Mantle 30.3.21
Throughout our topic learning we have discussed the fire and the timeline of key events.  We knew the fire started on a Sunday and burnt until Thursday.  We also know that Samuel Pepys wrote a diary which he started early on.  Today we discussed when the people started to leave in boats and when the houses were pulled down.  This gave us an insight into the timeframe and scale of  how the fire grew and later how it got under control.  In small groups pupils drew pictures to show the week of events.  Year 1 had a reading and ordering task.  

​Mantle – Rebuilding the city
29.3.21
In our mantle story we were summoned to the court of London to meet King Charles II.  Once there we were asked to rebuild the city after the devastating fire and make London great again.  We thought long and hard about the shops and businesses needed in the city.  We knew they did not need coffee shops and fantastic funhouses, but they needed a bakery, a butcher, a candle stick shop, milk from the farmers, shoe and clothes shop and book shops. 
Some people in 1666 could not read or write so we drew pictures on the shop signs to help them.  Once the streets were organised, we build the shops. 
We knew they needed to be built out of bricks, no wood or straw and be build with more space.  

​The fire was out of control!  
 
We found this image of George the junior baker from Pudding Lane.  We all had a close look at this image and realised he looks terrified! We could see flames, sparks shooting out of his oven, his face becoming red and hot, his hand up to keep the fire away.  We think this was the moment the fire began. 
Miss Butler had George's Diary from a Museum.  The paper was burnt and smelt of smoky fire. George had written what he could see.  He saw the cinders in the fire but thought that was okay, so he left them burning.  He saw huge orange and red-hot flames growing and growing.  He felt scared. 
This diary helped us to understand what it must have been like in the fire.  We created freeze frames like George and acted out being their and putting the fire out. 
 

​Mantle of the Expert
The Great Fire of London
Fire Marshalls!
We became really interested in the fact there were no fire engines, no phones to ring 999 and no equipment for the fire fighters to use only small buckets.  When asked pupils assumed they got the water from houses but of course they were on fire! Dominik told us they got water to put out the fire from the sea.  We later discovered this was the River Thames (we saw this on the map)
During discussion times we were thinking about how courageous the people must have been and how unfair it was on them to put out the fire themselves with no equipment.  Children noted that if they were carrying buckets they would have to walk slowly as the are heavy. 
We decided to test this out and put ourselves in their shoes!
Its was hard work! We did lots of shouting, huffing, puffing and got soaked if we ran with the buckets! There was very little water left at the end! 

​Mantle of the Expert
The Great Fire of London
Pupils who attended key worker provision assisted the newly returned pupils with some knowledge of the Great Fire of London.  We went through the working wall which documented our current knowledge of when, where the fore took place.  We continued to discuss how no on body is alive from the Great Fire as it was 350 years ago.  We created a visual timeline for this. 
We all enjoyed looking and researching from our topic books.  We thought and chatted about out values and the people in the fire.  Our initial thoughts were compassion for the poor families who lost their homes and businesses.   
Some children also want to find out more about how the fire started, why it burned down so much, what the firefighters did and where the people went in the boats. 
 

​Link: Health and wellbeing 2
Building on from last weeks discussion about healthy lifestyles, this week we have looked at healthy food choices.  Pupils had food picture cards to organise into ‘treats’ and healthy foods.  Children were clear that fruit and vegetables are healthy but could not say why.  We discussed there being less fat and sugar in these items compared with crisps and chocolate.  We also chatted about vitamins within fruit such as Vitamin C in oranges which help our bodies to fight away colds.  We also recapped on sugar being unhealthy for our teeth.  

Link: Health and wellbeing 1
We discussed how to keep ourselves healthy.  Many children knew about being active and doing exercise along with eating healthy foods such as vegetables and fruit.  When asked about what drinks are healthy, some children said orange juice.  We discussed not being to see sugar in drinks.  Some pupils knew cola and fizzy had lots of sugar and our teeth will go black.  We discussed dental hygiene: how many times per day and how to clean teeth.  As a class we decided milk and water were the healthiest drinks. 
Children practised brushing the germs and sugar off teeth and created posters for heathy eating and drinking water.  Outside children did stretches and exercises in our garden area to help keep fit and active.