Rivers Topic Guide for Teachers

Rivers are a crucial part of the Earth’s water cycle. Starting up in the hills and mountains of the world, rivers carry water into the lakes and seas. Animals (including humans) depend on them as sources of fresh water.

As well as providing habitats for animals and plants, rivers are also used by humans for leisure activities such as boating and fishing. They can even provide us with electricity!

Teach your children about the rivers using our handy topic guide!

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Teaching Ideas

Ask your children to match these River Vocabulary Cards and their definitions.
Challenge your class to find the longest rivers on this world map.
This journey of a river lesson plan is part of a scheme of work from the Royal Geographical Society.
Identify a local river and use Google Earth to trace it from its source to its mouth. What route does it take? Does it join other rivers on the way?
Make a list of ways in which rivers are important to humans, plants and animals.
Use our River Features Poster as an example for the children to draw and label the features of a river.
Explore the Rivers of India on Google Earth.

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Resources

The Rivers Pack includes a guide, resources and display materials for teaching this popular topic.

Our Rivers of the World poster pack has 12 beautiful images of the world’s most famous rivers.
Use our Rivers Fact Cards to research, as part of a display or for reading activities.
Brighten up your display board with our Rivers Banner, or choose our Go with the Flow Banner instead.

Rivers Knowledge Organiser

Members of Teaching Packs can download a comprehensive knowledge organiser to accompany this topic. It includes key information that your children can use for reference and research, along with labelled diagrams and a glossary of useful terms.

Not a member yet? Join us today!

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River Facts

The world’s longest river is the Nile, which flows through Africa for about 4,132 miles (6.650 km).
Rivers always run downhill, from the source (the start of the river) to the mouth, where the river empties into another body of water.
The earth to each side of a river is known as the bank.
The River Danube flows through four European capital cities; Vienna (Austria), Bratislava (Slovakia), Budapest (Hungary) and Belgrade (Serbia).
Valleys and canyons are caused by rivers eroding (gradually moving) soil.