Planning and Activities
Key Stage 1 Great Fire of London - NEW LOOK
Diaries - NEW LOOK
Find out about the famous diarists Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn. Write your own diary entries, including a realistic entry set during the Great Fire. Finally, share diaries in a ‘coffee house’ setting to celebrate the completion of this block.
Session 1 Diaries from the Great Fire of London: historical sources
Objectives
History
- To describe and write about an event or activity.
- To begin to understand the historical importance of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn’s diaries.
Enquiry question
What can we learn about events in the past from historical diaries?
Outcomes
Children will:
- Read some of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn’s diaries.
- Agree that historical diaries give us lots of information about life in their times.
- Write our own diary entry about modern day life.
- Use adjectives and a range of verbs to add interest and information to our writing.
Provided Resources
You Will Also Need
Example of an appointment diary
Weblinks
Online archive of Samuel Pepys' diaries.
Extracts from John Evelyn’s diaries.
Session 2 Diaries from the Great Fire of London: feelings
Objectives
History
- To place the Great Fire on a timeline.
- To use historical diaries to help identify emotions.
- To use mime to express feelings and historical events.
Enquiry question
What can we learn about people in the past from historical diaries?
Outcomes
Children will:
- Learn where people and events fit within a chronological order, using a timeline.
- Understand that historical diaries can help us to understand how people might have felt in the past.
- Participate in mime / drama to further understand the feelings and emotion generated by GFoL.
- Perform to an audience.
Planning and Activities
Provided Resources
You Will Also Need
Role play clothes and props, if available.
Weblinks
Online archive of Samuel Pepys' diaries
Session 3 What did you say?
Objectives
History
- To empathise with the people experiencing the Great Fire of London.
- To write speech depicting character’s feelings, emotions and actions.
Enquiry question
How might people have felt during the Great Fire of London?
Outcomes
Children will:
- Try to put ourselves in the position of someone who experienced the Great Fire.
- Discuss how it must have felt to be in London during the Great Fire.
- Record some of the conversations (using exclamation and question marks) that might have been happening during the events of the Great Fire.
Planning and Activities
Provided Resources
You Will Also Need
Freeze Frame photographs from session 2
Session 4 Quills and ink!
Objectives
History
- To understand the significance that diaries play in providing information to aid our understanding of the past.
- To produce individual, ‘historic’ diaries.
Enquiry question
How do we record information differently now compared to 1666?
Outcomes
Children will:
- Understand how writing implements have changed over the years.
- Write a realistic page from a diary as if written during the Great Fire of London.
Planning and Activities
Provided Resources
There are no resources provided for this session.
You Will Also Need
Group photos from session 3 and speech bubbles
A4 paper tea stained to look old (prepared before hand), folded in half
Plastic drinking straws
Ink or paint thinned with water, small containers for the ink
Coloured feathers
Basket or bin
Sellotape, glue, pencils
Weblinks
Instructions for making a simple quill pen