WARTIME CLASSROOM
KEY STAGE 2
Before your visit o Make sure that adult helpers have a map of the site and the helpers’ notes
(below). They must know the time and location of their teaching session. o Let us know if any of your children have a latex allergy and will be unable to
wear our replica gas masks. Make gas mask boxes if you wish.
o
Explain to the children that this will be a role play session and talk about what to wear and bring on the day (see notes). Tell the children that the wartime
teacher thinks they are evacuees and is very strict. Warn children who might be unsettled by this that it is just pretend, but they should play along. o Have a look at our museum trail on children in the Second World War . You can print and copy it for the children to use if you wish. o Remember to bring payment and your entry ticket with you on the day.
Your session
The Wartime Classroom session lasts either 60 or 90 minutes.The session will include real artefacts from the Second World War, so please no food or drink during the session for children or adults. Teachers can take photographs, but please turn the flash off and be discreet. Filming is not permitted. In the session children will take part in a lesson which includes elements of school life in the 1940s (maths,
English etc.) and preparation for potential air raids and gas attacks. There may be some loud sounds – please let us know if we need to avoid these.
Please note: o If a child becomes distressed in the session, please do whatever is necessary to comfort them – the wartime teacher cannot help without coming out of role, but will not comment on anything that you are doing. o Depending on the wartime teacher, dip pen and ink may be used. Despite what the teacher may say, the ink will wash off and inky hands are inevitable. o Our replica gas masks do NOT contain asbestos, but real masks from the
1940s do – please tell the children that they should never wear a real one.
Learning Objectives o Increasing pupils’ knowledge and understanding of the Second World War – a significant event in British history o Finding out about wartime Britain through role play and real artefacts o Developing a sense of empathy with civilians who experienced bombing, rationing, gas mask drills and other disruptions to their everyday lives
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Key Stage 2: Wartime Classroom

Your visit
Check that you have a map of the site and know the times and locations of your booked activity and lunch.
WARTIME
CLASSROOM
Time:
Lunch
Time:
Location: Teaching Room 5
Walk down the site and turn right at the control tower (pictured).
Keep walking until you pass Wing Co Joe’s café.
Teaching room 5 is just beyond the back of the café, on your left.
A member of museum staff will meet you at the door to Learning
Space 5 at your session time.
Location: Eating Space (or outside if the weather is nice)
AirSpace Hangar. Go through the doors and turn right after the
Polaris nuclear missile.
Follow the path with the dots, at the end go left.
You will see toilets, then the doors to the Eating Space.
Your session
The Wartime Classroom session can be booked for 60 minutes or 90 minutes.The session will take place in one of our teaching rooms and will include real artefacts from the Second World War, so please no food or drink during the session for children or adults.Teachers are welcome to take photographs, but please turn the flash off and be discreet. Filming is not permitted.
In the session children will take part in a lesson which includes some elements of school life in the 1940s (maths, English etc.) and some essential preparation for potential air raids and gas attacks. There may be some loud sounds unless the teacher has informed us that this is not suitable for the class.
Please note: o If a child becomes distressed in the session, please do whatever is necessary to comfort them – we cannot do so without coming out of role. o Depending on the wartime teacher, dip pen and ink may be used. Despite what the teacher may say, the ink will wash off and inky hands are inevitable. o Our replica gas masks do NOT contain asbestos, but real masks from the
1940s do – please tell the children that they should never wear a real one.
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Key Stage 2: Wartime Classroom

Our Second World War roleplay sessions assume that the children have been evacuated with their school at some point during the war. It adds a great deal to the authentic feel of the session if adults and children come in wartime costume (if this is likely to be a problem, school uniform is historically accurate for evacuees) and bring a labelled gas mask box, an identity label and a wartime lunch.
Templates for the gas mask box
and identity label are below.
Lunch items can include bread with jam, honey, beetroot or Marmite; apples, pears, plums, tomatoes or scrubbed carrots; rock cakes made with dried egg, all in a paper or cloth bag. Cheese, meat, chocolate, crisps, bananas and plastic lunch boxes are banned.
Coming in wartime dress need not be an expensive enterprise and can be achieved with just a little effort and imagination!
Ideas for boys
Short trousers, shirt and sweater or sleeveless pullover.
Dark knee length socks, shoes, plimsolls or even wellington boots but
NOT trainers. If possible, a school cap or balaclava.
Ideas for girls
A dress or skirt and blouse with a cardigan. Shoes, plimsolls and short socks. Hats could include hand knitted ones, berets, straw boaters or even balaclavas. Long hair can be tied in plaits. Any items of clothing that are home knit would add to the effect as most adults and children would have worn these.
Ideas for ladies
Any dress worn with an apron and a scarf tied around the head gives an immediate appearance of the wartime housewife. Trousers, dungarees and siren suits
(jumpsuits) could represent those working for the war effort as ammunition workers or Land Army girls. Dark blue, khaki, greens and browns add a wartime feel.
Ideas for men
A dark suit with waistcoat and a hat of some description. A look that can be created quite simply is to represent a member of Civil Defence such as an Air Raid Warden.
Dark blue overalls, boots and an armband worn on the sleeve (initialled ARP) would create an instant impression. Alternatively, and if obtainable, men could always dress as members of one of the armed forces.
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Key Stage 2: Wartime Classroom

Please don’t actually make a gas mask to put in the boxes – the wartime teacher’s horror at finding that they are all empty gives us a chance to hand out a replica to each child.

Measurements are not to scale. The template fits on paper measuring 60 x
53cm (A1).

Use brown card or cover in brown paper. If you are short of time, you could cover a small cardboard box in brown paper rather than starting from scratch.

Glue the back of all four tabs so that they are stuck on the inside of the box.
All tabs 3cm wide (do not glue the top tab)
Stick “packing of respirator” notice here 14cm
10cm
Inside top flap
Inside side
Inside lid
11cm
Inside back
14cm
Inside side 10cm
Inside top flap
11cm Inside bottom 11cm
= hole for string
Inside front
18cm
11cm
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Key Stage 2: Wartime Classroom

Children being evacuated would have been given a label like the one shown here:
You can find this image at http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30083301
To make your labels
Print the template below onto buff or brown card.
Children can fill in their own details (name, school address and date, remembering to avoid including the year).
Cut out and punch a hole so that the label can be attached to the child’s clothing with string on the day of your visit.
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Key Stage 2: Wartime Classroom