This is our last week before Thanksgiving Break so I figured I’d try something new with my students.  One of the really nice things about this home school setting is that I more or less have a lot of liberty in choosing (experimenting really) the activities the kids complete.  We only have one week to talk about Queen Elizabeth I and since it’s right before break I know the kids will only be half focused, so instead of something big like a primary source analysis, or starting something that would take more than a week like a lapbook (I don’t want them to have work hanging over their heads over break), I had to think of something short, sweet, to the point, but (hopefully) engaging.

At my daughter’s daycare, they recently traced the kids’ whole bodies on butcher paper and the kids got to decorate them however they wanted (lots of fingerpaint and stickers, haha), so that actually ended up being my inspiration for this Queen Elizabeth I activity.

I compiled biographical information on Queen Elizabeth I, I will divide the students into pairs, and each pair will read the mini-biography to find certain pieces of information.  One pair will find two places Elizabeth visited and write those locations in the traced feet.  They will also write a sentence or two explaining the purpose of Elizabeth’s visit there.  Another pair will find two things Elizabeth accomplished during her reign, write one on each traced hand, and also provide an identification for them.  Another pair will find two beliefs she had and write them in the traced head with identifications.  The last pair will find two items Elizabeth “said” (orders she gave, laws she made sure got passed, etc) and write and identify them by the traced mouth.  Lastly, each student will decide what they think was most interesting about Elizabeth I/her reign and write that in the torso.

I think the kids will like it, I’m just hoping it doesn’t take more than an hour.  I might have to trim down the biographical information a bit just in case.  Or, I leave it as is and just give the older students more responsibility.  I have time to decide, we’ll be doing this activity Tuesday.

For reference, here is the “after” picture.  The activity went over pretty well, you can read about it HERE.  I also have this even more fleshed out, set up for any historical figure, and available with a points distribution HERE.

Queen Elizabeth I review