KS1 Topic Title: The Great Fire of London Block D: St Paul´s Cathedral
Session 1 Journey back in time
National
History: Children learn about events beyond living memory that are significant nationally or globally.
Curriculum
Teaching
To find out about the Great Fire of London.
Objectives
National
Art: To use drawing, painting and sculpture to develop and share their ideas, experiences and
imagination; To develop a wide range of art and design techniques in using colour, tone, pattern, texture,
Curriculum
line, shape, form and space.
Teaching
Objectives
Resources
To use drawing and imagination to develop ideas about St Paul´s Cathedral.
Image of Old St Paul´s Cathedral; Instructions
and activity examples; Charcoal art resources.
Weblinks
http://www.explore-stpauls.net/index.htm - Virtual tour of old and new
St Paul´s Cathedral.
Whole class: Lead chn into a visualisation journey. Settle comfortably in your chairs, close your eyes and feel the weight of
your own body. Put your feet flat on the floor and your backs upright; hands can rest gently on your knees. Focus on your
breathing- in and out, you feel relaxed and calm. You are now travelling back in time to the day of the fire. London is filled
with smoke, the sky is red and huge flames reach high up into the clouds. You look around as people are running, panicking
and shouting. The fire is spreading quickly. Some of the brave are throwing buckets of water onto rows of houses. Soldiers
are using hooks to pull down houses to make firebreaks. The wind is howling and the heat is intense. People are running to
the river, hurling their belongings onto boats and watching the shocking scene from the water. In the heart of the chaos,
there lies now only the memory of the grand Cathedral ´St Paul´s´. What was once one of the tallest spires in the world now
lies crumbled on the ground. You will now travel back to class. When you are ready open your eyes. How do you think
people felt on that tragic day? Share responses. Within the area of the fire, no buildings survived. What problems could
that have caused? Thousands of people were made homeless. St Paul´s Cathedral was completely destroyed. Why do you
think St Paul´s Cathedral was important to people? It was at the heart of life in London, not only a spiritual place but also a
place to meet to learn and debate. Using the IWB take chn on a virtual tour of old and new St Paul´s Cathedral (see
weblinks). Compare buildings, what similarities and differences can you see? Discuss general features of the buildings, e.g.
Old St Paul´s has a spire and the new Cathedral has a dome, number of windows, doors and design.
Easy/ Medium/ Hard
Show chn the image of Old St Paul´s on the IWB (session resources). Talk about the patterns and shapes and select chn to
replicate some on the IWB. Show the same image of St Paul´s with a grid over the top so that it is divided into squares
(session resources). Tell chn that they will each be given one of the squares. Using charcoals you will look closely at your
part of the building, copy it exactly and enlarge it onto A4 paper (session resources). You can spray the images with
hairspray afterwards to prevent smudging.
Teacher to focus on the easy group
Ask chn to sit in a horseshoe shape with their pieces of art. Individually your work is abstract (on first glance
Plenary
it does not represent a person, place or thing in the natural world). These are pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. What
might happen If we put all these images together? They would make a picture of St Paul´s Cathedral. As a
class, create the image of St Paul´s and take a photograph to display in class.
Outcomes Children will
 Find out about the Great Fire of London
 Use drawing and imagination to develop their ideas about St Paul´s Cathedral
 Use tone, pattern, line, and shape in charcoal pictures
© Original resource copyright Hamilton Trust, who give permission for it to be adapted as wished by individual users.
We refer you to our warning, at the foot of the block overview, about links to other websites.