A trip to the UK

Activity 1: Learn about cities in the UK.
Find out:
- Where is the city?
- When was it founded?
- How many people live in the city? (population)
- Go sightseeing and find some interesting places.

• Stonehenge
• The Tower of London
• Henry VIII (1)
• Henry VIII (2)
• The Celts
• The Romans in Britain
• The Anglo-Saxons
• The Vikings
• More on British history
• More on Britain

Activity 2: The Great Fire of London (1666)

The Monument commemorates The Great Fire of 1666. It was built by Sir Christopher Wren, and it's 67 m from the place in Pudding Lane where the fire started. It has 311 steps and from the top you can enjoy views across the city.
The Great Fire of London started in Pudding Lane, at the King's bakery, and it destroyed four fifths of the city. London was burning for four days...but the rats went away from the city!!!

Watch this video and learn about the Fire.

Answer these questions:
1. When did the fire happen?
2. Where did the fire start?
3. Who was Thomas Farynor?
4. Why did the fire spread so quickly?
5. How many people died in the fire?
6. How many houses and churches were burnt by the fire?
7. When did the fire stop?
Learn more about the Fire on:

• Wikipedia
• The Great Fire of London

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratford-Upon-Avon. His family were rich because his father was a maker of leather gloves and sandles.

At the age of 18 Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway. They had three children. Shakespeare did a number of different jobs, but he really wanted to be an actor and a writer. He began to write poems and theatre plays.

Whe he was 28 years old he went to London and he joined a group of actors. Soon they began to perform the plays Shakespeare had written. Some of his plays were comedies, which always had happy endings. Some were tragedies, which always had sad endings. Some were plays about the lives of kings, called histories. They became very popular. Even Queen Elizabeth I invited the actors to perform at her court.

In 1603 James I became king of England. He also enjoyed watching the actors perform. He decided that they should be called "The King's Men".

Shakespeare became a rich man. When he was 46 years old he returned to Stratford. He died in 1616, when he was 52.

Shakespeare used words so cleverly and beautifully that many people think he was a genius. Today, his plays are performed all over the world.

Read more about Shakespeare.


The Globe Theatre

Many actors travelled around the country performing plays in the open air. Some theatres were then built in London. The most famous of these was the Globe. It was a round building with an open roof. People came to the Globe and paid to watch plays. Plays were acted from two o'clock in the afternoon until night. There were no women actors, so the women's parts had to be played by young actors.

Rich people sat in seats in the galleries, while poor people stood on the ground.

Shakespeare was one of the owners of the Globe. Many of his plays were performed there. He must have been very sad when, in 1613, the Globe caught fire during a play and was completely burnt.



However, it was reconstructed and reopened in 1997 by the river Thames, and many plays are performed there

The United States

Activity 1: The Presidents of the United States

Visit the White House

Read the list of the Presidents of the United States (and the state where they were born):
1. George Washington (1789-97) Virginia
2. John Adams (1797-1801) Massachusetts
3. Thomas Jefferson (1801-09) Virginia
4. James Madison (1809-17) Virginia
5. James Monroe (1817-25) Virginia
6. John Quincy Adams (1825-29) Massachusetts
7. Andrew Jackson (1829-37) South Carolina
8. Martin Van Buren (1837-41) New York
9. William Henry Harrison (1841) Virginia
10. John Tyler (1841-45) Virginia
11. James K. Polk (1845-49) North Carolina
12. Zachary Taylor (1849-50) Virginia
13. Millard Fillmore (1850-53) New York
14. Franklin Pierce (1853-57) New Hampshire
15. James Buchanan (1857-61) Pennsylvania
16. Abraham Lincoln (1861-65) Kentucky
17. Andrew Johnson (1865-69) North Carolina
18. Ulysses S. Grant (1869-77) Ohio
19. Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-81) Ohio
20. James A. Garfield (1881) Ohio
21. Chester A. Arthur (1881-85) Vermont
22. Grover Cleveland (1885-89) New Jersey
23. Benjamin Harrison (1889-93) Ohio
24. Grover Cleveland (1893-97) New Jersey
25. William McKinley (1897-1901) Ohio
26. Theodore Roosevelt (1901-09) New York
27. William H. Taft (1909-13) Ohio
28. Woodrow Wilson (1913-21) Virginia
29. Warren G. Harding (1921-23) Ohio
30. Calvin Coolidge (1923-29) Vermont
31. Herbert Hoover (1929-33) Iowa
32. Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-45) New York
33. Harry S. Truman (1945-53) Missouri
34. Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-61) Texas
35. John F. Kennedy (1961-63) Massachusetts
36. Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-69) Texas
37. Richard M. Nixon (1969-74) California
38. Gerald R. Ford (1974-77) Nebraska
39. Jimmy Carter (1977-81) Georgia
40. Ronald Reagan (1981-89) Illinois
41. George Bush (1989-93) Massachusetts
42. William J. Clinton (1993-2001) Arkansas
43. George W. Bush (2001-2009) Connecticut
44. Barack Obama (2009- ) Hawaii
Now answer these questions:
How many presidents have been there in the US?
Who was the first one? When was he elected? When was he born?
In the American Civil War (1861-1865) the northern states fought against the southern states. The reason of the conflict was basically slavery: the south supported it while the north wanted to eradicate it. Who was the president during the war? When did he become president? And when was he born?




John F. Kennedy was the thirty-fifth President. When was he elected? How did he die? Does he have anything in common with Lincoln?

Activity 2: The presidents and the states where they were born.

Look at the presidents' birthplaces. If you compare the states, there are some of them where more presidents were born. Why?

Activity 3: The states

Map of the United States

Learn more about the states