This was going to be the topic of a 5minute presentation at the Google Teacher Academy, but I wasn’t lucky enough to be selected. @ZoeRoss19 and @dajbelshaw suggested I blog about it instead. So here it is…
One popular topic within KS1 looks at houses and homes. I’m not going to suggest loads of ideas for that topic because I’m sure someone else has done that already. This is a very simple idea that I used when teaching a one-off lesson to some Year 1 children a couple of weeks back.
As mentioned, by Simon Haughton amongst others, Google Streetview is a fab tool for letting you walk around the streets and be nosey investigate. So when we were discussing the difference between terraced houses and bungalows or semi-detached and detached houses, I brought up Streetview and we went and walked down a few local streets. This worked well for some different types, but it did take me 5 minutes to find a bungalow!
So, to help me infuture, I’ve made a map. This time it is publically editable so anyone can add houses on to the map. I’m not suggesting you add your home address, but do you have some bungalows nearby? Or a block of flats? What about some Tudor houses? If we all found some houses of historical significance near us, we could build up a good little resource.
To see the houses, simply click on a pin and then choose More and then Streetview. Feel free to press Edit and add your own to it though. As you can see, mine are all local to me!
The map can be found at
Other maps can be found here:
– Teachers from around the country/world
– Castles around the UK
– Beachers around the world (made by @joga5)
