Life in Great Britain during World War II

A study of the impact of the Second World War on Great Britain with KS2 students will always provide rich material with which to inspire their young imaginations. The experience of children living at the time, and the great changes they witnessed both in their own lives and those of their parents and families, provides a vast amount of interesting stimuli for work that extends beyond a history study and across the curriculum.

Drama is a wonderful tool with which to bring this key period of the twentieth century to life, and can be used to aid insight into the hardships and challenges faced by people at the time, as well as to teach key facts about the reasons behind the war, Britain’s role in it, and the impact it had on day-to-day life.

This scheme of work offers themed games and exercises that can be used to explore key areas within the topic, and encourages insight into how people may have felt as their worlds were turned upside down by the onset of war. It is written to build skills from lesson to lesson, however it is also easy to dip in and out of should you only wish to use parts of it.

The scheme naturally requires students to develop their speaking, listening and responding skills, and to participate in group discussions and interaction. It has been devised to meet the KS2 drama objectives, and there are extension activities that link to KS2 literacy objectives.

Learning objectives:

By the end of this scheme the students will:

• Understand the key reasons behind Britain’s participation in World War II
• Have a strong grasp of the impact that the war had on the Home Front
• Have experience of using dramatic techniques such as tableaux, pair improvisations and role on the wall to explore characters’ thoughts and feelings, and the reasons behind them
• Have experience of writing in role, and of improvising a short script and committing it to paper
• Be able to evaluate the outcome of in-role exercises, and have experience of sharing their responses to their own work and that of others

Number of Lessons: 4