Join us for a trip around the world as we “virtually” learn about different countries, cultures, foods, music and famous landmarks with crafts and activities. Each week we will post about a different country with tons of great activities to engage with children of all ages. This week we will be learning about England. Join us on an adventure around the world with British crafts and activities for kids!
Grab this fun passport kit as an add-on to our global adventures. The kit includes a “passport”, stamps, stickers and other items to get kids excited about their adventure. You’ll see our passport used throughout the lessons.
- Interesting Facts about England
- Books for Kids to Learn about England
- Map Activity
- England Flag Activity
- English Recipes
- English Folktales
- British Music
- British Animals
- Famous Landmarks
- British Craft Activities
- British Sports
- Family Friendly British Movies
- Learn British Phrases/Words
- Learn more about England with Little Passports: World Edition
- Field Trip: British Style
- Plan your trip!
Want to travel to more countries? Check out all of my previous travel units by clicking on the name of the country.
Be sure to read through all the activities, gather or purchase any needed supplies (most are what you have around the house) and then decide which activities you’d like to cover each day. Each activity has suggestions on how to modify it for younger and older children, but feel free to get creative and share your experience with us.
If you like a schedule, here is a suggested 3-day “schedule” to complete all the activities.
Day One
- Read Books About England
- Locate England on the Map and do the map activity
- Create a British flag
- Listen to British music
- Learn some British words
Day Two
- Have a tea party with tea sandwiches
- Learn about famous landmarks and do the STEM activity
- Have fun with British Crafts
Day Three
- Watch Paddington, Mary Poppins or Harry Potter.
- Soccer Skills (outside)
- Enjoy a British dinner complete with fish and chips or Shepards Pie.
- Plan a Field Trip
Interesting Facts about England
- England has a Queen and she lives in Buckingham Palace.
- England is part of the United Kingdom. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are the other countries that make up the UK.
- There are lots of different landscapes in England, including forests and moorland. England also has a very long coastline.
- Football (or Soccer in America) is the most popular sport in England, but rugby and cricket are also popular.
- England has been home to many famous authors but William Shakespeare is perhaps the most well-known!
- The Summer Olympic Games have been held in London 3 times, in 1908, 1948 and 2012.
Books for Kids to Learn about England
We found quite a few great books for kids about England, castles, and London. We’ve included a few options that you can either purchase on Amazon via the links or you can reserve them at the library for a low-cost option. Grab a few options, even if the reading level is too high for your child, they can still look at the pictures and maps.
Map Activity
England is a country located in Northern Europe. England is part of the United Kingdom (U.K.) and includes London (the capital city) as well as Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. If you have a globe, help your child(ren) locate England on the map.
- Ask your child what they know about England
- Write down any questions your child has about England
Print the map below and have your child color the following areas:
-Color England green
-Color Scotland blue.
-Color Wales yellow.
-Color Ireland orange.
-Color Northern Ireland red.
Preschool Kids: Color the map with crayons
Elementary Ages: Talk about the various regions. Ask questions about the map:
- What is the Capital City of the United Kingdom?
- Which countries border England?
- What is North of England? What is West of England?
England Flag Activity
The England flag shows the cross of Saint George. The cross appears in red on a white background. Saint George is the patron saint of England. English knights wore his symbol into battle in hopes that he would protect them from harm.
The English flag makes up part of the Union flag, which stands for the entire United Kingdom.
Flag of England Flag of the United Kingdom
Make a flag of England. There are many fun ways to complete this activity.
If it is snack time, kids would enjoy placing a thin layer of whip cream and then lining up strawberries or raspberries to represent the flag. Want to go all out? Make a delicious cake! You can choose between the English Flag or the British Flag (add blueberries).
For preschoolers, practice cutting and gluing with the instructions below.
Older kids can choose to paint or hand draw and color.
For this craft, all you need are: (if you need supplies, click on the links)
- pair of scissors (kids) or paper cutter
- glue stick
- 1 sheet of red construction paper or cardstock
- 1 sheet of white paper (preferably cardstock)
- A flag of England to refer to
Step 1. Measure and let your child cut 2 red strips of paper that are 1 inch wide and 11 inches/8.5 inches long. These will be the stripes for the flag. We chose to use a paper cutter.
Step 2. Glue down the red strips to make the cross in the center of the paper.
Voila! Your child has created the flag for England. Hang it up somewhere or find a stick/dowel and attach it.
English Recipes
Have a British tea with mini tea sandwiches for lunch. Kids will enjoy making the sandwiches and like the mini versions of their favorites.
