Shropshire Routes to Roots

7. Ideas and Resources for teachers

National Curriculum

The Children in wartime theme fits in with the National Curriculum at Key Stage 2, 'Britain since 1930' and with Key Stage 3, 'A world study after 1900'. In relation to the DFES Schemes of Work, it supports Key Stage 2, Unit 9: 'What was it like for children in the Second World War?' and Key Stage 3, Unit 18: 'Hot war, cold war why did the major twentieth-century conflicts affect so many people?'.

Worksheets for Key Stage Two

The following worksheets offer simple ways of using the material in the classroom. All the pages are 'printer-friendly', meaning they can be easily distributed to a class in paper form, without distracting links or logos.

• How did people protect themselves? (Opens in a new window). Pupils look at the different ways people protected themselves, and decide what each method would have protected them against.
• How did the war affect different people? (Opens in a new window). Pupils look at source documents and posters to carry out a complete-the-blanks exercise. The images below all contain the words, or hints at words, which must be filled in. Print and distribute these images, or look at them on a whiteboard or computer. All the images open in a new window:
  
  1. Thank-you Mrs. Ruggles
  2. Arrangements for householders
  3. Register now for meat
  4. Recycling aluminium pans
  5. Plough now!
  6. Harvest in the woodlands
  7. Air raids
  8. Building an air-raid shelter
  9. Have you got a gas mask?
  10. Impressions of life in the country
  11. Liverpool parents' day out
• Write an evacuee's diary (Opens in a new window). Pupils write a diary describing life as an evacuee.

Approaches

In addition to using the prepared worksheets, you may like to develop your own lessons. You may find the following of particular use:

• Collections of images. The list relating to the worksheet above gives a good overview, but there are many more images in the World Wars package which may be of use.
• The Glossary (Opens in a new window) of difficult words and terms.
• The World Wars Timeline (Opens in a new window), which lists the major national, international and local events of the World Wars.
• Other themes in the World Wars learning package, particularly the A family at war and Remembrance themes.

Further information

The Schools Library Service holds a wealth of literature and audio-visual materials on the World Wars. You will find a summary of the information they have on the Resources held by the Schools Library Service page (Opens in a new window).

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