Arrange the children into pairs and display the Presentation: Brain dump. Ask the children to tell their partner everything they learnt in the last lesson about the monarchy in the United Kingdom.

Select ‘King Charles III’ (slide 1) from the Presentation: The coronation.

Presentation: The coronation

Explain that King Charles III is the 62nd British monarch to serve over the past 1,200 years. He became King on 8 September 2022 when his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, died. Show this by using the link: Kapow Primary timeline and navigating to the 21st century timeline. Select the filters ‘monarchs’ and ‘King Charles III’.

Select four volunteers (two boys and two girls). Using their birthdays, arrange them into a line in this order: oldest boy, youngest boy, oldest girl, youngest girl. Give the eldest boy the toy crown or decorated crown. Explain that in the past, the oldest son of the monarch would become king, even if he had an older sister.

Queen Elizabeth had no older brothers, so she became queen when her father, King George VI, died. King Charles is her eldest son, so he became the monarch when she died.

Explain that this has changed and now the eldest child becomes the next monarch, regardless of their sex. If necessary, rearrange the line of children in order of age to demonstrate this, giving the oldest child the crown. 

Note that King Charles has two sons and that the oldest of them, Prince William, will become king when Charles dies. 

Select ‘What can you see’ (slide 2) from the Presentation: The coronation.

Presentation: The coronation

Point out that these are images of coronations – a special religious ceremony where a new king or queen is crowned in front of many people.  

Queen Elizabeth II

Explain that Elizabeth became Queen in 1952 when she was 25 years old. She was crowned in 1953 at her coronation in Westminster Abbey. She died in 2022. Show these dates using the link: Kapow Primary timeline and selecting ‘Within living memory’ from the ‘All periods’ tab. Highlight that Elizabeth was the longest-reigning monarch Britain has ever had.

King Charles III

Display ‘Westminster Abbey’ (slide 3), which shows images of Westminster Abbey. Explain that King Charles III’s Coronation was on 6 May 2023 at Westminster Abbey. Show this by opening the link: Kapow Primary timeline and selecting the 21st century timeline.

Coronations

Use slides 4–8 to share the information about each part of the ceremony (the oath, the anointing, the investing, the crowning and the procession).

Watch the video clip of King Charles III’s Coronation using the link: BBC – King Charles III's Coronation.

Ask the children:

Arrange the children into pairs and give each pair four sheets of A4 white paper. Ask the children to write the name of one of the four parts of the ceremony (the oath, the anointing, the investing, the crowning) on each sheet of paper and draw a picture to remind them what happens during each part of the ceremony (e.g. a crown for the crowning). 

In pairs, ask the children to act out a coronation – one in the role of the King and the other as the Archbishop of Canterbury. They will need to think of actions for each part of the ceremony. 

Ask the children to perform the coronation for the rest of the class. As they watch, the children in the audience must hold up the A4 sheet which matches that part of the coronation ceremony.