Traditional Options
Non-Traditional Options (Kid Favorites)
- Peanut Butter and Jelly
- Ham and Cheese
Kids can help assemble the sandwiches. If you have a nice tiered stand or tray, you can arrange them nicely for a quaint lunch. Have a tea set? Brew some fruit tea for the kids to enjoy. Hot apple cider is also a favorite.
Visit an English pub to try new foods. Some of our favorite British foods include:
- Bangers and Mash (Sausages and mashed potatoes)
- Fish and Chips
- Shepherd’s Pie
- Yorkshire Pudding
- Scones
- Beef Wellington
Ready to cook a delicious traditional British dinner? Here are a few of our favorite recipes.
- Shepard’s Pie – Also known as cottage pie is a meat pie with a crust or topping of mashed potato.
- Beef Wellington- a pie made of fillet steak coated with pâté and duxelles, which is then wrapped in parma ham and puff pastry, then baked.
- Scones – a baked good, usually made of wheat, or oatmeal with baking powder as a leavening agent and baked on sheet pans. A scone is often lightly sweetened and occasionally glazed with egg wash.
English Folktales
English fairy tale tradition emerged from folklore stories that are believed to have originated in the British Isles. England’s fairy tale and folklore tradition have strong connections to Celtic, Germanic and Christian sources.
Here are some of our favorite stories for children that you can read online:
Looking to add to your library collection? Here are some other books below.
British Music
Listen to British music while you complete the activities. Ask Alexa to play “British Music“, or check out this youtube video with the British flag and an hour’s worth of music.
There are also many songs that are fun to sing with kids. One of our favorites is “London Bridge is Falling Down”. I’ve included the lyrics below.
“London Bridge is falling down
Falling down, falling down
London Bridge is falling down
My fair lady”
“Build it up with iron bars
Iron bars, iron bars
Build it up with iron bars
My fair lady”
“Iron bars will bend and break
Bend and break, bend and break
Iron bars will bend and break
My fair lady”
“Build it up with gold and silver
Gold and silver, gold and silver
Build it up with gold and silver
My fair lady”
“London Bridge is falling down
Falling down, falling down
London Bridge is falling down
M-y f-a-i-r l-a-d-y”
British Animals
England has a wide variety of wildlife. Deer, goats, hedgehogs, squirrels and a few kinds of wildcats call the hills and forest of northern England their home. England has strict hunting rules, so they have an abundance of rabbits, foxes, badgers, and weasels.
Bird watchers delight with watching owls, finches, geese, and cranes. The sea also borders England and the sealife is diverse with dolphins, seals, and whales.
Famous Landmarks
England has many famous landmarks including Big Ben, Tower Bridge, and Stonehenge.
Most households have play dough, if not, grab some using the link or make your own using this recipe.
Have the kids build their own model of Stonehenge. Talk about why they think Stonehenge was built and how the stones were placed upright without modern technology.
As with the Gothic architecture of other parts of Europe, English Gothic is defined by its pointed arches, vaulted roofs, buttresses, large windows, and spires.
The tower bridge is arguably the world’s most famous bridge. It opened in 1894 by the future King Edward VII.
Building bridges is a fun STEM activity and it can be done in multiple ways.
STEM Bridge Building Activity
Questions to ask before starting the project.
- Why do we need bridges?
- Who might build them?
- What are bridges made out of?
- What shape does a bridge make? (look at photos of bridges)
For Pre-K students, they can use a wide variety of materials and let them construct a bridge for little people to cross. We decided to use plastic straws and tape. We talked about bridge design and how we could make the bridge stronger (by using straws tied together and strengthing the joints).
For older students, you can get a bit more creative. Give each child up to 200 popsicle sticks and tacky glue. Bridges must be able to span 14 inches wide and be able to hold a five-pound weight (for younger children) or a 20-pound weight (for older students).
We used two small stools and then talked about why a wooden bridge was stronger than my son’s original straw bridge.
Once your child or children are done with their bridges, span two chairs, and place weights onto the bridge or hang a bucket from the bridge (wrap string around the entire center of the bridge). If you don’t have weights, use rice/beans or other heavy (but small) objects.
British Craft Activities
There are so many fun crafts that you can do to learn more about England. I’ll share some of our favorites below. If you find more activities that you love, please share them with me and I’ll add them to this list.
- Coloring Pages – Click the link for tons of great coloring pages
- Make a watercolor background with castle
Supplies Needed:
Step 1: Paint a background on watercolor paper with watercolors. If you sprinkle salt into the watercolors, it makes a neat effect. Choose whichever colors you like.
Step 2: Let your background dry.
Step 3: While you wait for your background to dry, cut out castle shapes on the black paper. For younger children, you can trace shapes and let them practice cutting them out. Older children can do one large design.
