ST JOHN’S CE PRIMARY SCHOOL TOPIC OUTLINE
Teacher: Deborah Binns
Y5/6
Term: Summer Term
Topic/focus: What was life
like for children in WW2?
Children’s Prior Knowledge:
Possible questions
Outline of the Unit
Teaching ideas
Cross-curricular links
(To be revised and amended to take into
account children’s ideas)
What do the we understand by the
word "war"? PHSE
Why did WW2 break out in 1939?
(history)
Why was it called a "World War"?
(geography)
How did the war affect the lives of
Literacy
Science –
ICT –
P.E. –
History –
Geography –
Art D&T –
Music –
P.S.C.H.E/P4C –
MFL –
Create mind maps following visit to the IWM, consider the impact of war
on the lives of people, how can they be affected. Why do countries go to
war?
Create pieces of drama on the theme of war, contrasting before and
after, thinking about the impact of war on communities.
Use these ideas to create art to reflect what has been learned about the
impact of war on the lives of children.
Explore the contrast further through poetry, read poems about war and
write poems
Learn about the key events leading up to the war, and think about the
motivation to go to war on both sides. In role debate the views of people
on both sides to consider their perspective. Create speech bubbles to
reflect their viewpoints
Using examples of newspaper extracts from the time make a list of the
countries involved and mark them on map. Introduce the ideas of allied
and axis countries, and examine the way that troops could march through
Europe.
Estimate the distances of all of the countries from UK, create a bar
graph to show this.
Rationing: what did people eat during WW2?
Numeracy
More Able
art
TFL/philosophy
drama, poetry
drama
maths, data handling
food technology, science, healthy
ST JOHN’S CE PRIMARY SCHOOL TOPIC OUTLINE
ordinary people in the UK?
(history)
Consider the effect of shortages of food and other resources, find out
about how people prevented waste, and saved resources. Why were
there shortages? Talk about rationing.
Make some WW2 recipes, talk about how the food shortages affected
diet and health. How could we adapt recipes to avoid rationed products,
investigate, taste, compare and review in biscuits and cake making.
The Blitz: how did the second world war affect people who lived
locally?
Find out about how Manchester was damaged in bombing raids, talk
about why cities were targeted and how people coped. Look at original
footage and newspaper articles.
Drama: a bombing raid
Literacy: imaginative writing in role as a character in a bombing raid.
Newspaper reports about a bombing rain in Manchester.
Evacuees: why were children evacuated?, what was it like to be an
evacuee?
Read some first hand accounts of evacuees. Talk about the impact of
being evacuated and how the children would have felt.
Write diaries and letters home in role describing the experiences of
evacuees.
The Role of Women: how did women's lives change during the war?
Consider the role of women in the war effort, and the changing role of
women in the workplace. Contrast the lives of women pre 1940 to today,
how and why has that change happened?
eating
What is propaganda? (history)
Examine posters and persuasive materials from the time. Pick out the
persuasive features and language.
Make persuasive posters and write a persuasive article encouraging
literary, persuasion
Literacy
Science –
ICT –
P.E. –
History –
Geography –
Art D&T –
Music –
P.S.C.H.E/P4C –
MFL –
Numeracy
More Able
ST JOHN’S CE PRIMARY SCHOOL TOPIC OUTLINE
What were the key events in the
war, how did the war end? (history)
How does war affect the lives of
children in other countries? (PHSE)
What is the Holocaust?
(history/RE PHSE)
What do Jews believe? How do
Jews worship? (RE/PHSE)
What has been done to prevent
another World War?
(PHSE/citizenship)
What materials an be recycled?
Why do we recycle? (science)
Design a product using recycled
materials (D&T)
How did people grow their own
Literacy
Science –
ICT –
P.E. –
History –
Geography –
Art D&T –
Music –
P.S.C.H.E/P4C –
MFL –
people to "make do and mend"/ keep to the "blackout" rules etc
Complete a timeline of the key events, and find out about the main
leaders and how they changed the path of the war
Use the experience of the "Children and War" film from the IWM visit
to consider the impact of war on children's lives. Talk about child
soldiers and refugees. How is war affecting the lives of children today?
Find out about the charity "War Child" and make a small donation
following a class organised fundraising event.
Use the diary of Anne Frank to introduce the plight of the Jews in
WW2. Follow Anne's story and experiences from diary extracts, and
write further entries in role as Anne.
Find out about her life using resource materials and complete a short
biography.
Find out about the Jewish faith, key festivals and history of the religion.
Learn about the effect of WW2 on Jews and what was done afterwards
to address the Holocaust. How has that impacted the middle east today?
Talk about pilgrimages and the idea of "Holy Land" for Jews, Muslims and
Christians and how this has caused religious conflict.
PHSE
literacy, biographies,
autobiographies and diaries
literacy, explanation reports
Children will find out about the role of the United Nations. Design a UN
flag to symbolise the work of the UN.
art
Talk about the impact of rationing and the war on the availability of
resources and the demand for metal for the war effort. How are
materials recycled, look at examples of common waste, which could be
reused? Find out about retail outlets that use recycled materials (eg
drink carton sandwich bag, car tyre bag.
Design a product that used recycled materials.
Talk about the conditions that plants need to grow. If you lived in a city
PHSE, design and technology
Numeracy
More Able
ST JOHN’S CE PRIMARY SCHOOL TOPIC OUTLINE
vegetables? (science)
Explore the theme of war through
dance and music (PE)
Explore and play some common
children's games from the 1940's
(PE)
how could you grow your own vegetables? Find out about fruits/seeds and
how seeds germinate. Plant and grow some vegetables. Find out about
different types of soils and compost.
Children work on pieces of dance to contrast war and peace. Work in
pairs, then join up to rehearse and perform in small groups. Evaluate and
perform.
Teach the children the games, play them and talk about how they
contrast to the games we play today. Should children have more access
to the outdoors, is active play important for health. Why do children not
"play out" as much today.
End of topic assessment
Literacy
Science –
ICT –
P.E. –
History –
Geography –
Art D&T –
Music –
P.S.C.H.E/P4C –
MFL –
Numeracy
More Able
PHSE: healthy living