Clare28

BritainSince1930 (change title)

Key:GeographyDTLiteracyMathsArtScienceICTHistory

SESSIONS 1and2

Settingthe Scene: Europe Then And Now and the Rise of the Nazis

(Start Reading AnnFranks Diary and War Game as end of day story!)

Take alook at a map of Europe today in an Atlas, how many countries canchn name? Make a list on the f/c. Which have they been to? What dothey know about these countries already? Briefly discuss theEuropean Union, which has bought many of the European Countriestogether in peace so that they can trade with each other. Tell thechn that the map of modern Europe is very different to the map ofEurope during World War II. Take a look at the map of modern Europeat BBC Modern Europeand abrief look at the WWII maps on the same page (the chn will befinding out in much more detail about these changes as the topicprogresses.)

Take atrip back in time. Create a simple timeline showing 19072007. 100years, a century! Mark the years that the chn were born in thecorrect place & then discuss some examples of parents &grandparents. Mark 1918 on the line & tell them that this was theyear that the 1^st World War ended, on Armistice Day(11^th November, 1918). Highlight that this is the daythat we remember all those that have died in ALL wars & we wear ourpoppies. There are just a handful of veterans alive today,all over 100 years old! 13 million people died in WWI yet just 21years later WWII started! Why? Share the Rise of the Nazis(session resource) pausing to discuss issues & answerquestions. Pay particular attention to the emotions & feelings ofdifferent people at the time Hitler, German people, KaiserWeimar, people of Austria/Poland, etc

SESSIONS 3 AND4

AdolfHitler and the Nazis

AdolfHitler had a hard life, he was often beaten by his father & hismother died while he was quite young. He had plans to be a greatartist when he left school at 16, but he was not accepted for artcollege. Share his biography (session resource) & the events thatshaped his life. How does his childhood shape what follows in hisadult life? At what point does Adolph become popular? givenfive years but released after months! Discuss Mein Kampf & how itwas like a mixture of autobiography, diary & his personal views.Discuss the six translations from the book, what do they mean? Dochn feel that he always had a plan for when he came to power? Whatwas it about Germany & its people at the time that made them soreceptive to Hitlers views? Discuss his views about some races ofpeople being better than others. What do chn make of this view?Discuss briefly his views on Arian race - are chn in the class withblonde hair & blue eyes superior to other members of theclass?

Revisethe life of Adolf Hitler look at the chns Zigzag timelines showingthe events leading to WWII (Session 2). Explain that between twowars Europe was in the middle of a recession. During the warfactories were at full production to keep the war effort going &governments spent huge sums of money. After the war ended thefactories slowed production, governments had to save money & manysoldiers lucky enough to return home found that they no longer hadjobs. Discuss unemployment & times of hardship; Hitler himselflived on the streets for a number of years! Times were particularlyhard in Germany as it was paying money to other countries & had itsarmy cut back. How might all of these factors make Adolf & hisviews popular nationalism, he wanted Germany to be strong &proud once more. As Hitlers National Party and later the Nazisbecame more powerful better times followed, he stopped payments toother countries, increased the army & (in his eyes) gave Germansthe people to blame for the bad times they faced theJews!

SESSIONS 5 AND6

OurLocal Area before the War/ British Leaders Chamberlain andChurchill

(JarrowMarch)

Look atthe Jarrow March. In the year 1936 thousands of people lost theirjobs because their ship building industry was closed down. 6000people lost their jobs. The workers marched 450km(look at maps and locate..) from Jarrow to London so they could speak to the PrimeMinister at 10 Downing Street to ask for their jobsback.
Make banners likethe ones the workers would have carried on their march. Theysaid:

      "Wewant our jobs back"

      "Jobsback or we'll crack"

      "Weneed money to feed our family"

      "Jobsor war"

andmany more.

In 1930'sunemployment was very high. Make graphs to show unemployment in 1930. 1933 had the highestunemployment at 5 million people.

While working listento music from the 1930's. ICTDATABASES LINK

Theoutbreak of WWII certainly changed life at home but how did itstart so soon after the death & destruction of WW1? , Hitler & hisNazi party came to power & voiced the clear intention to extendGermanys borders.LocateGermany on a map & the Czech & Slovak Republics (point out thatthey were once a single country called Czechoslovakia).At the time in Czechoslovakia there were many German people livingtogether who wanted the area were they lived Sudetenland to beGerman controlled, however laws passed after WWI meant this was notpossible! In 1938 Germany invaded Austria & it was thought thatSudetenland would be next. Many countries were stillrecoveringfrom WWI A whole generation had been lost. Discuss whatthis means. It was time to talk peace.NevilleChamberlain,Britains Prime Minister was sent to Munich. Look at overview ofthe Munich Agreement (session resource).

