Key Stage 2
History | Science
History
History Curriculum links:
- Britain and the wider world in Tudor times
Pre-visit activities
- Pupils make a timeline of events surrounding the Battle of Bosworth to help establish why the Battle is an important event. Pupils could form a human timeline with each individual representing a different character or event or make a cartoon strip of events.
Pupils work in pairs to identify and group the contributory factors that led to the result of the Battle. Pupils each assume a character and argue the case for each side to see if Richard III was robbed of victory or Henry Tudor deserved to win. See if they change their minds after the visit!
- Pupils design a heraldic standard and map it out on graph paper. Discuss the significance of heraldry and make comparisons with items used today, e.g. banners, badges, posters.
- Pupils study a picture of Henry VII. What does it suggest about the kind of person he was?
- Pupils conduct research into the journeys taken by Richard III and Henry Tudor to reach Bosworth and trace these on a map.
- If pupils are participating in a forensics session, ask them to identify questions that have to be asked when evaluating a piece of evidence.
Post-visit activities
- Give pupils two minutes to write down up to three facts that they remember about what they learnt during the visit to Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre and Country Park. Compare the results for the group. Pupils conduct further research into these facts and present them in either written or pictorial form as an entry for a Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre and Country Park guide book.
- Pupils use evidence collected during the visit to make a case for what they feel was the most significant moment during or leading up to the battle that led to victory for Henry Tudor and defeat for Richard III. Extend this activity by writing a character witness statement related to this event. The characters could then be placed on the hot seat and asked the questions by the rest of the group.
- Pupils write a newspaper report or devise a radio or televised news report of the battle focusing on the similarities and differences between Richard’s and Henry’s campaign, tactics used during the battle, the outcome and implications for the future.
- Working in groups, pupils should imagine that they have to interview both leaders before the battle and then the victor after the battle. Pupils should prepare questions for both characters that cover the following periods: before the battle, during the battle and after the battle. Pupils should then role play the characters and answer the questions.
- Pupils use evidence collected during the visit and background research into both Richard III and Henry Tudor, pupils identify what they believe to be the motivations behind each character for their involvement in the Wars of the Roses and the Battle of Bosworth. Select one character and use the evidence collected to write a speech to deliver to their peers.
- If pupils participated in a Living History session, with Routiers de Rouen, split the group into two sides with one group researching the experiences of rich people involved in the Battle of Bosworth and the other examining ordinary soldiers. Pupils should write a piece of text from the perspective of both sides.
- If pupils participated in a Living History session, with Mick the Fletcher, use evidence collected during the visit as well as research into how conditions changed during Tudor times and key events to create a ‘This is Your Life’ style presentation to Mick to mark his retirement!
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Science
Science Curriculum links
- Sc1: Scientific enquiry
- Sc2: Life processes and living things
- Unit 2B: Plants and animals in the local environment
- Unit 4B: Habitats
Pre-visit activities
- When introducing the concept of habitats, create a plan of the school grounds and ask pupils to mark on it different areas e.g. sunny/dry areas, wet/dark areas, sheltered/open areas, wooded areas, water, grass, under rocks. Ask pupils to predict what creatures/plants they might find in the grounds and where they think they might be found.
- Explore the school grounds with pupils to identify where creatures live and plants grow. If you have access to a digital camera it may be worthwhile photographing the findings. Back in the classroom discuss what was found and where and make a brief record of the findings.
- Pupils add to the plan of the school grounds the areas where the creatures/plants were found and compare with the predictions they made at the start of the activity. Draw conclusions about what sort of conditions different creatures live in and why.
- Ask pupils to generate a question related to one of the creatures/plants found on site. Help them decide how to investigate it during the visit and identify the background information that will be needed.
Post-visit activities
- Ask the pupils to recall the differences between plants and animals thinking back to examples found at Bosworth Heritage Centre and Country Park. Ask the pupils to sort them and explain their criteria.
- Pupils examine two creatures found on the visit and draw them, labeling their individual adaptations to their habitat. This can be extended by comparing the creatures with other examples found outside of the local area.
- Design an imaginary animal and identify their adaptations to suit their environment, e.g. live in the water, land based, from a hot or cold climate, live in the jungle or the desert.
- Ask pupils to think about the effect on plants and animals if conditions in a habitat were changed, e.g. trees cut down, building work. Identify the effect of changes to the habitat on some creatures.
- Pupils discuss or write about what they saw, smelt, heard and touched during their visit. Explore what they remember most about the visit. If pupils talk about sounds ask them to identify which were natural sounds and which were made by humans.
- Incorporate scientific terms and evidence collected during the visit into a poem about Bosworth Heritage Centre and Country Park. Pupils should make a list of words associated with the site.
- ‘Home for sale’ - Pupils write adverts selling the homes of creatures found at Bosworth Country Park. Think about the needs of the creature and identify the features of the habitat it would require, e.g. needs to be somewhere secluded, needs to be in water, shouldn’t be near its predators but may want to be near creatures/plants it feeds on, must be in a light/dark space, needs to live in a tree. Create a display of the portfolio of different adverts.
- The Hibernation Game - Can be used to reinforce learning about habitats and changing environmental conditions.
- Resources required:
- Three bottles the same size
- Hot water
- A thermometer
- Instructions:
Divide the group into three teams and get them each to think of a different animal that hibernates. This is their team name. Give each team a bottle of hot water and take the temperature of each team’s bottle. The children then go outside in to the play ground and select a place to hibernate.
Go back to class and discuss reasons for selecting the different spots. They leave their bottle there and return to the rest of the class. After an hour, they return and collect the bottles. Record the temperatures again and calculate how much heat has been lost. The team that wins is that which has lost the least amount of heat.
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