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EUROPE
EUROPE DAY
DAY
Board
Board game
game
Activity 2
Activity 2

Key competences in activity 2

Competence in linguistic communication.

Competence in knowledge of and interaction with the physical world.
Competence in social skills and citizenship.
Learning to learn competence.
Cultural and artistic competence.
Competence in autonomy and personal initiative.
Competence in processing information and use of ICT.

Background
On 9th May 1950, the French Foreign Minister, Robert Schuman, presented his proposal for the
creation of an organised Europe which would help promote peace between nations. This proposal,
known as the “Schuman declaration”, is the origin of the European Union.

In 1985 during the Milan summit of European Union leaders, the 9th May became known as Europe
Day. Together with the flag and the anthem, its aim is to promote unity and solidarity.
In this activity, the children are going to play a game that will broaden their knowledge of different
aspects of Europe (Geography, monuments, languages…)
In activity 2, the following key competences are developed:
Competence in linguistic communication as they use English to play the game, competence in
knowledge of and interaction with the physical world as they learn more about Europe, competence
in social skills and citizenship as they follow rules and take turns to play the game, cultural and
artistic competence as they learn more about the countries that make up Europe, learning to learn
and competence in processing information and use of ICT as they develop the game and autonomy
and personal initiative as they play the game with minimum guidance.

You will need:

• one copy of Worksheet 1 for each child

• one copy of Worksheet 2 for each group
• one copy of Worksheet 3 for each group (see Optional extension activity)

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• one copy of Worksheet 4 for each group (see Optional extension activity)
• one die for each group
• one counter for each child

Instructions:

1. Distribute Worksheet 1 to your students. Read through the facts with the children to make
sure they understand them.

2. Demonstrate how to play the game: To see who goes first, all the children in the group throw
the die. The one with the highest score goes first, then play continues in a clockwise direction.
The first child throws the die and then moves that number of places on the board. Children
follow the instructions. If they land on a country name, they mark the square in the top left-
hand corner of each fact file on Worksheet 1 and then read the first fact out loud. The second
person to land on that same square reads the second fact, etc. (When a child lands on a
country he/she has already ‘visited’, he/she does not have to read the fact a second time).
The winner of the game is the first child to visit all six countries.
Note that they will have to work their way round the board more than once.

3. Distribute one copy of Worksheet 2 to each group of four children. Give each group a die
and counters so that they can play the game.

Optional extension activity:

Distribute one copy of Worksheets 3 and 4 to each group. Ask the children to prepare a new board
game. They can choose six countries and write four facts about each. They also fill in the blank spaces
on the board game with the name of these new countries. They can either find and affix pictures of
the country or a monument for each country or colour the corresponding squares. They can play with
their own board game or swap between groups.

Letʼs compare!

In this section, we suggest you make the children aware of similarities and differences between the
customs in their own country and those of other parts of the world. Twenty-three countries in Europe
use the euro. Ask the children to discover which countries and to keep an eye out for coins from
different countries. Which design(s) do they like best?

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Worksheet 1
United Kingdom
The capital city is London.
Most people speak English.
The population is over 62,000,000.
Big Ben is the name of the clock inside Clock
Tower but nearly everyone calls the tower
Big Ben.
France
The capital city is Paris.
Most people speak French.
The population is over 65,000,000.
The Statue of Liberty was a present from France
to the United States.
Spain
The capital city is Madrid.
The four official languages are (Castilian)
Spanish, Catalan, Galician and Basque.
The population is over 46, 000,000.
The Iberian lynx is the most endangered
carnivore in Europe.
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Wo r k s h e e t 1
Germany
The capital city is Berlin.
Most people speak German.
The population is nearly 82,000,000.
Germany is the country surrounded by most other
countries (nine). The countries are: Switzerland,
Poland, Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Den-
mark, Czech Republic, Belgium and Austria.
Italy
The capital city is Rome.
Most people speak Italian.
The population is nearly 61,000,000.
It took nearly 200 years to build the Leaning
Tower of Pisa.
Sweden
The capital city is Stockholm.
Most people speak Swedish.
The population is nearly 9,500,000.
The first ice hotel in the world is in Jukkasjärvi
and the first guests stayed in 1992.
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Worksheet 2 Photocopiable © Oxford University Press

Wo r k s h e e t 2

United Kingdom

Sweden
Germany

START

France

Spain

Italy

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Worksheet 3 Wo r k s h e e t 3
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Worksheet4 Wo r k s h e e t 4
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