your task is to draw a climate graph from scratch. You need to decide on the scale and I am looking for accuracy and neatness.

Here are is a website where you can get figures.

Remember your title and axis labels!

YEAR 8 Shanty Town Homework

For homework I asked you to complete the table that explains your priority for improving the shanty town. Remember to put detail into your answer and try to use Geographical words. You will need the CARDS .

Also remember you need a shopping receipt for the first lesson back after half term.

Year 8 Migration letter

For your letter you might find the following links useful.
Here are the cards to remind you.
Here is the instruction sheet to help you.

Remember the success criteria for this piece of work is - use of geography words and showing you understand the arguments for and against her moving.