Follow Lucky the Cat and Samuel Pepys as they tell you their stories of the Great Fire of London.
In this section:
Lucky’s tale… A timeline of the fire
During the fire…
After the fire…
Video Recaps
The following videos compliment Where there’s smoke… They can be used to recap moments of the programme and to stimulate reflection and discussion:
The Mayor could be used to focus discussion on issues of responsibility and fairness with children whereas the soothsayer could set up the action and reinforce the content of the programme. The differences in their costume from today could be highligted and children could be encouraged to describe the character’s imagined settings.
The Mayor
The Soothsayer
Fire
The flames could be used to stimulate the use of descriptive language or as a backdrop to recreating the paper soundscape from the programme.
Paper Inspirations
Paper House
Animated Horse
Alice in Wonderland
Animated Dog
Class Project idea
Paperplay
We’ve found some great activities
This is how you make the Pigeon Wings we use in Where there’s smoke…
First in English…
…and in Hindi…
Here’s the paper canoe
Here’s a paper clapper
Paper Making
Pop-up Card
Teacher in role
Performed by a sole teacher/actor, Where there’s smoke… makes extended use of in-role working. This approach can be relatively easily adapted for the classroom by using the teacher-in-role strategy. This is when a teacher adopts a simple role in order to deepen the children’s understanding of ideas, themes and events, to pass on important information or to set up activities.
Working through role has a number of benefits:
- It is a simple way of opening the door for children to enter into an imaginary world
- It allows any instructions or activities to have the added impetus of the drama behind them
- It allows information to be conveyed in a fun and interesting way
- It can empower children to help, particularly if the character they meet is in need
Often teacher-in-role is used in conjunction with hotseating. This is a drama strategy where the character is activated by taking a seat and the children are required to interrogate them to find out the nature of their story. The hotseat often involves children working in an advisory capacity, offering suggestions to the character to alleviate their situation or to challenge their point of view.
Using both teacher-in-role and hotseating need not be a daunting prospect. You do not need to be the greatest of actors; children will accept the slightest shift in attitude as a sign of going into role. You can reinforce taking on a character by making use of basic costuming, for example saying “When I put in this scarf I am going to become Samuel Pepys’ maid Jane Birch”.
Teacher-in-role works well of there is a driving reason for why you need to talk to the children, perhaps the character is in trouble or under threat. Do your research about what you are going to say, but also be open to responding to comments and questions from the children. Once you get the hang of using teacher-in role, then you can deepen the context by placing children in role as well.
Below are some suggestions that you might like to try out relating to both the Fire of London in general as well as the story of Where there’s smoke…
- Take on the role of Jane Birch, the maid of Samuel Pepys. You have been woken by church bells and have seen the signs of fire of the horizon. It is fast approaching. The master has told you that you must organize to save the household’s most precious and useful things (particularly important if the house burns down and everyone is left homeless) but that there is only one cart that can be used to transport what you have selected. Explain to the children what the house contains and ask them to help you to decide what to save.
- Take on the role of a (tabloid) newspaper editor in 1667; one year after fire has taken place. He wants to write an article revisiting the events of the great fire and wants the children to help him to choose the most memorable moment. He is a hard task master challenging the children to remember the most exciting, dangerous and scary events for his readers. Once they have selected a story, he asks them to help him get the tone of the story right, asking them to suggest the words that convey the excitement, fear etc of the event. He then sends them away to draw the picture that will feature on the front page.
- Take on the role of an impoverished, unrepentant looter and take the hotseat. The children take on the role of other people who have been made homeless by the fire and who have caught him/her stealing from the ruins of a rich man’s house. S/he tries to convince them that s/he has no choice but to loot and that they should consider it themselves as a means not only of survival but also of leveling the gap between rich and poor. The children must decide what to do.
- As a follow on to the Mapping activity (see……) take on the role of King Charles II and ask the children to present their plans to him for the rebuilding of the city of London. The King can ask questions to deepen their engagement with the task such as the materials that should be used, how many people and how long it will take to build, who is to live there etc.