Step 4: Once your background has dried, glue the shapes into a design of a castle (or glue your one large shape).
Talk about the shapes and see if your child can name them (triangle, rectangle, square).
Voila.. you have a castle that is pretty as a fairytale!
3. London Bus Craft
If you’ve ever been to London or read a book about England, you’ll see the iconic double-decker red bus.
Supplies Needed:
Step 1: Cut a bus shape out of the red paper
Step 2: Draw 1″ by 1″ squares on the black paper. You’ll want 6-8 depending on the size of your bus. You can also choose to cut strips of paper with a paper cutter (this was our method).
Step 3: Have you child cut out the squares
Step 4: Glue the squares to the bus
Step 5: Print out clip art of a bus driver
Step 6: Glue the bus driver to the front of the bus. You can add “peek-a-boo” windows for the driver if you’d like.
Step 7: Draw two circles (bus wheels)
Step 8: Have your child cut out the bus wheels
Step 9: Glue the bus wheels to the bottom of the bus
Children can decorate the bus, write on it or draw people in the windows if they’d like.
British Sports
British Football (or America Soccer) is very popular in England. International football began in 1872 when the England national team traveled to Glasgow to play the Scotland national team in the first-ever official international match. Get moving by having your own Soccer Training Session! Perfect for getting outside for some fresh air.
Grab all the members in your family, invite some friends or if you have a small family like ours, mom and dad get to play too!
Use what you have at home and pick from the list of Soccer Skills Training. Ask the kids to help come up with ideas too, that’s how we ended up doing a “see who can kick the furthest”. Some of the ideas are more traditional, while others are just fun.
- Dribbing
- Passing between 2-3 players
- Crisscrossing through cones
- Soccer Game
- Who can kick the furthest
- Kick as close to the cone as you can
- Try to get the ball
- Kick a Goal!
Check out some action shots below of our Soccer skills practice. We didn’t have cones, so we used some gardening supplies. 🙂
Family Friendly British Movies
Looking for a family movie night option to go along with the British theme? Watch the Disney movie, Mary Poppins. When Jane and Michael, the children of the wealthy and uptight Banks family, are faced with the prospect of a new nanny, they are pleasantly surprised by the arrival of the magical Mary Poppins.
Other favorite British movies include Harry Potter, Narnia, and Black Beauty.
If you have Disney+ the Mary Poppins movie is free. Otherwise you should be able to find the other movies on Amazon, Netflix or Hulu. If you’d like to buy the DVD, click the photos below.
Learn British Phrases/Words
Learn more about England by practicing a few British words. They speak English in England, but some words are a bit different from American English.
British Word hairslide crisps candyfloss nappy jumper boot | American Word barrette chips cotton candy sweater trunk (of a car) |
Learn more about England with Little Passports: World Edition
My 5-year-old is a huge fan of Little Passports, a monthly subscription service for kids focused on global learning. They have two versions, Early Explorers is meant for ages 3-5 years of age and it focuses on various themes such as music, oceans, and dinosaurs.
World Edition is meant for children 6-10 years of age and it focuses on a different country each month. One of the countries that’s included in the series is England, which is a perfect pairing with this week’s lessons.
After the first month (when kids receive their world map and suitcase), your child will receive souvenirs, activity sheets, photos, stickers for their map and suitcase, and access to more activities online.
Field Trip: British Style
Expand your learning with a visit to an English Garden, a Tea House or attend a British/Irish festival in your area.
Plan your trip!
If you loved learning about England and are looking to plan a trip, check out these great resources from our friends at the Wanderlust Crew.
- Not sure where you want to visit in England? Check out this post for recommendations on where to visit with kids.
- Looking for the top historic sites? Start your visit in London with this guide.
I hope you’ve enjoyed taking a virtual trip to England with your kids. Learning about new countries and cultures can be a fun experience for both children and adults. I created this travel blog for families to inspire others to travel and create memories with their family.
Don’t miss our first Virtual trip to Greece. Click the link to head to that post. Once you are done with this trip, head to Japan on our next adventure or perhaps you’d rather tour France. We’ve also added China and Switzerland to our adventures.
Please share your fun activities with me on Facebook or Instagram. Looking to plan an adventure with kids, but not sure where to start? Check out my top posts on my homepage to discover more of our favorite places to travel with kids around the globe.
I leave you with a few photos of my childhood growing up in England with my family.
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I love, love, love, your resources. Thank you for taking the time to post and share. This will help me plan better for our summer school world culture study.
Thank you so much! They are a labor of love, but so much fun! I hope to add more this summer.