Teaching notes and ideas
Name of resource:
Six wives of Henry VIII
Age group(s)
Subject(s)
8 to 11
History
Topic
Language Level
The Tudors
Beginner / intermediate
Description of resource
Resource pack comprising:
 Flashcards about Henry VIII’s wives
 Graphic organiser about Henry VIII’s wives
 Writing frame about Henry VIII’s wives
Preparation needed
You will need:
 One set of flashcards for each pair of learners
 One A3 copy of the graphic organizer and one A4 copy for each learner
 One A3 copy of writing frame and one A4 copy for each learner or each pair of
learners
You will need to:
 Photocopy flashcards onto card, laminate and cut out
 Photocopy writing frames and graphic organisers as required
Curriculum objectives
 To learn basic information about Henry VIII’s wives
Language/Literacy objectives
Functions
Structures
Reporting
 Simple past tense: She had…, She was….
 Conjunctions: but, so, after, while
 Complex sentences: Henry died while he was
married to her.
Comparing
Conjunctions:
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© Bell Educational Trust 2016
 …and… (Catherine of Aragon had a daughter
and Anne Boleyn had a daughter)
 …but…(Anne Boleyn was beheaded, but Anne
of Cleves was divorced)
Sequencing
Simple past tense
First, then, next, after that, finally, last
Vocabulary
Names of Henry VIII’s wives
Divorced, beheaded, died, married, accused, born, son, daughter, boyfriend, horse.
Conjunctions: but, and, so, while, after
This resource could be used:
 as differentiation within class
 one to one or small group
 independent learning
Ideas for using the resource
What to do
 Using pictures of Henry VIII’s wives, go through the information in the graphic
organiser. Ask questions that are answered using the graphic organiser, e.g.
‘Who was Henry married to for 23 years?’ or ‘Which wife was pretty and full of
fun?’ After several questions have been modelled, learners could take turns to
pose the questions.
 In turns, using the graphic organiser as a scaffold, describe one of the wives.
This could be done in first person or in third person.
 Learners could then compare the wives, e.g. ‘Catherine of Aragon had a
daughter, but Jane Seymour had a son.’
 Learners then work in pairs for the card sort activity. They match the
flashcards that describe each wife. The graphic organiser can be used as a
reference if required.
 Using the A3 copy of the writing frame, model writing about one of the wives.
Then do shared writing about a different wife, asking learners to contribute
sentences about her. Learners then work in pairs or individually to write a short
paragraph about each of the remaining four wives.
Other ideas for making the best use of this resource
EAL Nexus – free downloadable teaching materials https://eal.britishcouncil.org/
© Bell Educational Trust 2016
 Learners could create a timeline using the information on the graphic organiser.
 A quiz game could be played with the Henry VIII wives cards where learners
take turns being the quiz master. The quiz master picks up one of the
information cards and changes the information on it into a question. For
example, ‘Which wife was married to Henry for 23 years?’ or ‘Why did Henry
leave the Catholic Church?’ The learner on the left of the quiz master is given
the first chance to answer the question. If they are correct, they receive one
point. If they are unable to answer the question, the next learner on the left is
given the opportunity to answer. This continues until a learner answers the
question correctly. If no one is able to answer the question, the quiz master
receives one point. The role of quiz master then rotates to the left.
 Learners could play a riddles game where they give one clue at a time to their
partner. They could draw the clues from the graphic organiser. They receive
one point for each clue they need to give before their partner guesses which
wife they are describing.
Possible extension activities
 Hot seating activity could take place where each learner pretends to be one of
the wives
 Using the information on the graphic organiser, learners could write simple
sentences on strips of card to create their own sequencing exercise, which
could be completed by learners at an earlier stage of acquiring English:
o Henry VIII’s first wife was…
o Secondly he married…
o After that…
EAL Nexus – free downloadable teaching materials https://eal.britishcouncil.org/
© Bell Educational Trust 2016