The Great Fire of London
As part of our Great Fire of London topic, children made houses out of junk modelling which replicated what the houses would have looked like in September 1666.
These were placed on a pallet outside in the playground. Mrs Stahlecker set the scene by asking everyone to put their time travel hats on and travel back to London in September 1666. She explained that in those days, houses were made from wood with thatched roofs and that the streets were very narrow. It had been a long hot summer and everything was very dry. Thomas Farrinor, baker to King Charles II, had an open fire and his maid forgot to put the fire out one evening. A tiny spark leapt out which was to be the beginning of the Great Fire.
We used a lighter to set the cardboard box labelled bakery alight and show the children how quickly the fire would have spread. We talked about how we might have felt if we had been alive then. The children were mesmerised by the event, it really bought the Great Fire of London to life.