Learning About Albania for Kids

Second up in our parade of nations is Albania (check out the post on Afghanistan for kids if you missed it!). I’ll admit to knowing almost nothing about Albania, so let’s learn together.

Albania Basics

To begin with, Albania is officially the Republic of Albania, and it’s located in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Greece, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Montenegro, and also has the Adriatic Sea on its western border. The capital is Tirana. It was estimated in 2022 that nearly 2.8 million people lived there.

Albanian is the official language, but people there also speak Greek, Aromanian and Macedonian.

Albania has spent much of its history ruled by other nations and empires, and it has been an independent nation since 1912. The nation covers 11,100 square miles (or 28,748 square kilometers) and includes mountains, plains and coastal regions.

Mother Teresa was born in Albania and is the only Albanian to have received a Nobel Prize.

National Symbols

The Albanian flag has a red background with a two-headed eagle silhouette in black. The flag was adopted in 1912. Red symbolizes bravery, strength, valor and bloodshed, while the eagle is a symbol of Albania. (Eagles have been used for heraldic purposes in the region for hundreds of years and the double-headed eagle was used by Albanian nationalists during their fight for independence.)

The eagle is also considered the national animal and symbol of Albania.

“Himni i Flamurit” is the national anthem, which you can listen to below:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcjJoBtGBNI?si=2uuM0P0ojSbdGydK]

Albania Activities for Kids

Chasing the Donkey has some fun facts about Albania that kids might enjoy. Activity Village has Albania printables including a flag to color, worksheets, a map and more (these are available to their members). Kids Konnect also has a great collection of free worksheets and fact sheets related to Albania.

Older kids might like the story of Rozafa Castle, which legend has it would not stay standing until a woman was trapped in the walls. Or read the stories of the legendary Mujo and Halil, or listen to the song “Mujo, Halil and the Fairies.”

Want to try some Albanian food? A popular lamb and rice dish called Tavë Kosi is considered the national dish; Jess Eats & Travels has a simplified version. Fërgesë, which is made of tomatoes, peppers and cheese, is another popular dish. Find a recipe at the Foreign Fork. Or try Byrek, a spinach and feta pie that shows the Greek influence on Albania cuisine (try this recipe from Polkadot Passport).

Books About Albania for Kids

I didn’t find a lot of books out there for learning more about Albania, but you can check out My First Book – Albania by Penelope Palette, or this cute Albania Coloring Book with fun facts.

If you know of books or other resources for kids learning about Albania I’d love to know about them!

After sharing some witch themed math activities, I found a bunch more fun printable worksheets with a Halloween theme for kids to try, so let’s take a look at some more low-prep Halloween learning fun.

Give kids practice measuring bats, spiders, ghosts and more with these printables from What I Have Learned Teaching. Kids can use a ruler, unit cubes or even little Halloween themed erasers to measure and track the size of the images.

Practice symmetry by drawing half a haunted house, ghost, skull or other simple images with this activity from Printables Hub.

I always love a good roll and draw activity, too, so check out this roll and draw a ghost activity (which has printable instructions) from Finding Myself Young.

Missy Printable Design has a cute set of Halloween worksheets for preschool, including tracing the letter H and a haunted house, spider counting, number tracing, sequencing, coloring pages and more.

The Halloween themed printables from The Artisan Life are meant to be playdough mats, and you can definitely use them for that to make the shape and trace the letters. But you could also use pipe cleaners or Wikki Stix, or line up buttons or anything else on them.

Older kids will enjoy this witch’s brew logic puzzle from Education.com. The witch has made different potions with different colors that do different things, and using the clues you can figure out which one is which. (Don’t worry; there’s an answer key included if you can’t figure it out on your own!)

Another fun puzzle is this decoder activity from Crafting Cheerfully. The holiday icons each represent a letter, and kids can use the decoder to answer the riddle. This isn’t a free resource (and the link in the post is broken but you can find it here) but it includes 20 riddles and an editable file so you can make up your own codes to decipher.

Albania Basics

National Symbols

Books About Albania for Kids

Have you read?

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