Year 2 History – The Great Fire of London

In Year 2, this term, we have had a wonderful time learning all about the Great Fire of London and we know the children have also been teaching their adults at home all about it too! The children have learned about this significant event in British history in many different ways and are now able to recall all the important details. These include:

• Creating a ‘mini London’ to show how it looked before the fire
• Working with a film maker to produce, write and direct their own film 
• Putting together a defence case for the different people who were blamed for starting the fire for a trial in a mock court 
• Writing statements which may have been said by eye witnesses
• Writing a diary entry recounting the first 2 days of the fire
• Redesigning London after the fire in small groups
• Researching about fire fighters and how these have changed over the years
• 2CJ really impressed when they put on a play for KS1 and their parents which retold the events of The Great Fire of London. 

Throughout this topic, the children have been considering how trade informed how people lived in London. They considered the importance of the River Thames, how the fire affected trade and the need to rebuild London as quickly as possible to ensure livelihoods were restored.