WW2 activity 3: Organise a WW2 school day

Learning objectives

Increased knowledge and understanding of WW2 Home Front, and what it was like to be at school in WW2.

Curriculum links

KS1-2 History (WW2 Home Front, Local Area Study).
KS1-2 Art, Maths, English (in WW2 school day activities)

Ask different groups of children to plan different parts of the day.

Children should come in WW2 school uniform with gas mask box. These and a cardboard cut-out gas mask could be made at school in advance.

The timetable might include some of the following:

• Gas mask drill (using cardboard cut-out gas masks)
• 1940s style lesson (in rows, rote learning, very strict discipline)
• Ration lunch or WW2 school dinner
• Air Raid drill (and mock raid later in the day to test responses)
• Dig for Victory (plant WW2 allotment in school garden)
• Make do and Mend (learn to knit)
• WW2 toys and games (marbles, spinning tops, skipping games)
• Traditional sweet shop (buy with old pennies and a ration book)

These might include planting a Dig for Victory vegetable plot in your school garden (see Learn with Objects WW2 4: Dig for Victory), cooking with WW2 rations or making a WW2 peppermint sweet (see Learn with Objects WW2 18: Cookery).

Learn with Objects links

Use Learn with Objects WW2 topic 3,4,5,6,16 and 18.