Year 6
Creative Learning Journey
The Victorians
Mr. Hayes
Year Six Creative Learning Journey
The Victorians
Autumn term 2011
Session Objectives
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Learning outcome
Who were the Victorians and when did they live?
• Identify Queen Victoria and place
• Place the Victorian period on a class
the Victorian period in relation to
time line.
other periods of British history.
Learning Activities
• A Procession of Monarchs
How many British monarchs can you name? Create a complete list of the kings and
queens of England and work out the family ties that ‘bind’ them. Investigate the reign
of each monarch & create a face-mask to wear in the most ‘Royal’ parade of all time!
Place the Victorian period on a time line.
• Recall and organise historical
information - Study the events that
lead to Queen Victoria’s Coronation
and the celebrations of the day.
• Account of Victoria’s 1838
Coronation from the point of view
of one of the people present on this
day.
• Victoria becomes Queen
With so many uncles around, it is surprising that Victoria ever became queen! Explore
the life of the young princess & the circumstances that lead to her succession. Travel
back to Westminster Abbey in 1838 to “witness” the splendour of the Coronation!
• Use personal diary entries to find
out about people, events and
changes over time - Investigate the
use of diary extracts as a source for
historical enquiry.
• Participate in role play.
• Victoria’s Diaries
Historical information comes to us in different forms. Explore the first person
accounts of some of the most momentous occasions in the life of Victoria. Read her
personal diaries & find out what she really thought of people she met & places she
visited!
• Use family trees and timelines to
find out about people, events and
changes over time - Explore Queen
Victoria’s family tree and establish a
timeline of significant dates in her
life.
• Construct an interactive family tree.
• Meet the Royals
Queen Victoria is often called ‘The Grandmother of Europe’. Trace the family tree to
discover her royal pedigree & the appearance of her children & grandchildren in royal
families all over Europe. Create an interactive family tree on the computer.
• Infer information from a portrait
• Draw inferences about the lives of
Queen Victoria’s family from a
portrait
• Say “Cheese”
Show the children a picture of Queen Victoria and her family. Discuss what they think
they can tell from the picture, e.g. status of the family, lifestyle, when the person was
alive.
• Apply experience of materials and
processes, developing control of
tools and techniques.
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What was it like for children living in Victorian Britain?
Make a transcription of a portrait of
Queen Victoria.
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• Portraits up close
Focus on one painting of the royal family to explore the methods and materials used
by the painter. Children recreate the original in sections.
Year Six Creative Learning Journey
The Victorians
Autumn term 2011
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What was it like for children living in Victorian Britain?
What was life like for children in the 1840s?
• to consider what life was like for
• suggest what life was like for
children in the past
children living in the past
• The Royal Children
What might life have been like for Victoria’s children? How do we know?
• Use a range of sources to find out
about people, events and changes
over time - Investigate the location
and features of significant royal
residences in Victorian England.
• Pamphlets identify key features of
each of the royal residences.
• The Queen In Residence
Victoria & Albert lived in many magnificent royal houses. Take a virtual tour of their
favourite country homes & discover how the royal family really lived. Create
pamphlets & slideshows to promote the royal residences as “must-see” tourist
destinations.
• Understand that artefacts give us
important clues about the past.
• Identify the main features of the
homes of wealthy Victorians.
• A peek in the doll’s house
Using the internet and the web links (session resource) find examples of Victorian
Dolls houses. What can these tell us about Victorian homes? What features might
they like to include in their class house?
• Investigate the homes of wealthy
Victorians.
• Plans reflect the layout of wealthy
Victorian homes.
• Touring the 1900s house
Take a virtual tour of Linley Sambourne House in London. How does this compare to
modern homes? Compare the layout of Linley Sambourne with Victorian dolls houses
viewed online. Suggest reasons for differences. Work in groups to plan the rooms and
their contents in a class dolls’ house.
• Understand that fashions in
Victorian times were different to
what they are now.
