New
New
Year 2

London as a capital city

I can explain what is special about a capital city and locate, name and describe some of London’s most significant landmarks.

New
New
Year 2

London as a capital city

I can explain what is special about a capital city and locate, name and describe some of London’s most significant landmarks.

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. A capital city is where a country's government has its headquarters and where it makes important decisions.
  2. Many people commute to London for work and millions of tourists visit or travel through the city.
  3. London has many important buildings and landmarks, such as Buckingham Palace, the Elizabeth Tower and Big Ben.

Keywords

  • Parliament - Parliament is the group of people who make the laws for the country.

  • Governement - A government is the group of people who are in charge of running the country.

  • Commute - To commute is to travel quite a long distance between your home and where you work.

  • Landmark - A feature in the landscape which has a particular meaning attached to it, for example, to help with directions, is called a landmark.

Common misconception

that commuters all drive cars to work

Many people do drive their car to work, but commuters are all the people that travel to a place for work using any mode of transport.

Landmarks often have unique features such as an unusual shape. Show pupils some photos of London landmarks then put pupils in pairs and in turns they do a rough sketch of a London landmark for their partner to guess.
Teacher tip

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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6 Questions

Q1.
Name the river that flows through London.
Correct Answer: Thames, River Thames, thames, river thames
Q2.
Which of these cities is the largest?
Birmingham
Correct answer: London
Manchester
Newcastle
Q3.
What do we call people that visit London for holidays?
Correct answer: tourists
guests
commuters
residents
Q4.
What can we use to help us locate significant places in a city like London?
photographs
Correct answer: maps
Correct answer: aerial images
reviews
Q5.
Join the parts to complete the sentences.
Correct Answer:London is close to ,the mouth of the River Thames.

the mouth of the River Thames.

Correct Answer:About 10 million ,people live in London.

people live in London.

Correct Answer:Every year, millions of,tourists visit London.

tourists visit London.

Correct Answer:London is in,the south-east of England.

the south-east of England.

Q6.
What symbol do we often see on maps to mark the location of the capital city of a country?
circle
square
Correct answer: star
triangle

6 Questions

Q1.
Which of these landmarks is a historical home of the British Royal Family?
Palace of Westminster
Tower Bridge
Correct answer: Buckingham Palace
The Gherkin
Q2.
In which city is the headquarters of the UK government?
Glasgow
Hull
Wrexham
London
Q3.
Match the words to the definitions.
Correct Answer:government,the group of people who are in charge of running the country

the group of people who are in charge of running the country

Correct Answer:parliament,the group of people who make the laws for the country

the group of people who make the laws for the country

Correct Answer:headquarters,the main offices of an organisation

the main offices of an organisation

Q4.
Rearrange these letters to form a word which means to travel from home to work every day.
1 - c
2 - o
3 - m
4 - m
5 - u
6 - t
7 - e
Q5.
The largest bell in the Elizabeth Tower, a famous London landmark, is nicknamed "Big "?
Correct Answer: Ben, ben
Q6.
Identify two key reasons why landmarks are important in a city.
Correct answer: To attract visitors to come to the city
To bring commuters to the city
Correct answer: To celebrate historical events and places
To keep the city clean
Q1 image 1 © balounm/Shutterstock.com Q1 image 3 Source: Nan Palmero from San Antonio, TX, USA. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Buckingham_Palace_During_Queen_Elizabeth_II_Death_(52383281866).jpg. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.