London’s burning
Role-play and object handling
© Museum of London 2011
KS1 Fire of London
Contents
National Curriculum links and session description
1
Timetable
2
Practical guidelines
3
Pre-visit and follow-up activities
4-5
Background to the fire
6–7
Gallery plan
8
Planning your journey
9
© Museum of London 2011
Curriculum links
Gallery time
KS1 History & Literacy
You will be allocated 60 minutes of selfdirected time for your pupils to explore the
War, Plague & Fire gallery. This will be
either before or after your session.
The storytelling session and gallery visit
link to unit 5 in the QCA schemes of work
(How do we know about the Great Fire of
London?). Pupils will develop their sense of
chronology, their understanding of the main
events of the fire and the subsequent
rebuilding of London.
The workshop also helps develop literacy
skills in speaking, listening, group
discussion and drama.
Session descriptions
London’s burning
The session lasts for 1 hour. Pupils begin
by examining artefacts, considering what
the objects are made from and what they
tell us about life in 1666.
This is followed by a whole class
dramatisation of the main events of the fire:
Pupils will act flames, people escaping,
bucket chains and blowing up houses to
create fire breaks. Some children will play
characters such as Thomas Faryner (the
baker) Samuel Pepys, Elizabeth Pepys and
their maid Jane.
The role-play involves many easily learnt
songs and rhymes. The dramatisation
finishes with the children imagining they
are sleeping in the fields outside London,
having escaped the fire: they are asked
what they would have saved and how they
would feel, before helping to rebuild St
Paul’s Cathedral.
In addition to the War, Plague & Fire
gallery, you may like to book to show pupils
the model of old St Paul’s in the Medieval
London gallery.
Using the activity sheets
The gallery activity sheets are offered in
word format so that teachers can adapt
them to the needs of their own class. You
will need to photocopy enough for each
group prior to your visit. These activities
are designed to help KS1 pupils search for
information and study the artefacts,
paintings and text, with support from
accompanying adults.
We expect that you will want to split the
class into groups. Each activity takes part
in a different part of the exhibition, so we
suggest each group uses a different
starting point. Adults should also be
encouraged to expand on the questions
within the activity sheets. discuss how
close together the houses were, look at the
model to see how shops had counters
directly onto the pavement.
•
•
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look at the paintings and ask pupils to
imagine the heat, smoke and falling
buildings. How people would have felt?
which hero and villain stories grab their
attention most?
look at the fire hook, hanging from the
ceiling. Discuss why people pulled
houses down to fight the fire.
© Museum of London 2011
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Timetable
London’s burning role-play, object handling and literacy
The session will run once only and at the times stated below so please arrive on time.
There will be schools booked for the other sessions and you will not be able to overrun
your allocated time.
Your group has been allocated ONE of the following session times; please check your
confirmation letter:
Group 1
10am
Arrival
10.30am
London’s Burning session
12pm
Lunch
12.45pm
Visit to War, plague & Fire gallery
Group 2
10am
Arrival
10.20am
Visit to War, Plague & Fire gallery
11.45am
London’s Burning session
1pm
Lunch
Group 3
10.50am
Arrival
11.20am
Visit to War, Plague & Fire gallery
12.30pm
Lunch
1.15pm
London’s Burning session
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Practical guidelines
Arrival, cloakroom and toilets
When you arrive at the Museum please check in and show your confirmation form at the information desk at
the main entrance. You will be directed to the Clore Learning Centre where you will be able to leave your
coats and bags and go to the toilet before entering the galleries. Please do not leave valuables in the
cloakroom area.
Lunch
If you would like to use the Picnic Area, please request this when you make your booking. You will be
allocated a 30 minute slot when you arrive at the Museum. There is no eating or drinking in the galleries, so
please ensure that all food stuffs are left in the cloakroom.
SEN provision
The Museum is fully accessible. Parking is available for SEN groups. Please contact our SEN Officer to
discuss any specific needs on 020 7814 5549 or [email protected]
Shop
The shop sells a variety of books and products to support learning, as well as pocket money items. Please
request a time slot in the shop by calling 0870 444 3850 and quoting your reference number. If you would
prefer, the shop offer a time saving goody bag service at great value. For further details contact the shop by
email [email protected] or call 020 7814 5600.
