Hello, my name is Mrs Chowdhury.

Welcome back to another lesson on history with me today.

We're going to carry on learning all about Elizabeth II and what her life was like.

As always, we're going to be learning lots of new things, but don't worry, because I'm here to help, and we are going to be doing this all together.

So let's get started.

In our lesson today we are going to be learning about Elizabeth's experiences during the Second World War.

So we're going to find out what it was like for her during the Second World War.

Now that's a new word, war.

We're going to find out what that means because it's one of our keywords actually.

And you'll be able to talk about how she felt and what she did, what it was like for her during the Second World War by the end of this lesson.

Let's get started.

As always, we have some keywords that we're going to learn about in our lesson.

In this lesson, we have five keywords.

We have five keywords in our lesson today.

Let's do a bit of my turn and your turn to get to know these words a bit better.

Let's start off with the first one, my turn, war.

War.

Your turn.

Brilliant, good job.

The second one, United Kingdom.

My turn, United Kingdom.

Your turn.

Good job.

The third one is rationing.

My turn, rationing.

Your turn.

Great.

The fourth one is army.

My turn, army.

Your turn.

Superb.

And the fifth and final one is radio.

My turn, radio.

Your turn.

Wonderful.

We will find out what these keywords mean as we move on with our lesson.

This lesson is split into two parts, the first part is called Britain at war and the second part is called Elizabeth's war contributions.

We are going on to be focusing on the first part to begin with.

So we are going to find out a bit more about Britain at war and what it was like for Britain.

Let's look at this timeline to remind us of Elizabeth's life.

So we've learnt that in 1926 Elizabeth was born.

She was a princess for quite some time before becoming queen in 1952.

She ruled as queen for a very long time, before finally dying in 2022.

Now our lesson today about Britain at war is focused on this part in her life, when she was still a princess.

World War II, the Second World War, started in 1939 when Elizabeth was still 13 years old.

So this is the part in her life that we will be focusing on.

So let's find out a bit more about the Second World War.

Well, in 1939, England began fighting in the Second World War.

War is one of our keywords.

And a war is when groups of people, usually countries, fight each other.

So England was fighting other countries during the Second World War.

Because of the war, England was in danger of being attacked by the enemy.

So they had to be very careful because England was in danger of being attacked.

We see a photograph there of some soldiers fighting in the Second World War.

They've got weapons, they've got guns, and they're fighting.

Now, because the royal family were so important, Elizabeth and her sister were moved out of London to Windsor Castle to keep them safe.

Ah, Windsor Castle, I've heard of that before.

That's right, Elizabeth and her family lived a very quiet life in Windsor Castle, didn't they? Before her father became king.

So, they moved from London to Windsor Castle, and moving from one place to another to stay safe is called evacuating.

This is Elizabeth in a picture taken just before the war began.

So there's Elizabeth with her family and this was taken just before the war began, so we can see what she looked like and how old she was before the war began.

She was much older before the war began.

Standing next to her is the king, her father, and then her mother, the queen, and also her sister.

Now, many children were evacuated from London like this.

Some had to leave their families and move to live with other families in the countryside.

I wonder how they felt, leaving their families to move to another place.

How do you think they felt? I bet they felt really sad and upset about evacuating and leaving their families.

This is a photograph of children being evacuated by train and they're all waving, and they're very happy to have their photograph taken.

So, I think they're quite excited, some children, to go away.

It's a bit like going on a school trip.

But some of them didn't know how long they'd be gone away for.

Great, we've done a fair bit of learning so far, so let's have a check for understanding.

True or false? Children living in cities, including Elizabeth and her sister, were evacuated.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a think.

That statement is true.

It is true that children living in cities, including Elizabeth and her sister, were evacuated.

Let's move on to the next part of our check for understanding.

I'd like you to justify your answer.

I'd like you to explain why they were evacuated.

Is it because, A, Britain was at war and in danger of being attacked? Or B, because everyone was going on holiday? Why were they being evacuated? Pause the video and have a think.

They were evacuated because Britain was at war and in danger of being attacked, so all the children living in the cities had to be evacuated to the country because it was unlikely for them to be bombed in the countryside.

Let's move on with our learning.

So, it wasn't just England that was in danger of being attacked during the war, it was the whole of the United Kingdom, or the UK.

United Kingdom is one of our keywords today.

And the United Kingdom is a group of countries and it's England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

All four of those countries make up the United Kingdom.

Have you visited any of the other countries in the United Kingdom? Have you been to Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland, or England? This map shows all of the countries in the United Kingdom.

They're all quite close together.

Let's do a check for understanding.