Schools Education and West Midlands Fire Service
Where there’s smoke… can be used as a stimulus for initiating discussions with children about modern day fire safety. West Midlands Fire Service can be a means of supporting these discussions as they provide a variety of activities designed to raise awareness of the dangers of fire, particularly in the home.
The Service has a range of resources available to support pupils from key stage one, these include:
The Big Red Fire Engine activity box (contains four small uniforms and helmets, two jigsaws, three fire safety posters and a photocopiable workbook/colouring book)
- Fire Safety for Early Years pack (contains a photocopiable workbook/colouring book, a storybook, stickers, height chart and poster)
- My book about Firefighters (Activity book aimed at Year 1)
- Help yourself and others (Activity book aimed at Year 1 and 2)
- Fire! Fire! Fire! (Activity book aimed at Year 1 and 2)
Your local Fire Station or Community Relations Officer from one of the local Fire Safety Centres may also be able to visit a class or have a class visit the fire station.
For further information please contact West Midlands Fire Service Educational Advisor Jo Malyon by email: education.team@wmfs.net
Curriculum links and other educational initiatives
According to the recommendations of the recently released Rose Review, the re-designed primary curriculum will place a greater emphasis on key skills and concepts underpinning learning and make more connections between the different subject areas. Where There’s Smoke… supports the notion of a broader school curriculum where pupils not only develop understanding and skills but also become co-constructors in their own learning, participating meaningfully to question, reflect and act on things that have a direct relevance to the real world. The programme also offers opportunities for the whole class to work collaboratively. These attributes are necessary not only for academic attainment but also for the self-fulfillment and development of pupils holistically.
The programme provides opportunities for pupils to engage and develop as:
- Successful Learners who enjoy learning and make progress and achieve
- Confident individuals who are able to lead healthy and fulfilling lives
- Responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society
It also provides a context for the development of:
- Attitudes and attributes
- Skills
- Knowledge and understanding
The outcomes of Where There’s Smoke… support the ‘Every Child Matters’ initiative making a contribution to the ‘Enjoy and achieve’ and ‘Make a positive contribution’ strands by addressing the following priorities:
- Improve access to and take up of broader learning opportunities
- Ensure that children and young people are better able to respond to challenges
- Help children and young people to develop socially and emotionally
- Consult and engage with children and young people
Where There’s Smoke… also links into SEAL (Social & Emotional Aspects of Learning) by supporting children to:
- see things from another’s point of view
- work together
- manage feelings
- problem solve
The programme and activities in this resource pack specifically connect to the Art, Design and technology, History, English, Citizenship, Geography and History curriculums in the following ways:
Art
- Exploring and developing ideas
- Investigating and making art, craft and design
- Investigating the possibilities of a range of materials and processes
- Trying out tools and techniques and applying these to materials and processes, including drawing
English
- Speaking
- Listening
- Group discussion and interaction
- Drama
- Writing
Citizenship
- Developing confidence and responsibility and making the most of their abilities
- Preparing to play an active role as citizens
- Developing good relationships and respecting the differences between people
- Recognising how their behaviour affects other people
- Listening to other people, and play and work cooperatively
Geography
- Asking geographical questions [for example, 'What is it like to live in this place?']
- Recognising how places have become the way they are and how they are changing
- Recognising changes in physical and human features [for example, heavy rain flooding fields].
Design and technology
- Developing, planning and communicating ideas
- Working with tools, equipment, materials and components to make quality products
- Knowledge and understanding of materials and components – learning about the working characteristics of materials [for example, folding paper to make it stiffer, plaiting yarn to make it stronger]
History
- Chronological understanding
- Knowledge and understanding of events, people and changes in the past
- Historical interpretation
- Historical enquiry
Further resources
http://www.fireoflondon.org.uk
This is an extremely comprehensive website that has been created by a partnership of Museum of London, National Archives, National Portrait Gallery, London Metropolitan Archives and London Brigade Museum. The website includes an interactive game that follows a boy who living in London at the time of the fire through a series of simple activities. It also includes a great deal of information about the Great Fire, teaching resources targeted specifically for KS1 and links to other relevant sites.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/famouspeople/standard/pepys/index.shtml
A page that looks at Samuel Pepys for KS1
http://www.pepys.info
Complete Pepys Diary. There is a search box which allows you to search for specific themes and events you may be interested in. You can also key in the dates of the fire.
