Bonfire Night and Poppy Day

Outstanding KS1 lessons on Bonfire Night and Poppy Day

Designed to cover the significant  commemorative events of the new 2014 KS1 history curriculum these two topics are fully covered here with a range of outstanding lessons appropriate for both Year 1 and  Year 2 pupils.

Bonfire Night lessons look not only at the Gunpowder plot through sequencing and drama, they also look at people’s memories of Guy Fawkes’ Night within living memory.

Poppy Day outstanding lessons take a sensitive topic of Remembrance Day and make it comprehensible to young children through colourful images, simple text, personal stories and high-quality fiction linked to artefacts.

How will your school commemorate the end of World War One in 2018?

This short advice sheet invites schools to consider how they will commemorate the centenary of armistice day and provides an illustrated PowerPoint presentation offering 8 attractive ideas to set you thinking. This supports two outstanding lessons that feature on the website: What do we...

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The Gunpowder Plot: Prove it using a gallery of images

This skilfully differentiated lesson places pupils in the role of detectives that have to find evidence to back up statements that have been made about the Gunpowder plot.  They are given responsibility for a range of statements carefully matched to their learning needs.  They work...

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Bonfire Night when Granny was a girl: Smart Task

These activities have been designed for the new 2014 history curriculum, covering the past within living memory and commemorative events. The three PowerPoint presentations, including copyrighted images of the 1950s and early 60s from Mary Evans picture library give children a flavour of a familiar event...

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What do we remember on Poppy Day / Remembrance Day?

This session revolves around a PowerPoint presentation which poses 6 significant questions, each designed to encourage pupils to think and to share their knowledge and understanding of this annual event.

Question 1

Who and what do we remember on Poppy Day? Show PowerPoint slide 2 which shows poppies...

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Using drama to teach the Gunpowder Plot at KS1: a big hat, a lantern and a sleeping guard

You may choose to use drama for any number of reasons. You might simply want to recap the story.  Perhaps your aim is to deepen children’s understanding of the plotters’ motivation.  You might merely want to illustrate the real tension of the period.  Whichever reason...

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Teaching the Gunpowder Plot to Key Stage 1

Ever since the Gunpowder Plot was included in the Programme of Study for Key Stage 1, there have been howls of protest from infant teachers who protest that it is futile trying to teach KS1 pupils the motivation behind Guy Fawkes' actions.  Whilst I do...

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Poppy Day: what are memories?

This is the first session on Remembrance Day.   It uses the excellent story of  Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge as a way of exploring children's understanding of memories.   From the general concept we then move to the particular, that is Poppy Day. The link is far...

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Gunpowder Plot – Key Stage 1

If you are teaching about Bonfire night, Guy Fawkes or the Gunpowder Plot you will find the planning advice and fully resourced Outstanding Lessons provided here of particular value.  The first lesson is called A moving story.  Pupils hear the story of the Gunpowder Plot...

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Gunpowder Plot Smart Task: Dear producer

Over the last few sessions, the children have become familiar with the story of the Gunpowder Plot using a range of strategies from ‘A moving story' and 'Prove it!' (see Outstanding Lessons), to role playing the arrest of Guy Fawkes (Smart Task). They are now...

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Remembrance Day: Key Stage 1

In this section of the site, a lesson and an interactive  presentation are featured.  The first Outstanding Lesson looks at the question: "What are memories and which things do we all remember at different times of year?"  It focuses on the concept of memory using...

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The Gunpowder Plot : a moving story

This is an account of a lesson taught by Sarah Duck, now a Leading Primary Teacher. She combined high quality story telling with drama to ensure that all children in the class had a clear sense of the sequence of events in the lead up...

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