Year 5 Natural resources: what are they, where are they found, why are they important? worksheet

“Natural resources all around” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 5 geography unit “Natural resources: what are they, where are they found, why are they important?”, for children aged 9 to 10, and takes about 20 minutes.

Print it on A4. The child's pages come first; the answers, and what each wrong answer tells you, are on the grown-up page that follows. Weeks 4 to 7 of the year, 6 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Natural resources all around

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 5 · Geography · about 20 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can sort natural resources from made things and explain why they are spread unevenly.

A Look back3 min

A quick warm-up from earlier learning.

1.
Which square has the tree in it? Circle it.
C3C2B3A1
2.
The blank point on this compass is opposite east. Which point is it?
NorthSouthWest
3.
Which square has the pond in it? Circle it.
D1A3C2

B Watch me, then you4 min

Ola lists 6 natural resources. 2 of them will never run out. How many of them can run out one day?

A quiet river running past a forest of tall trees on a sunny day

Watch me

The whole list is 6. One part is 2, the ones that never run out.

6 − 2 = 4

4 of the resources can run out one day.

Now you

1.
Mia lists 8 resources. 3 of them are renewable. How many are non-renewable?

C Your turn8 min

Read each card and decide.

1.
Which of these is a natural resource? Circle it.
a wooden spoona tree growing in a foresta plastic bottle
2.
Sort these resources into the table. Write each one in the right column.
windcoalsunlightnatural gas
Renewable Non-renewable
3.
Sort these cards into the table. Write each one in the right column.
water in a rivera steel forksand on a beacha glass bottle
Natural resource Made by people
4.
Which of these is true for a country with no coal?
It can buy coal from another countryIt can make coal in a factoryIts soil grows coal each year

Say it out loud: What changed from one card to the next? Say which cards were easy and which made you pause.

D Spot the mistake3 min

A stream over smooth rocks with reeds growing on the bank

Kit says: “Coal, oil and gas are the only natural resources.”

1.
Name one natural resource Kit has missed.

E Think deeper4 min

Explain your thinking in full sentences.

A small seaside village with boats on the sand and dry hills behind

1.
Name two natural resources a coastal village might have plenty of, and one a dry inland town may struggle to find. Explain how you know.

How did it feel?

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Natural resources all around · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. C3 If they circle C2, they have read the number from the wrong row. Ask them to go along the bottom first, then up the side.

2. West If they say North, they have not used the opposite of east. Ask them to find east on the compass, then look straight across to the other side.

3. D1 If they circle C2, they have miscounted the squares. Ask them to put a finger on the pond, go down to the letter, then across to the side number.

B

1. 5 If they write 11, they added 8 and 3. Ask whether the non-renewable ones are part of the 8 or extra to it.

C

1. a tree growing in a forest If they circle the spoon, the wood came from nature but a person shaped it. Ask who made the spoon and who grew the tree.

2. Renewable: wind, sunlight · Non-renewable: coal, natural gas If they put sunlight under non-renewable, they think energy must be used up. Ask whether the sun runs out when we use its light.

3. Made by people: a steel fork, a glass bottle · Natural resource: water in a river, sand on a beach If they put the glass bottle under natural resource, they have seen sand in it. Ask who melted and shaped the sand into the bottle.

4. It can buy coal from another country If they pick the factory or the soil, they think coal can be made or grown. Remind them that coal forms underground over millions of years, so a country without it must get it from elsewhere.

D

1. Look for: Any natural resource that is not coal, oil or gas, such as water, wood, food or sand. If they name a plastic bottle or a jumper, they have named something made by people. Ask whether the Earth made it or people did.

E

1. Look for: Two resources linked to the coast, such as fish or wind, and one the dry inland town lacks, such as water or fish, with a reason.

Words to use

Say“Which of these could we use up and never get back?”

Instead of“Tell them the answer straight away.”

After the sheet

Gather five things from the kitchen. Sort them into 'made by people' and 'came from nature', then talk about which were hard to sort.

Tick what your child got right in StudyDen. Anything missed comes back in a later Look back box, so there's no need to redo the sheet.

The rest of this unit

5 more sheets come with a StudyDen plan, in teaching order:

Renewable or not?(with a plan)
Where our food comes from(with a plan)
Minerals in our everyday lives(with a plan)
Wood and Its Many Uses(with a plan)
Water we can use(with a plan)

Every Year 5 geography worksheet

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