Great Fire of London Year 2 Planning Sequence

This is a three-week sequence, using the planning from the Literacy Tree website, for The Great Fire of London by Emma Adams and James Weston Lewis, in which the children explore London in the present and the past, through the story of the great fire. Children compare the London of today and the London of 1666, using past and present tense. A sense of audience and purpose is heightened as children write a spiel for a tourism event and write a blurb for the Museum of London’s Great Fire exhibit. They explore the cause of the fire and create warning posters in role as King Charles II. Drama is used throughout to explore the experiences of Londoners during the fire and children create speech bubbles and diary entries. Children also role play being in the King’s Council and make speeches giving King Charles II advice on what to do to combat the fire. Children also write certificates to give out to brave Londoners in a royal ceremony. The class will create their own mini–London Museum in class to publish and display their work. Smart Notebook slides for each lesson are provided along with lesson resources where necessary. A picture of the working wall display I did is included for ideas. Grammar skills are taught throughout this sequence including sentence types, tense, suffixes and time adverbials. It is advisable to have the planning from Literacy Tree.