The Last sessions - posted at last!

Learning Intention: · To use drama to explore the possible emotions of people at the time of the Great Fire of London. · To develop the skill of empathy. · To understand why events happened and why people did things in the past. Steps within session: · Draw a box (use a real example found on the Internet as a basis) – taking time to draw the icon (to draw the children into the story). Give details – It was found by a builder working on an extension to an office block, not far from the fire station, he was digging the foundations. Elaborate on what he saw and what he did with the discovery. Muse thoughtfully – “It is such an interesting box, actually buried over 300 years ago, on a site close to the Great fire of London. This is the size of the box. “It is made of… Its handles… It was locked…” (Convention 16) · “I wonder why someone might bury a box and then not come back to dig it up again? They can’t have come back. It has laid here for over 300 years, since the day it was buried.” Listen to the children’s ideas but don’t answer – take what they give. Nod & ponder. · “We could have a look at what happened. I’m going to ask Mrs B if she could be the person burying the box, just for a moment. Of course it wasn’t Mrs B who buried the box, but someone else who lived over 300 years ago. But we could see that person as if they were in a picture or a painting. Let’s take a look.” (Convention 8) Children can look and interpret – “What can you see? What might be happening?” – encourage the children to read Mrs B’s distressed body language. · (Convention 7) Talking to the person in the painting. “We could ask the person a few questions. Would that be helpful? Excuse me (person can now move and straighten). The children can ask the person questions about what they are doing and why. The person can be paused anytime – just like a film, if needs be. Or they can be activated to hear but not speak – causing the children to choose their words carefully, in front of this distressed stranger! Review of session For me, this session and the following activities were my favourite of the whole frame! The children's responses were amazing and I was applying drama conventions more confidently than before. I started the session as described above in the first 2 bullet points and we listened to the children’s ideas. Again, the children readily accepted Mrs B as someone else and made lots of suggestions – reading her body language. When we activated the person to speak, the children used their enquiry skills to find out more about what that person was doing. They established that something very important to the person’s family was inside the box and that the box was being buried to protect it from the raging fire. They made links with what they had learnt about Samuel Pepys and discovered that this person was also affected by the fire of London. They automatically adapted their tone of voice, because they could see that the person was upset and anxious. We then discussed: “If there was a fire like that today, what would you try to save?” A fascinating discussion took place about ‘sentimental value’ and they went off to draw/write what was precious to them. The children were totally engaged for the duration of this session, which lasted about 50 minutes! The next few episodes took place that afternoon and over the next couple of days: · We went back to looking at Mrs B, as the person burying the box in the painting and I said “This is just a small part of a very large painting….” The children then became part of the painting. They were great at this – as the photos below show! Their ideas were totally independent and reflected what they had learnt so far. One boy was crouched, shielding his eyes from the fierce flames. A girl was using a hook to pull the burning thatch of the roof. Another girl was guiding her horses to safety. Another boy was slumped over – when we talked about each others poses, we decided to activate this person, because the children were worried that he might have died. He did rouse slowly and stretched and yawned and said he was sleeping. The other children responded in a worried tone – “Don’t you know there is a great fire raging!” – He had been oblivious! · We used drama to see the moment that the box arrived at the museum. Again the photos show fabulous expressions on the children’s faces, demonstrating the thoughts and feelings of the museum curators, as they tried to figure out how to open the box without damaging it. We also explored the moment that the box was finally opened and used freeze frame to see the faces of the museum curators! This seemed a great place to stop! The drama had really slowed things down and added such tension to key moments. We never did find out what was in the box! We didn’t need to – so much learning had taken place in the different worlds of MOE! It was like the ending to a really good film – it was left up to our imaginations. Learning Intention: To handle artefacts with care To bridge the imaginary and real worlds Spend time handling 17C artefacts Review of session: The children were shown a key that had been found by metal detecting in a field. “This key had lain in the mud for about 300 years…” Each child got a chance to handle and examine the artefact. One child commented that it could be the key to the box and I replied “Well in our story we could imagine that if we want to…” This led to a discussion of where the person would put the key – our story led us to imagine that the person had sent it to a cousin, just in case he didn’t survive the fire. We then used shared writing to compose a letter to accompany the key – through this we conveyed our feelings about the fire. We also looked at some other artefacts that dated from the period, including buckles and coins. The children really liked the idea that they could be holding a coin that Samuel Pepys himself might have held in his hand!