Change Champs: Let’s visit a national park [KS1]

(UPBEAT MUSIC)

Amelle: Hi, I’m Amelle.

Daniel: And I’m Daniel.

And today we’ve come to a National Park in the Peak District to meet Matt, who is a park ranger.

Matt: Hi, Change Champs. It’s so exciting to see you here. I’ve been a National Park Ranger for almost five years now, and I never get bored of spending all my time outside in this awesome place.

Should we take a look around?

Kids: Yeah.

Matt: Come on, then.

So why do you think people come to a National Park like this then?

Daniel: To play.

Matt: To play? Yeah, that’s a great thing to do here.

Amelle: Well, probably, maybe, like, maybe like for picnics and stuff.

Matt: Totally, We love a picnic, yeah. Now one of the things I love about a National Park, is that it’s a great place to see loads of nature and wildlife.

All these hills and trees and birds and everything, but we’ve also got loads of really cool man-made features too. Like we’ve got a big reservoir here and over there behind us, that’s the pumping house where they clean all the water and send it off to be your drinking water in the city.

And down here behind us, we got the reservoir outflow, which takes all the water away. So there’s loads of really cool things to see.Should we go have a look?

Amelle: Yeah.

Matt: Come on, then.

Amelle: What’s a reservoir?

Matt: A reservoir, it’s like a big lake, isn’t it? Great big bowl of water. But it isn’t natural, it’s been made by people to store all the rain that falls here to keep for drinking water.

You know, you guys are asking some great questions.

I think it’s time for a mission.

Amelle: Your mission is to identify as many human and physical geographical features as possible and draw them onto a map.

Daniel: Like a pirate map.

Matt: Right, let’s go and start making our map. Okay, so for this mission, you’re going to need to look at human and physical features in this place, all around us.

So human features are things that people have built like that great big wall or the houses or roads, things like that. And physical features are things that weren’t put here by people. They’re there because that’s the way the land is. So the hills, the trees, things like that.

So on our map, we’re going to draw loads and loads of little pictures to show where things are.

Amelle: I see walls and trees.

Daniel: I can see hills in the distance.

Matt: It’s really, really important that we have what’s called a key to show us what all those different pictures mean. It’s a bit like a secret code. Okay.

Amelle: There were so many things created by nature here, but also so many things created by us humans.

Matt: So the big wires that go all the way along there, do you think they’re natural, do you think they grew up out of the ground?

Daniel: No. They were man-made.

Matt: A man-made feature, aren’t they?

Oh, Change Champs, you’ve done an amazing job. That’s a fantastic map. There’s one last thing we need to do. And that’s to put X marks the spot to show exactly where we are in your awesome map. Okay.

Amelle: So we’re about there.

Matt: Well-done team, what an epic effort. You’ve really learned so much about the human and physical features that you can see in a National Park. But you can find human and physical features around you anywhere, even in your local park.

Okay, I think we need to pack up and get going, don’t we?

Daniel: We have really enjoyed learning from Matt, and I’m going to make a map next time I go to my local park.