The United Kingdom is a group of, A, four countries, B, three countries, or C, two countries? Which one do you think is right? Pause the video and have a think.

The United Kingdom is a group of, that's right, four countries, and those four countries are England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

Let's move on.

Elizabeth was 13 years old when the war started.

This photograph shows Elizabeth at the beginning of the war and what she looked like.

Elizabeth and her family had to deal with a lot of changes to their daily life because of the war.

There were air raid drills every day.

Air raid drills were practises for what people would do if a bomb landed because we know that there were lots of bombs during the Second World War.

So these air raid drills were practises for what people would do if a bomb landed, or if they knew a bomb was going to land.

What would they do to stay safe? People would usually hide in bomb shelters, just like the tube station in this picture.

You can see everybody on the floor, you can see babies, you can see families, and the coats are hung up.

They're practising what to do if a bomb was to land.

An air raid shelter was added to Windsor Castle where Elizabeth stayed.

And why do you think it was important for Elizabeth to have her own air raid shelter? That's right.

She was going to be queen one day, so it was very, very important to keep her safe.

Now, during the war, everyone who lived in the UK, including the royal family, had to do something called rationing.

That's one of our keywords today, rationing.

This meant that everyone was given an equal amount of food every week.

Everyone had the same amount so that Britain would not run out of food.

So it didn't matter if you were rich or if you were poor, everybody was given the same amount.

Here's a picture of a ration book, and this book would keep track of the rations of food that people were taking.

So you'd go to the shop with your book and they would make sure that you were given the same amount every week.

Rationing was so important because there just wasn't enough food around anymore.

They weren't growing as much because of the war and how difficult it was to grow things.

They weren't making as much either because, again, it was really difficult to make things during the war.

Things were also not coming into the country, so to make sure that everybody still had food, they had to do rationing so everybody had the same amount.

Because of rationing and the shortage of food, people cooked strange things like squirrel soup and crow pie.

Do you think you could ever eat a squirrel soup or a crow pie? Well, that's what they did when they were rationing.

Everyone was encouraged to grow their own fruit and vegetables.

Elizabeth did this at their allotments at Windsor too.

So they were all encouraged to grow their own fruit and vegetables because it was really hard to go out and buy things and, of course, they had their ration books so they couldn't buy lots and lots of fruit and vegetables.

This is a photograph, a black and white photograph of course, of a family eating dinner during the war.

And if you look outside the window behind them, you can see the bombed buildings outside.

You can see the building behind them crumbled.

Let's do another check for understanding.

Which do you think is the right answer? What did Elizabeth not have to deal with during the war? A, air raid drills, B, fighting, or C, rationing? What did she not have to deal with? Pause the video and have a think.

Elizabeth did not have to deal with fighting, that's right.

She didn't have to go out and do fighting, but she did have to deal with air raid drills, which is why they had a special shelter at Windsor Castles, and she did have to deal with rationing, she also had a ration book like everybody else in Britain.

Let's do an activity to see what we've learnt so far.

I'd like you to match the words to the meanings.

So, these are some of our keywords that we've learnt so far.

I'd like you to try and match them to their meanings.

Pause the video and have a go.

So, let's learn together, let's see how we've got on.

Rationing, what does rationing mean? Hm.

Rationing is equal amounts of food given to people each week.

If you remember, they had a ration book at that time, a very special ration book and everyone, including the royal family, had to be given the same amount of food as everybody else.

War, what do you think war means? That's right, war is when groups of people, usually countries, fight each other.

And of course, we're learning about Britain being part of the Second World War.

And finally, United Kingdom, what does that mean, United Kingdom? United Kingdom is a group of countries, England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, and as we saw on our map, they're countries that are quite close to each other.

So now that we've learnt about Britain at war and what the Second World War was, let's find out about how Elizabeth contributed during the war, so how did she help during the war? Remember, she didn't go out to fight, that's something that she did not do, so how do you think she helped during the war? What do you think she might have done? Let's find out.

Well, an army is a group of soldiers who fight for something or someone, usually a country.

So army, one of our keywords, is a group of soldiers who fight for something or someone, usually a country.

This photograph shows some very happy British soldiers abroad.

So they're part of the British Army and they're very happy soldiers.

Even though Elizabeth was heir to the throne, she still joined the army.

So she was still a part of the army, part of a group of soldiers.

As future leader of the country, she showed that she would help her country too.

Now, because she was a woman, Elizabeth joined a special part of the army.

She joined this special part of the army in 1945, when she turned 18 years old because when she turned 18 years old, that's when she became an adult.

This photograph shows Elizabeth in her special army uniform.

You can see that she has to wear a special hat and very special clothes with badges on it as well.

This special part of the army was just for women, as they were not allowed to fight in the war.

