Lesson Planning Pack

Each pack in this new series contains a set of four videos on a specific topic. Two of the videos are Lesson Starters for use in the classroom, one is a Great Lesson Idea introduced by a teacher and the other is a Teaching Support video, covering professional development related to covering this topic. The pack contains written resources linked to the topic.

Pack Title: History – Impact of WWII

This Lesson Planning Pack for Primary History focuses on bringing history to life. It includes resources developed for teachers and pupils on rationing during WWII.

Lesson Starter 1: History – Food Rationing

This lesson starter provides an introduction to the topic of rationing during the Second World War, using a combination of archive footage and personal stories from people who lived through it. The focus of this lesson starter is food rationing, and particularly how and why food rationing was introduced, and what foods were and weren’t rationed.

The lesson starter will stimulate class discussions about why there were food shortages, how rationing worked, some of the different kinds of food that were rationed (and what that must have been like), as well as what food items weren’t rationed – and why.

Suggested questions to ask to extend the discussion, and relate it to the children’s own experiences:

What other food do you think was rationed and why?
What food items would you miss most if you had lived through World War II and why?
What food do you think would have to be rationed now – and why?
Do you think the diet during World War II was more or less healthy than it is now – and why?

Children can also be encouraged to consider what other kinds of rationing there was during WWII – and how that affected people.

Lesson Pack URL:

Lesson Starter 2: History – Living with Rationing

In this lesson starter, which combines archive with personal recollections of life during World War II, and living with rationing, the focus is on how food rationing impacted on people’s lives, and how they responded. Topics covered in the film are: queuing, the ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign, and the feeling of pulling together and everyone doing their bit.

The lesson starter will stimulate classroom discussion about what it must have been like to go shopping during WWII, what ‘Dig for Victory’ was – and why it was important, and how people responded to the food shortages.

Suggested questions to follow viewing and extend the classroom discussion:

How different was the experience of shopping during WWII to shopping today?
Why do you think people queued for food when they might not have wanted it at that moment in time?
Why do you think the Government was so keen to encourage people to grow their own food?
Why do you think there was such a strong team spirit during the war?

Lesson Pack URL:

Great Lesson Idea – Theatre Boxes

Tracy Anderson’s Year 6 class have been learning about rationing in World War II. Tracy uses Theatre Boxes as a way to draw all the learning together at the end of the topic.

In the lead up to this lesson they’ve researched different forms of rationing, have found or drawn pictures to help illustrate their theatre boxes, and have made characters out of doweling rods. They have also made simple cardboard frames that will be transformed into the theatres during the course of the lesson.

In this lesson, they use these materials to turn their theatre boxes into realistic grocer’s shops, pharmacies, petrol stations, etc. Working in small groups, the children put their theatre boxes together, sticking on backdrops, and creating 3D features such as shop counters, clocks, and signs, and drawing additional details around the frame. They then write short scenes to act out.

An important part of the research process is for each group to find out a ‘secret fact’ to present to the rest of the class during their performance.

Tracy believes that Theatre Boxes is a great way to bring history to life for pupils, and a fun way for her to assess how much they’ve understood about a topic.

You may wish to show ‘Food Rationing’ and ‘Living with Rationing’ prior to this lesson, as part of the children’s research process.

Lesson Pack URL:

Teaching Support - Bringing History to Life

In this Teaching Support Video, three class teachers from Powell’s C of E Primary School in Cirencester share their different strategies for bringing history to life under the headings of chronology, change and consequence, and historical enquiry.

Timelines are a simple but effective way to explore chronology and sequencing. Visual timelines can be particularly useful for looking at a short period of time, such as rationing during the war. Another strategy is for children to draw pictures of themselves at key moments in their lives, to help them understand about sequencing.

Props are another effective way of exploring change, so that children can compare old and new – for example using clothes pegs (which you can also attach to a timeline), or modern gas masks and those used in World War II.

To develop children’s enquiry skills, why not create question and answer boxes for the classroom? At the beginning of the topic, discuss what children would like to find out about. Then ask them to post these questions in the QUESTION box. During the course of the topic, encourage the class to pick questions that they’ll find out the answers to – and these are posted in the ANSWER box. Read these out at different stages during the course of the topic.

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