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Journey of a River

Geography · Year 3–Year 6

Source to mouth, with the eight features to name.

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About the river journey

One river from the hills to the sea, with the eight words a rivers unit asks for: source, tributary, waterfall, meander, ox-bow lake, floodplain, estuary, mouth. Tap a feature to name it and the board says what it is, or turn every label on for the version of the lesson that is not a quiz.

The water flows. The dashes march down the channel and down the tributary into it, which is the thing a diagram in a book cannot do, and it is also the answer to which way the river is going. Stop it for a quiet classroom, and it stops on its own for anyone who has asked for no animation.

Every feature is worked out from the river's own course rather than drawn beside it. The waterfall is on the drop, the meander IS a bend, the floodplain is the flat land either side of the lower course, and the ox-bow is a loop cut off from the outside of a bend, not touching the water. That is what makes it worth tapping: the picture and the words agree.

Next walks the river from the source to the mouth, which is the order a lesson tells it in, and the order the labels read down the sides of the board.

How to use it on your whiteboard

  1. 1Tap a feature to name it and see what it is.
  2. 2Tap Next to follow the river from the source to the mouth.
  3. 3Turn Labels on to show all eight at once.
  4. 4Tap Stop to hold the water still, and Clear to ask the class again.

Questions

What is the difference between an estuary and a mouth?
The mouth is where the river runs out into the sea. The estuary is the last stretch before it, wide and tidal, where the sea comes in and out twice a day and the water is part fresh and part salt.
How does an ox-bow lake form?
A meander gets more and more curved until the neck of the loop is cut through, usually in a flood. The river then takes the short way and the old loop is left behind as a lake, which is why the one on the diagram sits just off the bend and does not touch the water.
Which way is the river flowing?
From the source in the hills to the mouth at the sea, and the moving dashes show it. The tributary flows into the main river, not out of it.