Victoria's 'melancholy' childhood
I can explain why Victoria's early life was 'melancholy'.
Victoria's 'melancholy' childhood
I can explain why Victoria's early life was 'melancholy'.
These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.
Lesson details
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.
To help you plan your year 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 year 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 secondary history curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
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- Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
Supervision
Adult supervision recommended
Licence
Starter quiz
6 Questions






Exit quiz
6 Questions


