Last week we moved on (not very quickly) in our study of Great Britain and the United Kingdom. I’m personally a little overwhelmed with just how much we could really do if we really wanted too. :) That said, we focused more on the flag this week and had fun watching some different videos on YouTube and learning about the British currency.

Thanks so a friend of ours, we were able to see first hand what counterfeit currency looks like (she wasn’t passing it off, but unfortunately was on the receiving end of it!). McKenna started her first official chapter book this week (Christmas at Camelot) and Laurianna is reading through the Fairy Tales book still and together we’re reading Knight at Dawn to prepare for our studies on knights and castles in a few weeks.

 Monday

• Colored flag of UK
• Talked about how flag of UK was created (see notebook page below)

Tuesday

• Looked at the palace guards and had way.too.much fun looking for videos from Trooping the Color (the ceremony marking the birthday of the Queen), the changing of the guard, singing of God Save the Queen and also a guard laughing
• Started reading aloud Knight at Dawn by Mary Pope Osborne (we’ll be studying about knights and castles next week)

Wednesday

• Used Draw Write Now, Book 1 to draw sheep and had the girls write their own information about sheep
• Reviewed the difference between the UK and Great Britain
• Read aloud more from Knight at Dawn

Thursday

• Finished Knight at Dawn with the girls
• Looked at the currency of England and also had fun trying to figure out if the money we had was counterfeit or not (it was – thanks Christin!)
• Made the DLTK palace guard craft (link below)

Resources we used:

• The Royal Mint – official page of the Royal mint/coinmaking
• Bank of England – interactive bank notes. We learned how to tell a counterfeit bill
• Changing of the Guard – info page from the Royal website
• Enchanted Learning – printable coloring sheet of UK flag (members only)
• Travel for Kids – breaks things down by city and also provides some great literature ideas based on where you are looking
• DLTK – British Bobby craft and Palace Guard craft – too cute!!

Notebooking page: UK Flag Notebooking Page

Because there is a LOT one can study in Great Britain. I was more confused with the whole Great Britain/UK thing to start with. Because silly me thought they were one and the same (in case you were wondering, they aren’t).

I’m definitely behind posting on our time in Great Britain, but do have some great resources to share with you over the next few weeks and posts. Throughout the week the girls also had some independent reading that included some Madeline books (McKenna) and also the Sword in the Tree (Laurianna) as well as some English fairytales (Laurianna). A peek at our week:

Monday

• Realized the geography song for the British Isles was waaaaaay too long, so we scrapped that. *grins*
• Used our atlas and map to find England and tried to figure out the difference between England, Great Britain, and the UK. Got frustrated and decided to talk about it the next day.
• Talked about the geography of Great Britain/UK

Tuesday

• Pulled out the altas again now that we’ve figured out that Great Britain is England, Wales, and Scotland. The UK includes Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
• Talked about the capitals of the 4 different countries and also that London is the capital of the UK.
• Did our map project (see the sheet below)

Wednesday

• Reviewed the countries in Great Britain/UK
• Talked about the British monarchy and visited their site
• Read Good Queen Bess : The Story of Elizabeth I of England by Diane Stanley

Thursday

• Talked about the many different famous literature writers that have come from England, specifically Shakespeare and Dickens
• Read Bard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare by Diane Stanley and also Charles Dickens: The Man Who Had Great Expectations by Diane Stanley.

Resources we used/read:

• Guide to British life and culture – put together by the Woodlands Junior School, UK. One of the best and most informative sites I found for our studies. You can find almost anything here.
• British Monarchy Official Site – Anything and everything relating to the British monarchy – even has links to the Royal YouTube channel.
• Kids Ask Questions about England – a subpage of the page by Woodlands Junior School, UK but has lots of quick links to answer questions
• Visit Britain – explore parts of Britain using an interactive map. Also has links to all the official websites.
• England Quiz – quick ten questions to test your knowledge of England

Notebooking page I created: UK Map Worksheet