Victoria's 'melancholy' childhood
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can explain why Victoria's early life was 'melancholy'.
Key learning points
- Almost 200 years ago, a woman called Victoria became the Queen of the United Kingdom.
- She would go on to rule for longer than any other monarch before her and be remembered as very important.
- However, when she was very little her life was very sad, later Victoria would describe it as 'melancholy'.
- She was very lonely; her father died when she was just one year old and her mother was very protective of her.
- Victoria did not meet many other children, spending her days learning or playing with her dolls and her dog, Dash.
Keywords
Monarch - the king or queen of a country is its monarch
Melancholy - a feeling of sadness is described as melancholy
Common misconception
That nothing is known about Victoria (or indeed other monarchs) before becoming Queen.
There is a lot of historical evidence about Victoria's childhood including written accounts and artefacts that tell us a great deal about what her early life was like.
Teacher tip
Queen Victoria is so significant there are places around the world named after her. From cities to smaller towns, to streets and parks, individual buildings, trains and boats. Choose some of these and share photographs or facts about them with the pupils to help them begin to grasp her significance.
Content guidance
Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
Supervision
Adult supervision recommended
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Elizabeth II was __________ of England.
Q2.Which of these would a queen usually wear?
Q3.Which of these statements is correct?
Q4.What could we learn from a photograph about the kings and queens of the past?
Q5.Starting with the earliest, place these events of Elizabeth II's life in chronological order.
Q6.Today, what do many people expect their rulers to do?
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Victoria's mother was a princess from ...
Q2.Victoria was born in the ...
Q3.What clues today tell us that Victoria was an important ruler in British history?
Q4.To understand how Victoria felt, we can read her diaries and ...
Q5.Victoria described her childhood as ...
Q6.Which of these events made Victoria's early life 'melancholy'?
To help you plan your 2 history lesson on: Victoria's 'melancholy' childhood, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 2 history lesson on: Victoria's 'melancholy' childhood, 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 history lessons from the Queen Victoria: how did Britain change during her lifetime? unit, dive into the full primary history curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.