Photography
Photography during schools session is welcome. You are also welcome to take general photographs within
the Museum galleries, but not close-ups of individual objects. The use of flash or tripods is not permitted.
These images may only be reproduced for personal or educational purposes, which include reproducing the
image as a classroom teaching aid or as part of a school project. Any publication of the image for any
other purpose is forbidden, which includes publication on any website. As an alternative pictures of many
of our key objects are available to download from the Picture Bank on our website,
www.museumoflondon.org.uk/picturebank. Postcards and posters can be purchased from the shop and
prints may be purchased from our on demand print website www.museumoflondonprints.com
Risk assessments
It is the responsibility of the group leader to carry out a risk assessment and teachers are encouraged to
make a planning visit and to carry out their own assessment. The Museum makes regular assessments of
sessions and public spaces for its own use and this document is available on request, but this is only for
teachers’ information and does not constitute an official risk assessment.
Organising your group
Split your class into small groups for working in the galleries and visiting the shop. Please ensure that you
have at least one adult for every six pupils and that the adults accompany them at all times. Please ensure
the children know the following information:
work quietly – other groups and members of the public will be using the Museum
please do not lean on the glass cases
only use pencils in the galleries.
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Visit preparation and pre-visit activities
Pre-visit activities
We highly recommend doing one or more of these three activities before the session.
1.
Use the Great Fire of London KS1 website, designed for a whole class presentation on
an interactive whiteboard, with interactive activities aimed at paired or group work.
www.fireoflondon.org.uk Other websites about the Great Fire of London, include
www.tes.co.uk/greatfire and www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/fire
2.
Go for a walk outside the school and point out the differences between old and new
buildings, such as size, height, materials, design, purpose etc. Compare the size of the
area that was burnt in the Great Fire with the local area.
3.
Discuss what it might have been like to live in Stuart times. How does it compare to life
today? Write a diary entry of what a normal day in Stuart times might have been like
for them.
4.
Look at the extracts from Samuel Pepys’ diary. What things did Pepys try to save from
the fire? Ask the children to think of one thing that they would save if there were a fire.
Ask them to draw a picture of their chosen object and write a description of it. Why
would they save this object?
5.
Even though your visit is concentrating on the Great Fire you may like to include some
brief comments on the plague or english civil war in your teaching before your visit.
There are displays about these two major events in the War, plague & Fire gallery.
Explain to pupils that the Londoners who lived through the Great Fire were only just
recovering from the plague, almost everyone would have lost friends and family to this
disease. Most people would also have experienced the ravages of the civil war.
© Museum of London 2011
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Follow-up activities for the classroom
These activities are designed to apply and extend the knowledge gained from your visit to
Museum of London.
1. In small groups improvise short scenes based on the story of the Great Fire. Rehearse
and perform these for an assembly or use them as the basis for writing.
2. Write a diary extract or an account of your visit to Museum of London.
3. Imagine that you are a Londoner in early Stuart times whose house has just been burnt
down by fire. Write a story describing how you managed to save your favourite object
or describe why you saved that particular object.
4. Create a ‘What we know about the Great Fire of London’ book. Add a contents page
and page numbers.
5. Write a letter to the Museum telling them what you thought of your visit.
6. Make a list of adjectives to describe the Fire of London. Create a class dictionary of all
the new words you have learnt. Use these words to write a poem about the fire.
7. Invite the Fire Brigade to come to your school to talk about their jobs and health and
safety issues. Talk about differences between fire-fighting today and in the past. Ask
children to list fire hazards now and then.
8. Compare pictures of modern and Stuart houses. List the similarities and differences.
9. Look at pictures of furniture made of different materials from different periods in history.
Ask the pupils to sort the furniture into as many categories as possible, for example
old/new, flammable/non-flammable.
10. Design your own family or school fire badge. Remember that it must contain a unique
number and a picture to represent the family or school.
