Fire - Session 7

Learning Intention:
· To work as part of a group, contributing and sharing ideas.
· To participate in drama activities
· To use drama conventions to support the history curriculum – to ask and answer questions about the past. To develop vocabulary linked to the passing of time.

Steps within session:
· Look at a portrait of Samuel Pepys – what can we see in this picture?
· Explain that this is a man who was around at the time of the Great Fire of London. What questions would you like to ask him if you could?
· Explain that we can’t talk to him because he lived such a long time ago (about 350 years ago) and is obviously no longer around! “Can we for a minute imagine that Mrs B is that man?” Direct their questions to Mrs B as the portrait of Samuel Pepys, who is activated to speak.

Links with other curriculum work:

Review of session:
· The children talked about the fact that the man’s hair and clothes looked different. 'A' suggested that his clothes look like those ‘in the olden days’. I said that this was a man that lived about 350 years ago and that he was around during the Great Fire of London. This caused a stir because they made links with previous discussion about the fire. “I wonder if we could talk to this man, what would you like to ask him?” they began to generate some questions. “Obviously, we can’t really talk to this man, because he is no longer around, he lived such a long time ago! …..Can we for a minute imagine that Mrs B is this man?” Enthusiastic nods! Mrs B adopted the body stance of Samuel Pepys portrait. “Would you like to ask your questions now?” What was amazing was how the children’s tone of voice instantly changed as if they were really talking to a man they didn’t know! They had readily accepted this convention. Lots of the children were keen to ask questions. They established his name, what he had witnessed during the fire and his role. Through their enquiry they gained so much about the ‘Great Fire’, and in a way that was so much more interesting than just reading extracts from Pepys’ diary to them. They were really focused and engaged! Even some of the more ‘shy’ children, gave an input. Only 4 children did not contribute, so when the session ended, I talked to these children 1:1 and 3 of them had followed what was going on and could talk about what they had learnt (‘Peripheral Learners’). 1 couldn’t and this is a child that I have concerns about, as he finds it difficult to focus during whole class sessions generally.
We then went on to watch the ‘Magic Granddad’ video with the other class and the children linked what they saw with the information they had already learnt.

Additional curriculum coverage:
· Through this work, it has been really obvious that children are making links between what they have learnt previously from a range of sources. The children’s engagement in this topic was evident in the ‘show & tell’ assembly to parents. They were able to convey their interest and what they had learnt enthusiastically to the parents and it was nice to have positive feedback from some of the parents about this.

Ideas for next moves:
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