• Designs for décor reflect the
fashions of Victorian times.
• Period details
Take a look at the plan for the whole ‘class house’ created in the previous session.
Work from the ground floor upwards, allowing each group to present their ‘ideas
boards’. Discuss the fashions of the Victorian era using session resource. Turn ideas
board into an artistic impression of the room, planning soft furnishings. Look at the
work of William Morris.
• Find out more about the home of a
wealthy Victorian and how they
lived life within it.
• Models reflect Victorian homes and
match agreed scale.
• Building in miniature
Discuss the use of scale in model making. Use a range of materials and construction
techniques to furnish the rooms.
• to understand that ways of life
differed greatly across Victorian
• Suggest ways in which lives of rich
• The Other side of the coin
Would all children would have had similar experiences? Ask the children to work in
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• Collect visual and other information
to help develop ideas.
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Year Six Creative Learning Journey
The Victorians
Autumn term 2011
society.
What was it like for children living in Victorian Britain?
and poor may differ.
groups and share what they already know about the period and then feed back to the
rest of the class what they think life might have been like for children.
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What was life like for a poor child in the 1840s? (Parallel literacy unit – Street Child)
• Understand how characters are
• Identify devices used to develop
• Meeting Dickens
developed and used to convey
and convey characters.
Introduce Charles Dickens’ work by reading aloud scene from Oliver Twist. Discuss
emotions and themes.
responses to the session resource. Were they shocked? What does the scene tell us
about characters Bill and Nancy? Highlight words that give clues to character, e.g.
savage, strained jaw, startled look. How does dialogue add to understanding of
characters? E.g. Bill speaks in short, aggressive monosyllables. Encourage children to
practice reading parts aloud.
• Evaluate ideas and themes.
• Identify and compare the main
themes in reading.
• Struggle to Survive
Dickens wanted to demonstrate the lack of choices forced on people through
poverty. What can we expect for Oliver, based on the start described in the novel?
Compare to first chapter of Street Child by Berlie Doherty. Describe what Jim’s life is
like, based on clues.
• Respond imaginatively to the text
and identify how characters are
influenced by the setting.
• Identify how characters are
influenced by the setting. Use ideas
in own writing.
• Setting the scene
Read the extract describing Smithfield Market. Imagine working on a market stall.
What would life have been like? Use websites and reference books to find out more.
Hot seat children to find out more.
• Identify and explore how characters
are created.
• Write effective characterisations,
using a broad and varied
vocabulary.
• Good, Bad and Ugly
Read descriptions from the text. What do they tell us about each character? Highlight
descriptive words. Under GOOD and BAD headings, brainstorm some suitable
adjectives. Write a ‘character description’ in style of Dickens.
• Punctuate direct speech correctly.
• Direct speech is correctly
punctuated.
• If They Could Speak
In pairs, draft murder scene based on villain descriptions from the previous session.
Children focus on creating effective dialogue and correct layout/punctuation.
• Use and adapt features and form of
writing drawn from reading to
• Features and form of writing reflect
• Final Instalment
Using Morning Chronicle format (from the session resources), chilren write ‘A Fatal
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• Broaden vocabulary and use in
inventive ways.
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Year Six Creative Learning Journey
The Victorians
Autumn term 2011
What was it like for children living in Victorian Britain?
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develop character, theme, setting
and story.
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• Why were workhouses introduced
and who went there?
• Can compare the lives of Victorian
children with their own.
• Poverty and poor laws
Introduce the ideas behind the Poor laws www.workhouses.org.uk
Children make comparison between the lives of Victorian child and their own using
the session resource and accessing reference books, internet and pictures.
• Consider what life was like living in
a Victorian workhouse.
• Poems reflect key aspects of life in
the workhouse.
• Workhouse woes
Use a range of session resources to find out about life in the workhouse. Imagine
they are workhouse inmates and write a poem, like Workhouse poet, Reynolds,
describing their experiences.
