London as a capital city
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can explain what is special about a capital city and locate, name and describe some of London’s most significant landmarks.
Key learning points
- A capital city is where a country's government has its headquarters and where it makes important decisions.
- Many people commute to London for work and millions of tourists visit or travel through the city.
- 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.
Teacher tip
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.
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Name the river that flows through London.
Q2.Which of these cities is the largest?
Q3.What do we call people that visit London for holidays?
Q4.What can we use to help us locate significant places in a city like London?
Q5.Join the parts to complete the sentences.
the mouth of the River Thames.
people live in London.
tourists visit London.
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?
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Which of these landmarks is a historical home of the British Royal Family?
Q2.In which city is the headquarters of the UK government?
Q3.Match the words to the definitions.
the group of people who are in charge of running the country
the group of people who make the laws for the country
the main offices of an organisation
Q4.Rearrange these letters to form a word which means to travel from home to work every day.
Q5.The largest bell in the Elizabeth Tower, a famous London landmark, is nicknamed "Big "?
Q6.Identify two key reasons why landmarks are important in a city.
To help you plan your 2 geography lesson on: London as a capital city, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 2 geography lesson on: London as a capital city, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 1 geography lessons from the What is life like in London? unit, dive into the full primary geography curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.