Key Stage 1 geography · Geographical skills and fieldwork

KS1 aerial photographs and bird’s-eye views: a guide

An aerial photograph is a picture taken from high above, looking down. In Years 1 and 2 children learn to read these photographs and other plan perspectives, that is, views from directly overhead. They use them to recognise landmarks and basic human and physical features, such as roads, houses, rivers and fields. It is a stepping stone to understanding what a map really is.

Aerial photographs and landmarks, explained

We nearly always see the world from the side. An aerial photograph is taken from above, from an aeroplane, a drone or a satellite, and a plan perspective is a view looking straight down. From directly overhead, a house shows only its roof, a tree is a green blob, a car is a small rectangle and a river is a wriggling ribbon. This is a surprising change for young children, so many teachers start with simple things, such as looking down at a table from a chair and asking what can and cannot be seen.

Children then learn clues for naming features from above. Roads are long, pale or grey ribbons, often straight, and the dashes down the middle are painted lines. Rivers are often dark, winding bands, sometimes with trees along their banks. Houses appear as small roofs in rows. Fields look like a patchwork of green and gold shapes with hedges around them. A school building usually has a playground beside it with painted lines. As a general rule, human features have straight edges and square corners, while physical features have irregular, curved outlines. This is a good clue but not an absolute rule. Colour alone can mislead, since shadows and forests can both look dark.

A landmark is any easily recognised feature that helps people find their way or know where they are. It might be a church tower, a big bridge, a hill, a supermarket car park, a large old tree or the school itself. Landmarks do not have to be famous. They only need to stand out in that place. In class children spot the landmarks on aerial photographs of their own area and use them to say where other things are, perhaps “The shop is next to the church.” This is the same locational language they use with maps.

Aerial photographs lead straight into mapmaking. A map is like a drawing of the view from above in which the important parts are kept, names are added and symbols are used in place of pictures. Children compare a photograph and a simple map of the same place and match features between them. Many schools use satellite images on a screen, as well as printed photographs, so children can zoom out from the school to the street, the town and the county. They then use that practice to devise simple maps of their own, a topic covered in its own guide.

Words your child will hear

Aerial photograph: A photograph taken from high above, often from a plane, drone or satellite.
Plan view: A view looking straight down from above, also called a bird’s-eye view.
Landmark: An easily recognised feature that helps you find your way.
Human feature: Something people have built or made, such as a road or a house.
Physical feature: Something made by nature, such as a river or a hill.
Symbol: A simple picture or shape that stands for something on a map.
Bird’s-eye view: What a bird would see flying high above the ground.

What the National Curriculum says

In Key Stage 1, pupils should be taught to:

Use aerial photographs and plan perspectives to recognise landmarks and basic human and physical features; devise a simple map; and use and construct basic symbols in a key
Use basic geographical vocabulary to refer to: key physical features and key human features

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: reading an aerial photograph

An aerial photograph of a small town shows these things. A pale ribbon with white dashes down the middle. A dark band bending in wide curves with trees along both sides. Rows of small roofs. A large grey rectangle next to a green rectangle with white lines. A patchwork of green and gold shapes at the edge. A tall thin shadow beside one building. What can your child say about it?

Remind your child that everything is seen from directly above, so they are looking at roofs and the tops of trees, not at walls and doors.
The pale ribbon with painted dashes down the middle is a road. It has straight edges, which fits a human feature.
The dark band that bends in wide curves, with trees growing on both banks, is a river, a physical feature. Its curving, uneven shape fits something made by nature.
The rows of small roofs are houses. The large grey roof next to a green rectangle with white lines is probably a school with a field marked out for games. The patchwork of green and gold at the edge is farmland. The fields have straight hedges and edges because people laid them out, so a farm counts as a human feature.
The long thin shadow tells us that something is tall and narrow, such as a church tower. It is a likely landmark that someone could use to find their way in the town.

“I can see a road, houses, a school and farm fields, which are human features. I can see a river with trees beside it, which are physical features. The tall tower is a landmark.”

Common mistakes and how to help

Expecting things to look the way they do from the side

Children know a house by its door, windows and walls, and are puzzled when they see only a roof from above.

What helps: Place a cup, a cube and a toy car on a table, stand over them and draw what you see from the top: a circle, a square and a rectangle. Compare these with side-view drawings.

Thinking an aerial photograph shows everything a map would show

A photograph looks very detailed, so it seems to hold all the information.

What helps: Ask what cannot be seen: the names of streets, the borders of countries and what happens inside buildings. A map picks out the important things and adds names and a key.

Guessing features by colour alone

Children learn that blue is water and green is grass, but dark patches can also be shadows, forests or roofs.

What helps: Look at shape, edges and position too. A winding outline and trees on both sides suggest a river. A straight-edged grey shape in a line of houses is more likely a road or a roof.

Believing a landmark has to be famous or very big

The word landmark brings to mind very well-known places in photographs and stories.

What helps: Choose a landmark on your own street, such as a post box, a big tree or a corner shop, and explain how it helps you give directions. Anything easy to spot and recognise can be a landmark.

How to help at home

Look down from above. With an adult beside your child, from the top of the stairs or an upstairs window that is safely shut, look down at the garden, the road or the hallway. Ask your child to draw or describe what they see from above and what is hidden.
Draw objects from the top. Put a few everyday objects on a table, such as a mug, a book and a toy, and ask your child to draw each from above. Then swap with a friend or relative and see if the drawings can be matched with the objects.
Match a photograph to a map. With an adult, look at a printed or on-screen aerial image of your area next to a simple map. Find your street, a park and a landmark on both and talk about the differences.
Landmarks on the way. On a familiar walk, ask your child to choose three landmarks and explain the route to a toy using them: “Turn left after the red post box.” Switch the landmarks for different ones and see how the directions change.

Leads on to

Key Stage 2: Atlases, globes and digital maps
Key Stage 2: Compass points and grid references
Key Stage 2: Ordnance Survey map symbols
Key Stage 2: Fieldwork: observe and measure
Key Stage 2: Fieldwork: presenting findings