So they weren't allowed to go onto the battlegrounds and fight, they had to stay at home and be a special part of this army in a different way.

Now, women are allowed to fight in wars and we have female soldiers, but not during the Second World War.

So, if Elizabeth couldn't fight during the war, but she was a part of the army, how did she help? How did she contribute to the war? Let's find out.

Look at this photograph.

What is Elizabeth doing? We see her kneeling down and she looks like she's fixing something, she's got something in her hands there.

What is she doing? She's fixing a car tyre.

Elizabeth trained to be a car mechanic and even learnt how to drive cars.

She learnt how to drive cars, and not many women drove cars at that time, so this was something quite different for Elizabeth to learn how to drive cars.

It was especially different for a future queen to learn how to drive cars because queens were usually driven by drivers or chauffeurs.

This is something else that Elizabeth did during the war.

What do you think Elizabeth is doing in this picture? There are some other women from the special part of the women's army with her, and what are they looking at? What are they pointing at? Elizabeth is learning to read maps, so she's learning how to read a map so that they can find their way around places.

There were lots of things that Elizabeth did to help during the war, even though she did not fight.

Let's have another check for understanding.

So, complete this sentence.

During the war, Elizabeth joined a special part of the, A, party, B, army, or C, royal family? During the war, Elizabeth joined a special part of the.

Pause the video and have a think.

During the war, Elizabeth joined a special part of the army, that's right.

A special part of the army that was just for women, and we learnt how she learnt how to fix tyres and also read maps, as well as lots of other things.

In 1940, Elizabeth spoke on the radio to children who had been evacuated.

There's a photograph of Elizabeth talking on the radio for the first time.

She's holding a piece of paper, that's a script that is telling her what to say.

A radio is a device that gives information that is listened to.

That's one of our keywords today, radio, and a radio is a device that gives information that is listened to.

The radio is like a TV, except it has no screen, just a speaker to hear from.

As she spoke, children around Britain listened carefully from their radios.

This picture shows children who may have listened to Elizabeth on the radio.

So these are some of the children who were being evacuated and who might have listened to Elizabeth's broadcast on the radio.

How do you think the children felt listening to her on the radio? How do you think they felt listening to the future queen on the radio? I bet they felt really happy hearing her, listening to what she had to say.

So let's have another check for understanding.

A radio is A, a device we listen to, B, a device we look at, or C, a device we listen to and look at? Pause the video and have a think.

A radio is, A, a device we listen to.

Well done for having a try.

Here's another check for understanding.

Which of the following did Elizabeth do during the war? Do you think it was A, driving, B, flying, or C, map reading? Which of the following did Elizabeth do during the war? Pause the video and have a think.

Elizabeth did map reading and also driving, she learnt to drive and also read maps during the war.

Now let's have a task activity to describe what Elizabeth did when the war started.

So I'd like you, with your partner, to think of two things that Elizabeth did when the war started.

What did she do, hm? You might talk about food, jobs, or where she lived.

Pause the video and have a chat with your partner about what Elizabeth did when the war started.

So, welcome back.

What did you talk about with your partner? Maybe you said Elizabeth's food was rationed to make sure there was enough food for everyone.

Or maybe you said Elizabeth joined a special part of the army just for women.

She repaired cars, drove, and read maps.

So that was what Elizabeth did during the war.

We have now reached the end of our lesson, so let's summarise what we have learnt so far.

We've learnt that in 1939, England started fighting in the Second World War and much of the country was in danger of being attacked.

So remember, England was fighting some other countries during the Second World War.

Elizabeth and her sister were evacuated out of London, like many other children, to keep them safe.

We saw some photographs of children at train stations being evacuated.

Like everyone else in the United Kingdom, Elizabeth and her family experienced air raid drills and rationing.

Rationing was one of our keywords, wasn't it? And we learnt how it meant that everyone had an equal, the same amount, of food given to them each week to make sure that food did not run out.

Elizabeth joined a special part of the army for women, which let her drive and repair cars.

She also learnt to read maps.

Elizabeth spoke on the radio for the first time during the war.

She spoke to children who had left their homes to stay safe.

So she spoke on a radio because they didn't have TVs at the time, and she spoke to the children who left their homes.

You have done some really brilliant learning today, you've concentrated, you've listened, and you've completed all of the check for understandings and all the tasks.

I think you've done amazing and learning about Elizabeth and Britain during World War II.

We've learnt all about Elizabeth's experiences and you've described what Elizabeth's experiences were like during the war.

I'm so excited to see you again in our next lesson to learn more about Elizabeth and what her life was like.

But it's goodbye for now and I'll see you in our next lesson.