HowWinston Churchill came to be Prime Minister of Britain during WWII.During this time some of the most famous speeches by PrimeMinisters were given. Listen to three: 1, The MunichAgreement Audio; 2, Thedeclaration of War Audio; 3,Beaches Audio. Radio broadcasts &newspapers would have been the most common way to stay in touchwith events during the war, very few people would have hadtelevisions. Can chndistinguish between the three speeches? -Different style ofspeakers. How would each of the speeches have been received?What would the mood of the country have been like after each?Highlight the differences between Churchill & Chamberlain? WasChurchill the war monger? Was Chamberlain foolish to trustHitler? Discuss the issues surrounding these key characters.Pose questions about Winston Churchill. What do we know about himalready? What would we like to find out?

SESSIONS 7 AND8

BritishForces: Joining up and Military Equipment

Betweenthe wars the number of people serving in the armed forcesfell. Why? Discuss how people join the armed forces today,volunteers for regular or reserve forces. As WWII startedvolunteers were requested and many did. Share the real lifeaccount of a soldier volunteering to join theArmy:http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/15/a2082115.shtmlDiscussthe issues raised. Would they volunteer? Explain that manycountries at the time had (some countries still do!)conscription. How would chn feel about being forced to jointhe armed forces! Discuss the background behind & build up toconscription during WWII (sessionresource). Discussthe fact that some people didnt want to fight they were knownas ConscientiousObjectors, theywould need to give good reasons why they were unable or unwillingto fight. Take a look at this real life example http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/52/a4435652.shtml. Makeposters to persuadepeopleto support the war effort.

Remind chnthat during WWII the majority of men were fighting and so the VERYimportant jobs were carried out by women. Many worked in factoriesto supply the war effort, everything from pots and pans toparachutes. World War II made more use of equipment than any otherwar in history, so factories at home had to keep up production.WWII was known as the Total War as everyone was involved. Onefamous factory was the Aycliffe Royal Ordnance Factory wherebullets were made, 17,000 workers completed the dangerous but vitaltask of filling bullets with gun powder. They became known as theAycliffe Angels. Take a look at their site at http://www.aycliffeangels.org.uk/. Using(suggested websites) take a look at black and white filmsshowing life on the Home Front. Discuss how factory work changedthe way that many women dressed, trousers became fashionable alongwith hair tied back with a scarf why might this be?

SESSIONS 9 AND10

PeopleBack Home: Impact on men women and children: Jobs etc/Cooking UnderRationing

DuringWWII, life at home in Britain was hard. Men (and some women) weresent to fight & many women worked in factories, farms and in otherimportant roles. Remind chn of the equipment (studied in previoussession) which was crucial to war so factories were needed to help,e.g. a clothes factory would have started to make uniforms orparachutes. Ask chn to think about where many of the things thatthey buy come from. Discuss how many items were and still areimported. Tell chn that during WWII, many ships bringingsupplies to Britain were attacked by German U-Boats (submarines) &so supplies never arrived! Clothing & food were in short supply, sosomething had to be done. Discuss introduction of rationing usingsession resource. Tell chn that Make do and Mend became apopular catchphrase - what does it mean? Describe how manyingenious ideas were introd to carry on life as normal, e.g.gravy/tea was used on legs to give the impression that you werestill wearing stockings!

Wouldchildren have survived without sweets for a month? Which foodswould they miss the most? As the war progressed more and more itemswere rationed. People were encouraged to grow or catchtheir own food. Dig for Victory was a campaign aimed at drivingpeople to grown own veg, which could be added to rationed foods(see poster - session resource). Remind chn that at start ofwar, farmers were not conscripted into the army but as itprogressed young farmers joined the Army and the Womens Land Armywas set up to work the land & provide food to feed the nation. Hearthe account of Mrs. Aldous, a land girl of the time:http://caber.open.ac.uk/schools/stanway/landarmy2.html.They worked long and hard in the fields for about 4p anhour! Itsargued that people ate very healthily through the war: people ateless, fattening sugar was in short supply, and people grew & atetheir own healthy vegetables. But how tasty was it?Maths:Measuring Quantities of rationed foods

SESSIONS 11 and12

(SEAL LINK: NEW BEGINNINGS)

Evacuees parcel andEvacuees Arrival

WWIIchanged the lives of men & women, but it also changed the lives ofchn. By end of war 13 million chn across Europe were left withoutparents. Even before the war started the government had made plansto evacuate chn from the towns that they expected Hitler toattack. Discuss the evacuation of chn using session resourcebefore watching BBC Evacuation Movie to find outmore. Place the parcel in front of chn and unwrap it. Discuss eachof the objects inside, what personal item would they have packed?Tell them that they would have also carried their own gas mask atall times just in case! Provide each child with a piece of cardpunched with a hole & a piece of string. Tell each child to writetheir name & address on it before hanging it around their neck. Askchn to imagine that they are saying goodbye to their parents andfile them out of the room to a large space (school hall). When youarrive send pairs of chn to different spaces & ask them to reflecton what the experience must have been like. Watch thebeginning sequence of Goodnight Mr Tom DVD.

