St George's Day

Today we have been celebrating and learning about St George's Day which is today, 23rd April. This morning we learnt and acted out the legend of George, a brave knight who slayed a fierce dragon and rescued the princess. We looked at the flag of England, a red cross on a white background, and learnt that this was taken from George's shield. We made and decorated some England flags of our own, and also made some fierce dragon masks! We've also been exploring some of our new fairytale toys, such as a fairytale play mat and fairytale figures. These are great for helping us retell stories and make up some of our own. We're all excited about what else we'll be learning this half term as we continue with our topic of fairytales, castles, knights and dragons!

This afternoon we learnt some facts about England. First we tried to find it on a map of the world, which was difficult! We learnt where the UK is and that England is part of it - we already knew where England, Wales and Scotland are in the UK because last term we did weather forecasts using maps of the UK (do have a look at our finished weather reports on our blog if you haven't yet!). We learnt that the capital city of England is London, that the Queen of England is called Elizabeth II and that the river that runs through London is called the Thames. We also looked at pictures of London and talked about them. These included red telephone boxes (quite a few of us weren't sure what those were!), the London Eye, the Houses of Parliament and Tower bridge. We also learnt about transport in London, looking at pictures of black taxis, London buses (Matthew told us all about his trip around London on an open-top bus), and the London Underground.

How will YOU be celebrating St George's Day?