The 22 Best Geography Resources For Every Key Stage

In a world of information, sifting through geography resources can be time-consuming.

We’ve taken some of the stress out of it by finding the best geography resources to help you craft lesson plans and develop your student’s learning.

Mould these geography resources into lesson plans that suit your teaching style, students and school.

Key Stage 1

These are the best resources for introducing early geography concepts like continents and oceans, physical and human characteristics, weather and climate.

Our top resources for key stage 1 are:

‘Maps,’ The Field Studies Council

This lesson plan links to sensory and memory mapping and will help develop an understanding of the features of the school and local area.

Encouraging audio visualisation is great for young minds and links to mindfulness as children focus  on specific noises.

How to use this resource

Use this resource to create a sound and memory map in your school, further afield, or as a comparison between the two.

Build on the suggestions in this resource by walking around the school grounds and stopping, rather than sitting in one place. Encourage children to reflect afterwards and talk about what they discovered.

Best for:

• Understanding features of the school grounds and local area
• Understanding important vocabulary
• Encouraging audio visualisation

‘Geography Beside The Seaside,’ Twinkl

These lesson plans offer ideas for teaching the human and physical geographical features of the seaside using maps, aerial photography and video.

Best for:

• Introducing coasts
• Learning how environments develop and change
• Introducing map-based activities

Climate and weather,BBC

This short film introduces the difference between climate and weather.

How to use this resource

Use this clip to spark discussions about different climates around the world, which animals you’d expect to find in different climates and how our climate is changing.

You can then dive deeper into different climate zones and how climate change is affecting our planet.

Best for:

• Introducing climate change
• Understanding the difference between climate and weather

‘All About The Circular Economy,’ National Geographic Kids

This is a fantastic resource for introducing circular economy to younger minds. Children will begin learning about different ways the environment can be protected as well as repairing and reusing products in an eco-friendly way.

Best for:

• Recognising how environments change
• The effects of the environment changing
• Introducing scientific and mathematical concepts

Other geography resources for KS1:

Scavenger Hunt, The Field Studies Council

Geography lessons are an opportunity to explore the world around you. Use this interactive scavenger hunt to discover new things around the school or local area.

Cities, Towns & Villages, BBC Teach

Watch this short film that covers the key features of villages, towns and cities to help children understand their local area (and further afield!)

Ocean Quiz,CBBC

Introduce children to the world’s oceans and test their knowledge with a fun quiz!

Key stage 2

During this learning stage, children are extending their geography knowledge beyond their local area by covering key regions, physical and human characteristics, land use patterns, and how places change over time.

Here are our top resources to support key stage 2 students or as a transition into stages 3 and 4.

‘Investigating habitats in our school grounds,’ The Geographical Association

This free resource includes suggested geography activities for exploring habitats on the school site.

Back in the classroom, this information can be collated into graphs for simple analysis and comparison and will spark discussions about how diverse their school is!

Best for:

• Practising observation skills
• Cross-curricular links to maths

‘The Geography of Europe,’ BBC Bitesize

This interactive online resource covers the human, physical, and volcanic geography of Europe allowing students to expand their geography knowledge further afield.

How to use this resource

Online resources are a great way to introduce new concepts into your teaching. Use this as part of your geography lesson as a starting point when covering Europe.

The resources also includes a quiz for students to test their knowledge and keep them engaged during the lesson.

Best for:

• The physical and human geography of Europe
• Learning about how communities are different around the world

‘Investigating Climate Change & Sea Level Rise,’ The Geographical Association

These resources help students describe and understand key aspects of physical geography including climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts. The activity links geography and science to investigate how sea levels rising would affect different places.

Best for:

• The concept of climate change and sea level rise
• The effects of global warming
• Hands-on activities

Other geography resources for KS2:

Subject-specific vocabulary, AQA

Geography introduces a wealth of new vocabulary. Break it down with this helpful resource to support students.

‘Investigating Change on the Local High Street,’ Field Studies Council

This teaching pack includes lesson plans for a class investigation around the identity of the high street and how it has changed over time.

MapZone Quizzes, Ordnance Survey

Use these quizzes during geography lessons to test your students in a fun way!

Key stage 3-5

At this stage, students should gain knowledge of the world’s diversity of landscapes, processes, cultures and how human activity influences the planet. These resources help students gain a deeper understanding of these concepts and promote critical thinking.

‘Planet Planners,’ BBC Bitesize

Planet Planners is an interactive decision-making game where students are given scenario information and use their knowledge to make decisions.

Map Maker, National Geographic

Get creative when teaching your students with this Map Maker. The easy-to-use and interactive mapping tool is designed to boost student engagement during geography lessons!

How to use this resource

You can use custom maps of different locations and highlight different pieces of information in a wider context.

Best for

• Visual representatives of various locations

Surtsey Eruption Case Study, Discover the World Education

This case study explores why the famous Surtsey eruption in Iceland was so significant. Featuring ‘do now’ activities and assessment mats.

Best for:

• Tectonic processes, landforms and hazards
• Coastal processes, landforms and management
• Geological processes and landforms
• Weather processes and hazards

More KS3-4 geography resources

‘Living in the Shadow of Italy’s Volcanoes,’ Discover the World Education

This video shows the variety of volcanic landforms and eruptive hazards in Italy. Use this in your lessons to showcase the threats and benefits of living near a volcano through interviews with locals and expert guides to monitoring active volcanoes.

‘All about drought,’ Geographical Association

This is a great resource to develop critical thinking around the need to change our thinking when considering our use of water.

Using the National Grid, Ordnance Survey

This fact sheet helps geography students understand how to use the national grid to pinpoint an exact location anywhere on a map.

What is Globalisation? TeachIt

This resource gives a great overview of the different dimensions of globalisation including how it operates, positive and negative impacts and a card sort activity.

Waste and recycling in the UK, TeachIt

With this activity, students can analyse a bar graph to look at trends in waste and recycling. The resource also includes an extension activity focusing on recycling in the local area.

Turtles of Costa Rica, Discover the World Education

This poster introduces students to the sea turtles of Costa Rica and can be used for teaching ecology, environmental awareness and conservation.

There is a wide range of resources you can use to develop students knowledge and support your lesson plans.