• What jobs did Victorian children do
and why?
• Advert reflects the key roles and
hazards of employ for Victorian
children.
• A World of work
Introduce some of the jobs children did and read ‘The Plight of Climbing Boys’ info
(session resources). Discuss what life was like. Write an advert for a climbing boy,
based on evidence. Would you apply?
• What did it mean to become an
apprentice in Victorian Britain?
• Role play acknowledges
understanding of key issues.
• Signing your life away
In groups and using the prompt card (session resource), read through details and
allocate parts. What reasons might a child have for not wanting to be apprenticed?
Create an interview between a committee and a child labourer, based on William
Cooper’s interview.
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reading and develop story.
Encounter’ chapter in style of Dickens.
Who helped to improve the lives of Victorian children?
Answer questions about who helped
• Understand that the work of
to improve children’s lives and how.
individuals can change aspects of
society.
• Find out about important figures in
Victorian times.
• The Campaigners
Ask the children what they think needed to be done for Victorian children.
• Following William Cooper’s evidence to MPs, find out about the lives of Victorian
reformers and produce brief biographies, detailing their area and method of
influence.
• Identify the impact of the work of
Dr. Barnardo.
• The History of Barnardo’s
Dr Barnardo created pamphlets in 1870s showing ‘before & after’ photos of children,
following their rescue from the streets. Choose a child from the photo (session
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Year Six Creative Learning Journey
The Victorians
Autumn term 2011
What was it like for children living in Victorian Britain?
resources) and describe how Dr Barnardo helped change the life of this individual.
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• Explore changing attitudes towards
children through Barnardo’s.
• Identify how attitudes have
changed towards children since
Victorian times.
• Barnardo’s Today
Who is the current President of Barnardo’s? If she and Dr Barnardo could get
together what could she tell him about how attitudes to children have changed since
Victorian times and how has his charity developed?
What was it like going to school at the end of the nineteenth century?
• Investigate schooling in the
• Timeline shows major school
Victorian period and the laws that
reforms during the Victorian period.
made education free.
• Time for School
View the BBC film about Victorian schooling. Explore the different school structures
of era, i.e. dame/ ragged/ board/ public schools. Discuss conditions in schools and the
typical pupil for whom each school was established. Look at timeline of reforms:
discuss and record likely impact of reforms for children and their families.
• Use a range of texts and images to
identify reasons for the poor school
attendance of Victorian children.
• Reflect reasons for poor school
attendance in a reply to the school
board attendance officer.
• Poor Attendance
Although reforms made schooling compulsory, attendance was often poor. Read
entries from original school logbooks and compile a list of reasons for children
missing school. Poor attendance records caused concern for School Councils - an
attendance officer chased up absentees. Read ‘official’ letter sent by ‘School Board’
to one such family (session resource). How might the family reply?
• Use a range of texts and images to
identify the layout and contents of a
typical Victorian school/
schoolroom.
• Create an aerial plan of a typical
Victorian schoolroom.
• The Victorian schoolroom
Map an aerial view of a Victorian schoolroom showing layout of desks and other
features. Create a suitable scale for the plan. Add a key. Annotate the aerial view with
facts about school life around the perimeter of the plan.
• Study fiction and non-fiction texts
to identify the Victorian morals and
attitudes that influenced the
behaviour expected of children.
• Behaviour chart reflects Victorian
standards and morals.
• Behaviour and Punishments
Order was enforced through a strict code of behaviour that reflected the morals and
religious values of the day. Explore some proverbs used at time (session resource).
Discuss the attitudes towards children embedded in each proverb. Read extracts
from Charles Dickens (session resources) and online sources to gather details about
behaviours expected of children. Create a ‘Behaviour & Punishment’ chart.
