This complete lesson pack takes Year 6 pupils on a journey to the ends of the Earth - exploring the geography of the polar regions, the stories of Scott, Amundsen, and Shackleton, and the extraordinary challenges of survival in the world’s most hostile environments.

The pack combines a fully-resourced teaching PowerPoint with three printable activity sheets covering collaborative group work, differentiated independent writing, and an extension research task.

What’s included?
• Title slide with learning objectives
• Where in the World? - Arctic vs Antarctic comparison cards (location, temperature, wildlife, key features)
• The Race to the Poles - Scott, Amundsen, and Shackleton side-by-side explorer cards
• The Endurance Expedition - illustrated timeline of Shackleton’s survival story
• Survival Challenges - four challenge cards (extreme cold, navigation, food & energy, team dynamics)
• Collaborative Activity instructions - group expedition planning with assigned roles
• Primary Sources - paraphrased voices from the ice with discussion prompts
• Differentiated Independent Writing choices - three challenge levels
• Plenary exit ticket - five recall and reasoning questions
• Extension slide - polar exploration today (climate change, modern expeditions, polar science)

polar exploration
Year 6
KS2
geography
history
Shackleton
Scott
Amundsen
Arctic
Antarctic
explorers
cross-curricular
diary writing
persuasive writing
differentiated
group work
lesson PowerPoint
primary sources
survival
climate change