Most children spend winter in a town, protected from the elements. This stark landscape shows that not everybody is cocooned in urban life.
Guess where
Hold up this picture, covering the white building on the right. What and where is it? On this planet? A tidal wave? A lunar landscape? Then reveal the little white house. Will anyone realise that it is actually in the United Kingdom, and that people go skiing there?
Winter
Do you like the winter months? How do you spend your leisure time? Sports? (What kind do we play in cold weather?) Going out? (How do we dress?, What sort of clothes do we wear?, How do they keep us warm?) Staying in? (Do you have winter hobbies, or do you just watch television?) What did people do before television (crafts, story-telling, singing, family games)?
Biomes
What is a biome? (a major ecological type of environment, like a desert, grasslands, rain forest, scrubland, tundra) What sort of climate and geographical features does each of these places have? (eg, Arctic tundra covers 10 per cent of the Earth, with a treeless, icy landscape; Alpinetundra is rocky, with shrubs and lichens) How have wildlife, plants and humans adapted?
Writing
Imagine you are a girlboy living in the little white house. What do you do every day? Where do you attend school? What do you eat? From where do you get your food?
The Big Picture see page 16. Ted Wragg is professor of education at the University of Exeter.
