22nd April 2021

St. George’s Day In The Classroom

Did you know that St. George never visited England? It might surprise your class to learn that the Patron Saint of England has never actually set foot on English soil!  St George’s Day is an annual celebration of English history and the story of St. George – celebrate with your class on the 23rd April 2021.

Art & Craft Activities

St. George’s Day lends it’s self particularly well to dragon-based crafts. The story of St. George slaying a great dragon that demanded human sacrifice has always been enthralling to children. Bring dragons to life with a fun art project – we found lots of fantastic crafts ideas on Pinterest and we’ve saved them all to our St. George’s Day board:

• We love this fun moveable St. George printable from Baker Ross
• Here’s a dragon-themed sensory activity for younger children
• Print your own dragon here
• And here are 10 more crafts to try on St. George’s Day

FLAGS

The St. George Cross is the emblem of St. George’s day, and it is said that St George wore the cross on his shield. Learning about the Union Jack and it’s components is a fun class topic. Teach your pupils about the Union Jack and it’s component parts (There’s a great free PDF for teachers on the Union Jack here), or ask them to design a class or house flag using common elements. 

• There’s a great art lesson resource for younger pupils here on TES
• Find free, detailed flag activities for lots of countries and nations here
• We also love this child-centric article about flags and their importance in world events

FOR OLDER PUPILS

Discussing Patron Saints is an excellent route to talking about English history and how Patron Saints came to be. There’s lots of great resources on Patron Saints for teachers here on Twinkl. We also found these downloadable worksheets for teachers on all of the Patron Saints in the UK.

St George isn’t just the Patron Saint of England. He’s also the Patron Saint of Bulgaria, Georgia, Portugal,  and Spain. Take the opportunity to discuss the location and culture of St George’s other patronages. Find out what your class already knows about these countries, challenge their misconceptions and discuss how St. George became so prolific and important to countries other than England.

Here is a young-reader friendly article by Newsround about St George’s Day that your pupils might like to use for their own project on St. George. We also found this fun Bitesize article featuring some facts (and fiction!) about St. George.

We hope these ideas and resources have inspired you to celebrate St. George’s Day in your classroom this week, we’d love to hear your ideas, talk to us on Twitter.