Gunnersbury Park Museum
Teachers’ First World War Resource Pack
KS2 Lesson Plan: Princess Mary Christmas Box (60 minutes)
Learning Objective: To increase knowledge and understanding about Princess Mary Christmas
boxes and the tradition of providing “comforts” for troops on active service.
National Curriculum Links:
History
● a local history study
● British History beyond 1066
● methods of historical enquiry
Art
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to improve their mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing, painting and
sculpture with a range of materials
Resources:
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Image of Princess Mary Christmas box from Gunnersbury’s First World War collection
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PowerPoint presentation (includes information on Princess Mary Christmas box)
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Film clip of Major Sadler discussing the Princess Mary Christmas Box
Link: https://youtu.be/gSgz43yMMf4
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Art resources
Key Vocabulary: artefacts, sources, past, present, then, now, compare, contrast
Session overview: The class will find out about Princess Mary’s Christmas box from Gunnersbury’s
First World War collection and create their own gift box based on their findings.
Background: Princess Mary led a national campaign to send Christmas boxes to soldiers, sailors
and nurses who were on active service during Christmas 1914. The boxes contained a variety of
objects: pipe tobacco, cigarettes, vitamin C tablets, chocolate, a khaki writing case and a Christmas
card. The tradition of sending Christmas gifts to servicemen and women at Christmas still continues
today.
5 minutes Introduction:
What is an artefact? Discuss the term with the class and how artefacts can tell us things
about the past.
10 minutes Exploring the artefacts:
Split the class into groups. Each group is to be given an image of Princess Mary’s
Christmas box from Gunnersbury’s First World War collection. They are to discuss:
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What do you think the artefact is?
What clues can you find?
What do you think it was made out of?
Who might have used it?
What does this tell us about life in the First World War?
Each group is to feed back their ideas to the class.
5 minutes
Finding out more:
The class are to find out more about the Christmas box by looking at the PowerPoint
presentation and by watching the following film clip online:
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Major Sadler’s account of the Princess Mary Christmas Box
How did their ideas compare to what they have now found out?
30 minutes Creating a gift box for the troops
Based on Princess Mary’s Christmas box, each student is to create their own gift box
for the soldiers, sailors or nurses on active service.
The class could use a range of techniques and resources. This activity could be done:
● by filling cardboard boxes with their ideas (3D)
● as an information poster
● through collage - using magazines and newspapers
10 minutes Plenary:
Set up the class as an art gallery. Give the pupils the opportunity to display their gift
boxes half the class at a time and ask the class to walk around to view everyone’s art
work, asking questions about the contents.
Extension activities:
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Find out more about how Princess Mary’s tradition has continued at www.uk4u.org - an
organisation set up to send gift boxes to the troops each Christmas
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What would you send to troops today? Has this differed to what was in the boxes from 1914?