• Explore the daily pattern,
timetables and subjects taught to
• Identify typical subjects taught in
• Lessons and Learning
Education for the poor was designed to equip them for work. View photos of children
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Year Six Creative Learning Journey
The Victorians
Autumn term 2011
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boys and girls at a Victorian school.
sitting in Victorian schoolrooms (session resource) and discuss lessons evident. Use a
range of sources (session resources) to determine types of lessons boys and girls
received. Prepare an ‘Object lesson’ for a senior class (session resource). Use ICT
sources to gather information, write a report and create a poster for class to ‘copy’.
Victorian schools.
• Communicate knowledge and
understanding creatively,
identifying the characteristic
features of the Victorian period.
• Create a dramatic character and
participate in a role-play as a
student in a Victorian school.
• A Schoolroom Experience
Dress for a day in a Victorian schoolroom, assuming role of a student. Participate in
lessons for boys or girls. Recite tables and poems, record answers to arithmetic
exercises from board in pen and ink and complete perfect handwritten work in a
copybook.
• Use Victorian school Logbooks to
locate info about conditions in
Victorian schools.
• Identify some of the issues facing
children attending Victorian
schools.
• School Logbooks
Victorian teachers were required to keep logbooks to record events of the day.
Explore sources to read original and digitalised extracts from logbooks. Make a list of
issues and problems reported in the logbooks. Respond in writing to conditions
reported about life in a Victorian school.
How did different Victorian children use their spare time?
• to consider how attitudes to
• produce advertisements or posters
children and childhood changed
that reflect Victorian attitudes and
over time
values
• Ask the children to use the sources of information to help them produce
advertisements or a poster advertising the benefits of a new toy or pursuit, and
highlighting what they have been told about Victorian attitudes.
• Cut out, assemble and join
components & materials accurately.
• Construct a zoetrope.
• Optical Toys
Victorians also enjoyed optical toys – an illusion of animation. Make a simple
zoetrope (session resources) When the zoetrope is complete, have a go at making a
thaumatrope.
• Make a cam mechanism toy.
• Use a cam mechanism within a
design for a toy.
• Cam Mechanisms
Look at cam mechanisms and gain an understanding of how they work. Look at
examples of Victorian toys that employ cam mechanisms. Design a seasonal toy or
novelty that employs a cam.
• Investigate Victorian seaside
holidays.
• Understand the features of
Victorian seaside holidays.
• Punch and Judy
Discuss the reasons for the boom in seaside holidays. What did Victorians do at the
seaside? A letter written by a young girl who had been to the seaside is available here
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What was it like for children living in Victorian Britain?
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Year Six Creative Learning Journey
The Victorians
Autumn term 2011
What was it like for children living in Victorian Britain?
and provides many clues about what the seaside was like then.
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• Create a replica of a Victorian
puppet based on info gained
through historical enquiry.
• Produce a puppet that reflects the
features of Victorian puppets.
• Putting on a puppet show
Use online sources to research the popular ‘Punch and Judy’ puppets. Construct
individual puppets and use to stage a puppet show for younger classes.
How did life change for children living in Victorian Britain?
• Describe, make links between key
• Understand the reasons for the
events and changes - What is the
growth of the British Empire.
British Empire and how did it
develop?
• The British Empire
Around the Empire in 80 days! Children explore the development of the British
Empire and like Phileas Fogg, a Jules Verne hero, take an imaginary trip - identifying
places and discovering why they became part of the Empire.
• Learn about cultural, religious,
ethnic diversity of society - Explore
what life was like in India during the
British Raj?
• Reflect some of the key aspects of
life during the Raj – for British and
native populations.
• Empress of India
What was Victoria’s ‘jewel in the crown’? Children explore what life was like in India
during the British Raj and discover why India became part of the Empire.
• Recognise that the past can be
represented and interpreted in
different ways - Explore the
experiences of war in the Victorian
period.
• Understand why the Crimean War is
a significant episode in history.
• The Crimean War
Glory and honour? Was this really the experience of soldiers in wars of the Victorian
period? Focussing on the Crimean War, children imagine they are there at the Charge
of the Light Brigade and respond to news reports and poems of the day.
