KS1 Fire of London. At your school. Puppet show and puppet making. Museum of London 2012

Transcription

1 KS1 Fire of London At your school Puppet show and puppet making

2 Contents National Curriculum links and session description 2 Pre-visit activities 3 Follow-up activities 4 Background to the Fire of London & quotes 5-6 Curriculum links The puppet show and puppet making session link to teaching historical understanding about how and what we know about the Great Fire of London. Pupils will develop their sense of chronology, their understanding of the main events of the fire and the subsequent rebuilding of London. There are many cross-curricular links to be gained from this session, the story offers particularly good subject matter for Literacy (developing speaking and listening skills) and Citizenship work (such as comparisons with modern fire precautions). The puppet making supports skills in Art and can be used to develop understanding in Science (related to shadows and light). Session description Your timetable should be agreed when you place your booking. It is usually a 90 minute session. The first half of the session is a magical shadow puppet show performance telling the story of the Great Fire of London, complete with period music. The puppets represent some of the famous characters of the 17 th century including Samuel Pepys, King Charles and the architect Sir Christopher Wren. The second half of the session involves the children examining how the shadow puppets work and making their own puppets using templates supplied by the workshop leader. These can be used by the children to retell the story. 2

3 Pre-visit activities We highly recommend doing one or more of these activities before the session. 1. Use the Great Fire of London KS1 website, This is designed for a whole class presentation on an interactive whiteboard, with interactive activities aimed at paired or group work. Other websites about the Great Fire of London include and 2. Discuss with the pupils what it might have been like to live a long time ago, in Stuart times. How does it compare to life today? Ask the group to think of some questions for the puppeteer about the Great Fire of London and about puppet making. 3. The song London s Burning will be used in the puppet show. Familiarise pupils with the song and make up some actions to the lyrics. London s burning, London s burning Fetch the engine, fetch the engine Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Pour on water, pour on water London s burning, London s burning. 4. Look at the extracts from. What things did Pepys try to save from the fire? This could be done after the visit. 5. Invite the Fire Brigade to your school to talk about their jobs and the equipment they use. Make sure to draw comparisons between 1666 and today. This can be done before or after the puppet show. 3

4 Follow-up activities These activities are designed to apply and extend the knowledge gained from your visit to Museum of London. Many are cross-curricular and can support the teaching of Literacy, Citizenship, History, Geography and Art. They can be adapted as you feel appropriate. 1. Make a class shadow puppet show. Use the shadow puppets the children made (they might want to make some more) and get the children to act out different scenes. One child could be the narrator, while two or three other children handle the puppets and make sound effects. 2. Ask children to work in groups to create dramatic tableaux of scenes from the fire. These could be photographed and used in a display or book, or used as the basis for large paintings of the fire. 3. Make a class list of adjectives to describe the Fire of London, then ask pupils to use them to write poems about the fire. 4. Read some of the original quotes given below and then ask children to write a diary extract about the Fire of London. Pupils could try using quill pens. Alternatively pupils could write a letter to the puppeteer using quills. 5. Create a What we know about the Great Fire of London book. Add a contents page and page numbers. 6. Ask children to imagine they are a Londoner in early Stuart times whose house has been burnt down by fire. Write a story describing what they managed to save and why. 7. Compare pictures of modern and Stuart houses. List the similarities and differences. Make models of Tudor houses out of cardboard boxes and create a model of London before the Great Fire. Some schools like to ceremonially burn these in the play ground and film their own Great Fire (make sure pupils are happy for their models to be burnt to create this film and that you you can safely contain the blaze). 8. Look at pictures of furniture made of different materials from different periods in history. Ask the pupils to sort the furniture into as many categories as possible, for example old/new, flammable/non-flammable. 9. Ask pupils to design their own family or school fire badge. 4

5 Background to the Fire of London Introduction On 2 September 1666 a disastrous fire broke out in the house of Thomas Faryner, a baker in Pudding Lane, near London Bridge. Four days later, most of the medieval City had been destroyed with the loss of 13,200 houses, St Paul s Cathedral, 87 churches and all the major commercial and municipal buildings. A number of people wrote diaries of which Samuel Pepys is probably the best known. His diary provides one of the best eyewitness accounts of the Great Fire of London. He describes the progress of the fire, the measures taken to fight it, and the general scene as Londoners tried to move their families and goods to safety. Pepys account is especially valuable because it shows the state of mind of Londoners at the time. Pepys was a senior naval administrator and had a wide range of interests. His famous diary, kept between 1660 and 1669, gives unique insights into contemporary London. Find below several extracts from his diary that you may want to read with your pupils. List of quotes we were forced to pack up our own goods and prepare for the removal.and I did remove my money and Iron-chests into my cellar as thinking that the safest place. And got my bags of gold ready to carry away, and my chief papers of accounts and my tallies into a box by themselves. 5

6 About 4 a-clock in the morning, my Lady Batten sent me a cart to carry away all my money and plate and best things to Sir W Riders at Bennall Greene; which I did, riding myself in my nightgown in the Cart; and Lord to see how the streets and the highways crowded with people, running and hiding and getting carts at any rate to fetch away things. I am eased at my heart to have my treasure so well secured. I walked into the town and found Fenchurch Street, Gracious Street and Lombard Street all in dust. The Exchange a sad sight, nothing standing there, of all the statues or pillars, but Sir Thomas Gresham s picture (statue) in the corner I also did see a poor cat taken out of a hole in the chimney, joining to the wall of the Exchange, with hair all off the body, and yet still alive. Jane called us up, about 3 in the morning, to tell us of a great fire they saw in the City. So I arose and slipped on my nightgown and went to her window..but being unused to such fires as followed, I thought it far enough off, and so went back to bed. With ones face in the wind you were almost burned with a shower of fire drops this is very true It made me weep to see it. The churches, houses, and all on fire and flaming at once, and the horrid noise the flames made, and the cracking of houses at their ruin. our feet ready to burn, walking through the town among red hot coals. John Evelyn s diary I went towards Islington and Highgate where one might have seen two hundred thousand people of all ranks and degrees, dispersed and laying along by their heaps of what they could save from the fire, deploring their loss and ready to perish from hunger and destitution. 6