The British Royal Family

On 2nd May 2015, Princess

Charlotte of Cambridge was born.
She is the first daughter of Prince
William and Catherine (Kate)
Middleton, the Duchess of
Cambridge. Can you complete the
family tree?

Queen Elizabeth II

Who's who?

Charlotte

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Who
Who
Who
Who
Who
Who
Who
Who

is
is
is
is
is
is
is
is

Harrys niece?
Annes aunt?
Charles grandson?
George VIs granddaughter?
Harrys sister-in-law?
Queen Elizabeths husband?
Margarets brother-in-law?
Georges grandmother?

British Royal Family lesson plan

Age: Young learners/adults
Level: Pre-intermediate (A2)
Time: 25-35 minutes
Objective: To practise family vocabulary and learn facts about the British Royal Family in an
interactive, communicative way.
Key skills: Vocabulary, reading
Materials: One copy of the blank family tree for each student. One clues sheet for each pair of
students, cut in half. Optional: photos of British Royal Family
Notes
This activity is ideal as a lead-in to a lesson on British culture, or as part of a lesson on the theme
of family.
Key vocabulary
mother, father, aunt, uncle, sister, brother, daughter, son, grandmother, grandfather, sister-in-law,
brother-in-law, niece, nephew, husband, wife
Procedure
1. Elicit what the students already know about the British Royal Family. Optional: show pictures of
Queen Elizabeth, Princess Diana, Prince William and Kate Middleton. Whats the Queens
name? Who is Williams mother? Depending on their level of knowledge, students could
brainstorm what they already know in pairs before feeding back to the class.
2. Elicit a small section of the British Royal Family tree to the board. Who is William married to?
Who is Williams father?
3. Hand out one blank family tree to each student, and clue sheet A to half the students, clue
sheet B to the other half. Seat them in A-B pairs facing each other if possible. Tell them that
they both have different clues, so they must work together to complete the family tree.
Encourage them not to show The pair that finishes first is the winner.
4. Check the family tree in open class.
5. Direct the students to the Whos who? questions below the family tree. Conduct a feedback
session to check the answers.
6. Optional speaking extension: In pairs, students take turns to describe their family tree to one
another. For open class feedback, invite a few students to tell the class something about their
partners family.
7. Optional writing extension: Students choose a person from the British Royal Family and find
out key facts in order to write a brief biography.

Alternative procedure
If you have access to computers, or if the students all have smartphones, you may want to
challenge them to find the answers online. Instead of step 3 above, just give a blank family tree to
each student or pair of students and have them search the Internet for the answers.
Answer key
Family tree (left to right, top to bottom):
Elizabeth, George VI, Margaret, Elizabeth II, Philip, Diana, Charles, Anne, Andrew, Edward,
Catherine/Kate, William, Harry, George, Charlotte.
Whos who?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Charlotte
Margaret
George
Anne
Kate
Philip
Philip
Diana

British Royal Family clues

Student A
Princess Charlotte has one older brother: Prince George, who was born in 2013.
Prince Philip had one daughter, Anne, and three sons.
Queen Elizabeths mother was also named Elizabeth.
Charles wife was Princess Diana. She died tragically in a car accident in 1997.
Andrews grandfather was King George VI.

British Royal Family clues

Student B
Queen Elizabeth II was born in 1926 and became Queen in 1952. She married Prince Philip in
1947.
George has one uncle: Prince Harry.
Queen Elizabeth had one sister, Margaret.
Diana had two brothers-in-law: Andrew and Edward.
William and Harry's father is Prince Charles.