Traveling Great Britain: Week 1

We've been studying Great Britain for the last few weeks. Originally I had only planned 2 weeks, but somehow we've managed to turn it into a 4 week study so far...and really we've only touched on the England part of Great Britain.

 

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: Websites we visited/used:

• 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