11. Copy or study maps of London before and after the fire. You could also look at maps
of your local area and get the pupils to locate their own homes, school and other
buildings and public areas they know. Now imagine all this needs to be rebuilt, design
your own street map to create your perfect town. Which shops and buildings would go
where?
© Museum of London 2011
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Background to the Fire of London
Introduction
On 2 September 1666 a disastrous fire broke out in the house of Thomas Faryner, a baker
in Pudding Lane, near London Bridge. Four days later, most of the medieval City had
been destroyed with the loss of 13,200 houses, St Paul’s Cathedral, 87 churches and all
the major commercial and municipal buildings.
A number of people wrote diaries of which Samuel Pepys’ is probably the best known. His
diary provides one of the best eye-witness accounts of the Great Fire of London. He
describes the progress of the fire, the measures taken to fight it, and the general scene as
Londoners tried to move their families and goods to safety. Pepys’ account is especially
valuable because it shows the state of mind of Londoners at the time. Pepys was a senior
naval administrator and had a wide range of interests. His famous diary, kept between
1660 and 1669, gives unique insights into contemporary London. Find below several
extracts from his diary that you may want to read with your pupils.
Some interesting quotes
Samuel Pepys’ diary
‘…we were forced to pack up our own goods and prepare for the removal….and I did
remove my money and Iron-chests into my cellar – as thinking that the safest place. And
got my bags of gold ready to carry away, and my chief papers of accounts and my tallies
into a box by themselves.’
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‘About 4 a-clock in the morning, my Lady Batten sent me a cart to carry away all my
money and plate and best things to Sir W Riders at Bennall Greene; which I did, riding
myself in my nightgown in the Cart; and Lord to see how the streets and the highways
crowded with people, running and hiding and getting carts at any rate to fetch away things.
I am eased at my heart to have my treasure so well secured.’
‘…I walked into the town and found Fenchurch Street, Gracious Street and Lombard
Street all in dust. The Exchange a sad sight, nothing standing there, of all the statues or
pillars, but Sir Thomas Gresham’s picture (statue) in the corner…I also did see a poor cat
taken out of a hole in the chimney, joining to the wall of the Exchange, with hair all off the
body, and yet still alive.’
‘Jane called us up, about 3 in the morning, to tell us of a great fire they saw in the City. So
I arose and slipped on my nightgown and went to her window…..but being unused to such
fires as followed, I thought it far enough off, and so went back to bed.’
‘With ones face in the wind you were almost burned with a shower of firedrops – this is
very true – ‘
‘It made me weep to see it. The churches, houses, and all on fire and flaming at once, and
the horrid noise the flames made, and the cracking of houses at their ruin.’
‘…our feet ready to burn, walking through the town among red hot coals.’
John Evelyn’s diary
‘I went towards Islington and Highgate where one might have seen two hundred thousand
people of all ranks and degrees, dispersed and laying along by their heaps of what they
could save from the fire, deploring their loss and ready to perish from hunger and
destitution.’
© Museum of London 2011
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Gallery plan
© Museum of London 2011
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Planning your journey
Museum of London
Free admission
Open
Mon to Sat 10am -5.50pm
Sun 12 - 5.50pm
Last admission 5.30pm
Museum of London
London Wall, London EC2Y 5HN
0870 444 3851
www.musuemoflondon.org.uk
[email protected]
Free travel
All schools within the Greater London area can take advantage of Transport for London’s
School Party Travel Scheme. See www.tfl.gov.uk/schoolparty or call London Underground
Customer Services on 0845 330 9881 for details.
Getting to the Museum
By tube - St Paul’s, Barbican
By rail - Moorgate, Liverpool St, City Thameslink
By bus - 4, 8, 25, 56, 100, 172, 242, 501, 521
Travel by coach
The Museum does not have a coach park. Coaches may stop briefly to drop-off and pick
up at bus stops on London Wall (travelling towards Moorgate) and Aldersgate Street
(travelling towards the Museum). Please note that coaches must move on if requested to
do so by a traffic manager/parking warden.
Cancellation charges
More than 8 weeks
£30
8-4 weeks
£50
Less than 4 weeks
£100
On the day
£150
© Museum of London 2011
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