Life forevacuated chn would be very different from what they would havebeen familiar with. Even the words they used and accent they hadwould have been different. Explain that at the time chn would havetravelled much less than chn today no flights on holidays or longcar journeys some chn may have never left the city. Take a lookat an image of a city in the 1940s & compare this to a rural scene(session resource). Discuss the differences? What might theevacuees have first noticed about their new place to live? Sharethe story of Scott Bannister, an evacuee who was sent from Glasgowto a very small village on the coast. As you read the real lifeaccount downloaded from http://www.war-experience.org/education/evacuation/bannister.aspask chn tomake notes about some of the things that Scott was surprised by first ever car ride, the space. Discuss how Scotts time onthe farm was an adventure. Other chn were not as lucky and may havehad to spend time working rather than playing Make a list of jobsthat might need doing on a farm, including all the messyones!

SESSIONS 13 and14

BombShelters and Bomb Shelter Models:

Recap theevents leading to the battle of Britain using (sessionresource). The bombing threat to Britain was real & expected sothe government worked hard to protect the people by creatingvarious types of Air Raid shelters so that when the bombers came(often at night) the people could move to their shelters when theyheard the siren. Listen to the siren at Siren Sound Audio.Tell chnthat this sound became a part of everyday life in wartime Britain,as was life in the shelters. Take a look at the posterhttp://www.portcities.org.uk/london/upload/img_400/H2849.jpgto see theadvice given by local councils to help protect the people. Manypeople were able to buy, build or make their own shelters forthemselves & their families.Therewere three alternatives for Air Raid shelters during WWII. TheAnderson shelter, the Morrison Shelter and Public brick-builtshelters - each designed and made from materials to protect thoseinside.

more than 41 millioncivilians lost their lives during WWII. In Britain alone there were67,800 deaths, in Germany there were 1,840,000, as the heavybombing of cities continued. Many cities were targeted in anattempt to harm the war effort of that country industrialtowns with their factories, ports, military towns & capital citieswere all heavily bombed. Discuss possible reasons for targetingeach. Ask chn to imagine daily bombing raids fearing that yourhouse & family would take the next direct hit. Share Life duringthe Blitz poem at http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/39/a1125839.shtmlbefore watching the BBC Animation The Bombers and the Bombed Discuss the similarities between thetwo cities, a shared experience for Britons AND Germans. Discusshow generals hoped that bombing of cities would lower themorale (look this word up in the dictionary) of the peoplebelow. Return to idea of shelters helping to protect people fromthe exploding bombs. Researchand Make Shelters

SESSIONS 15 and16

The Endof the War: Europe and Concentration Camps and How Britainrecovered

With theliberation of Europe came a horrific discovery: Hitlers Nazis hadset up several concentration camps where mainly Jews (but alsopeople such as gipsies and other non-Aryan races) were heldin the most appalling conditions and tortured, starved and gassedto death. Millions of Jews died in this way during the war and whenthe concentration camps were first discovered, thousands andthousands of people were found barely alive, often too ill to besaved. If appropriate show/read some accounts of what was found(see web list). Can chn think of other times and places inhistory where similar genocide has occurred? Rwanda, Bosnia,Cambodia. Explain how as the Nazis realised they were going to losethe war, many camps were destroyed in order to conceal theevidence. What must it have been like for the soldiers who madethese discoveries? Do chn know what happened to Hitler? Heretreated to a bunker under the city of Berlin and when he realisedhe was defeated, he committed suicide. Was this the best way for itto have ended? CollectImages from the internet in order to create posters.

Ask chn tothink of a typical week with their family: mum and/or dad go towork, they go to sch, eat meals, play with friends, wash, cook,shop, watch TV, travel, read. etc. Now get them to imagine livingin France in 1945 having just been liberated. Could they justresume their normal lives? Why not? Discuss what sorts of thingsare needed to in order for people to get back on with their lives:re-building of homes, repairing roads, preparing the land to growcrops/animals, opening up factories, repairing phone lines andother communications, re-uniting families. Discuss widerimplications such as fewer men (so many had been killed), delay inmany soldiers coming home as they were needed to help in countriesthey had liberated, the fact many women who did the mens jobsduring the war were expected to stop, the need for training, no. ofrefugees, unemployment as arms factories, etc, no longer needed insuch large numbers, rationing continuing till 1952. Plus thecountries that had won the war had to decide what to do aboutGermany and the Nazis! BUT people were free, families werere-united, savings could now be used (peoples spending had beenrestricted during the war), re-building meant improved conditionsfor some, people could get back to normality.CreatingPosters How the War Ended

TOPIC

EXTENSION

Look atartists linking into nexttopic:

1.    HenryMoore

2.   NormanCornish

3.   TomMcGuinness