http://www.poetry4kids.com/modules.php?name=Games&op=display_game&game=WordMagnets
Includes activities and suggestions to help children to create their own poetry
http://ebba.english.ucsb.edu/ballad/21888/xml
This website is the ‘English Broadside Ballad Archive’ site and takes you to a Ballad called: ‘London Mourning in Ashes’ Ballads such as this were written at the time and printed much like our newspapers today. These ‘news’ stories would be sung to well known tunes (the closest tune that still exists today would be something like ‘Green sleeves’) Samuel Pepys was a well known collector of Broadside Ballads.
Programme Outline
The programme begins in the classroom where the children meet a storyteller who talks to them about 1666 when our story is set, the city of London and how life was very different then. They meet a ‘soothsayer’ (a pre-recorded character who they watch on a DVD which ideally needs to be played through the IWB) and she foresees what the future holds for the people of London. She tells them about a child Al and their cat who are good friends – they have been separated and need the children’s help. The children are then led to the hall.
When they enter the hall the children see a make shift tent set up next to a cart. The children sit down and are invited to consider who might be living here and why. They soon meet Al who is 10 years old and the central character to the story. Al is wary of them at first as s/he thinks they are going to steal the precious objects s/he has collected from the fire. However soon s/he confides in the children that s/he has lost her cat, Lucky during the fire and asks for their help in finding her. In order to discover where Lucky might be, Al decides to revisit with the children all the places s/he has spent time with Lucky, starting with Pudding Lane.
The children travel to Thomas Farrinor’s bakery on the day that Al and Lucky first met. They are quickly en-roled as Al to experience life as an apprentice under the instruction of Thomas Farrinor – they carry out various jobs around the bakery and help to design a celebration cake for the return of the King to London after the plague. The children then follow in Al’s footsteps as the bakery catches fire. They become the buildings on Pudding Lane, they watch as paper puppets enact the escape of the baker and his family and they see paper chains of people unfurled to represent the number of residents made homeless by the fire.
As the fire worsens Al and Lucky lead the children to the Mayor’s house where they watch the Mayor on DVD dismiss the fire. With no-one taking action Al and Lucky are forced to flee to the river Thames where they attempt to escape by boat. The children watch as this is played out using miniature paper puppets and see Al overlooked by the boatman in favour of Samuel Pepys and his pocket full of silver. After this Al and Lucky are left with no choice but to return to the burning city and the children create a soundtrack of the fire using paper. They create a bucket chain and attempt to quell the fire and watch as the storyteller puppets the pulling down of buildings with fire hooks to create fire breaks.
A plan is hatched to pull down the wigmaker’s house to stop the fire spreading further and the children again follow Al and Lucky there. They are met by the indignant wigmaker him/herself who refuses to allow them permission to demolish his/her house unless it is with an order from the King. The children travel to the palace and are guided by Al through the kitchens (which s/he knows from his/her deliveries of bread and cakes to the royal household) into the throne room where they confront the King himself. After convincing him of the scale and significance of the fire, the King issues the orders for the pulling down of houses to take place. The children return with Al to the wigmaker’s house and pull it down. The King arrives shortly afterwards and congratulates them on their bravery and informs them that gunpowder has replaced the use of fire hooks and that they need to take cover.
The children then hear from the storyteller that the fire has finally stopped burning, but that in the chaos, Al and Lucky have been separated. They travel up to the fields full of tents where the story started and imagine what they would take with them if they had to leave their homes. They meet Al once again and revisit all the locations in the story in an attempt to locate the still missing Lucky. The children identify the moment where Lucky disappeared and help Al to find his/her cat. As Al and Lucky are reunited the children are left to think about what the new city of London might look like.
Aim & Outcomes
Aim
Using dynamic participatory theatre and paper play, Where There’s Smoke enables children to understand the significance of the great fire of London.
Outcomes
The programme:
- Allows children to develop an understanding of the scale and impact of the fire.
- Enables children to make a personal connection to the sense of loss which is engendered by a great disaster.
- Supports children in considering questions of responsibility and fairness in relation to the Fire of London.