• Explore beliefs and attitudes of men
and women in the past - Explore the
impact Florence Nightingale had on
nursing.
• Know the legacy of Florence
Nightingale.
• The Lady with the Lamp
Who was The Nightingale? Children explore the life and works of Florence
Nightingale through research and recreate key events in her life through role-play.
What impact did she have on the profession of nursing?
• Explore changes in the Victorian
period - Explore Victoria’s
encounters with innovations and
inventions.
• Quiz identifies royal firsts.
• A Book Of Royal Firsts
Queen Victoria was the first monarch to do lots of innovative things! Children explore
her encounters with the innovations and inventions of the Victorian era. They create
a book of Royal Firsts and a Top 10 quiz.
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Year Six Creative Learning Journey
The Victorians
Autumn term 2011
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What was it like for children living in Victorian Britain?
• Find out about people and changes
by asking questions - Identify key
Victorian inventors and research
their work.
• Identify significant inventions from
the Victorian period.
• Introducing the Inventors
A royal invitation – the top 10 inventors of the Victorian age are invited to present
their work to Queen Victoria. Children carry out research to explore the impact these
inventions had on the lives of everyday Victorians.
• Place people and changes into
correct periods of time - Extend
research on inventors and create a
class encyclopaedia.
• Class book reflects and places in
time significant Victorian
inventions.
• Brimming with bright ideas
Through careful consideration of sources, Children create a class book:
‘Encyclopaedia of Victorian Inventors’. Children use ICT tools to carry out research
and present their results in a clear and effective way.
• Find out about past through range
of sources - What was ‘The Great
Exhibition’ and why was it created?
• Posters highlight the diversity of the
British Empire and the reasons for
the Great exhibition.
• The Great Exhibition
‘The grandest spectacle in the world!’ What was The Great Exhibition and why was it
created? Through research of a range of sources Children create posters and an
exhibition catalogue, carefully considering layout and presentation.
The End of an Era
• Explore a range of sources to
compare experiences within the
Victorian era.
• Identify the impact of inventions
and innovations during Victoria’s
reign on Victorian children.
• All change
How did the lives of people change during the 64 years Victoria was on the throne?
Children use a range of historical sources to write a description of the impact
inventions and innovations had on Victoria’s subjects.
• Present key events of Victoria’s
reign as an illustrated timeline.
• Contribute to the class time-line.
• Memories of a memorable monarch
Time to summarise the life of Queen Victoria! Children present what they have
learned about her life, its key events and changes as a large scale-timeline
incorporating pictures and captions.
• Select, organise and communicate
historical knowledge - Recall and
record significant facts, characters
and milestones in the life of Queen
Victoria.
• Can recall significant milestones in
the reign of Queen Victoria.
• The Long and the short of it
Did you know that Victoria was the first person to appear on a postage stamp? Draw
together some interesting & quirky facts about the life of HRH Queen Victoria. Record
some of the events, dates & milestones of her reign in a ‘Victorian board game’!
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Year Six Creative Learning Journey
The Victorians
Autumn term 2011
What was it like for children living in Victorian Britain?
Expectations
Most children will:
Some children will not have made so much progress and will:
Some children will have progressed further and will also:
place the changes in the period within a chronological
framework; make appropriate use of dates and terms;
demonstrate knowledge and understanding about the
everyday lives of children in the Victorian period; show
how some aspects of the period have been interpreted in
different ways; select and combine information from a
range of visual, textbook and documentary sources;
communicate their knowledge and understanding of
changes to children’s lives in Victorian times in organised
and structured ways
recognise some similarities and differences between the
lives of children from different areas of Victorian society; ask
and answer questions about the period by using at least one
source of information
describe reasons for and results of particular events; use
their knowledge and understanding of the Victorian
period to make links with other societies and periods;
select and combine information from a range of sources
to reach substantiated conclusions
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