Key Stage 1 geography · Human and physical geography

KS1 hot and cold places: the Equator and the Poles

In Key Stage 1, children learn that the world has hot places and cold places, and that where a place is on the globe helps to decide which it is. They are taught to find the Equator and the North and South Poles on a globe or map and to say that the hottest areas are generally close to the Equator and the coldest are close to the Poles. It is a simple but powerful idea that is developed into climate zones in Key Stage 2.

Hot and cold places, explained

The Equator is an imaginary line that runs around the middle of the Earth, halfway between the North Pole at the very top and the South Pole at the very bottom. It does not exist on the ground, but it is drawn on globes and maps. Children are taught to find it and to say that it divides the world into two halves. On most globes and maps the northern half, which contains the UK, is shown at the top, and the southern half is below.

The main idea is that places near the Equator are generally hot, places near the North and South Poles are generally cold, and places in between are somewhere in the middle. The UK is between the Equator and the North Pole, a little nearer the Pole, and it is neither very hot nor very cold. Children are not expected to know the reason in detail. A simple explanation that suits this age is that the Sun heats the middle of the Earth most strongly and the top and bottom least.

Children also learn the names and rough positions of hot and cold areas. Countries on or near the Equator, such as Kenya, Brazil or Indonesia, are examples of hot places. The North Pole is in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, which is mostly covered in floating ice, and the South Pole is on the continent of Antarctica, which is covered in thick ice. Many classes use animals as a way in: polar bears live in the Arctic, penguins live in the south, and camels, monkeys and elephants live in warmer lands.

Teachers use a globe, a world map and an atlas, with the hot and cold areas shown by colours, and children practise the position words top, bottom, middle, near and far. Weather in these places can be linked back to the earlier work on UK weather and seasons: what would children wear, eat and do in a hot place, and in a cold one? The words used are simple, such as hot, cold, warm, cool, freezing, North Pole, South Pole and Equator. Children do not need the technical terms for lines of latitude or the tropics, which come in Key Stage 2.

Words your child will hear

Equator: An imaginary line around the middle of the Earth, halfway between the two Poles.
North Pole: The point at the very top of the Earth, in the frozen Arctic Ocean.
South Pole: The point at the very bottom of the Earth, on the continent of Antarctica.
Hot area: A part of the world that is warm or hot for most of the year, usually near the Equator.
Cold area: A part of the world that is cold or freezing for most of the year, usually near the Poles.
Globe: A model of the Earth in the shape of a ball.
Antarctica: The icy continent around the South Pole.

What the National Curriculum says

In Key Stage 1, pupils should be taught to:

Identify seasonal and daily weather patterns in the United Kingdom and the location of hot and cold areas of the world in relation to the Equator and the North and South Poles
Use world maps, atlases and globes to identify the United Kingdom and its countries, as well as the countries, continents and oceans studied at this key stage

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

Try it: could a polar bear meet a penguin?

Polar bears and emperor penguins both live in very cold places. Would they ever meet in the wild? Use a globe to explain.

Find the North Pole at the top of the globe. It is in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, which is covered in sea ice. Polar bears live on the ice and the cold coasts of the Arctic, around the North Pole.
Find the South Pole at the bottom of the globe. It is on the continent of Antarctica. Emperor penguins live on the ice and in the seas around the coast of Antarctica.
Find the Equator, the line around the middle. Say that it is between the two Poles. Both Poles are very far from it, and both are very cold.
Compare the distance. The polar bears are at the top of the world and the penguins are at the bottom. They are on opposite sides of the Equator, thousands of miles apart, with warm oceans and continents between.
Make a statement using position words. “The polar bear lives in the Arctic, near the North Pole, and the penguin lives in the Antarctic, near the South Pole, so they would not meet.”

No. Polar bears live in the Arctic, around the North Pole, and emperor penguins live around Antarctica, near the South Pole. They are at opposite ends of the Earth, with the hot lands and seas near the Equator in between.

Common mistakes and how to help

Thinking the Equator is a real line you could see or walk on

It is drawn as a line on every globe, and children see it in cartoons and pictures of people standing on it.

What helps: Explain it is an imaginary line that people drew to help describe places. Compare it with the line round the middle of a ball.

Believing that the top of the map is always cold and the bottom is always hot

In the UK, travelling south often means going somewhere warmer, so children link north with cold and south with hot. But the South Pole is at the bottom and is very cold too.

What helps: Find the cold places on the globe at both the top and the bottom, and the hot places in the middle. It is distance from the Equator, not up or down, that matters.

Thinking all places near the Equator are always hot

Most are, but high mountains are cold even near the Equator. Some mountains in Africa and South America have snow on their tops.

What helps: If your child asks, say that height also makes a difference, and that this is a bonus idea for later. “Generally hot” is the right phrase for now.

Mixing up the Arctic and Antarctica

The names sound alike and both are icy. But the Arctic is mostly a frozen ocean around the North Pole, ringed by the northern edges of some continents, while Antarctica is a continent of land and ice around the South Pole.

What helps: Link each to its animals: polar bears and Arctic, penguins and Antarctica. Ask your child to point to each on the globe.

How to help at home

Find the Equator and Poles on a globe. Spin the globe slowly and find the Equator, the North Pole and the South Pole. Then find your home and ask whether it is nearer the Equator or the North Pole. (The UK is a little nearer the North Pole.)
Sort animals into hot and cold homes. Make cards of animals such as a polar bear, emperor penguin, camel, monkey and walrus. Sort them into hot places and cold places, and find where on the globe each might live.
Dress the paper doll. Draw a figure and clothes for a hot place and a cold place. Talk about why people wear different clothes, and what the weather there must be like.
Freeze and melt. Put a toy in a tub of water in the freezer, and watch it melt in a bowl of warm water on the table, with an adult handling the warm water. Talk about why ice stays frozen at the Poles but melts in warmer places.
Plan a pretend journey. Imagine a trip from your home to the Equator and then to the South Pole. Trace the route on the globe, say the names of the continents and oceans you would pass over and what you would pack for each part.

Leads on to

Key Stage 2: Climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts
Key Stage 2: Rivers and the water cycle
Key Stage 2: Mountains
Key Stage 2: Volcanoes and earthquakes
Key Stage 2: Settlements and land use
Key Stage 2: Economic activity and trade
Key Stage 2: Natural resources