On Friday it was Victorian day at school. The children got to dress up as a Victorian. I didn't really want to buy something specific for it, so we looked through what we already had, and put together a chimney sweep outfit. We made the brush out of an old broom handle, and used old blind material, which we opened into a circle, and rubbed with charcoal, to blacken it. Then we stuck it on top of the handle with black masking tape.
They had a fantastic day, complete with a Punch and Judy show. Once home the interest that had been sparked carried on.
So a Punch and Judy show was made, complete with paper characters which were attached to pencils. We looked up about Punch and Judy on wikipedia to help with making the characters.
Then we had a puppet show!
We also found a couple of good BBC resources about Victorians BBC Primary History Victorian Britain, contains a lot of written information, covering different topics within Victorian Britain, such as children at play, children at work, leisure, and more. The information is simply and clearly explained and there are some good black and white photos too.
Also this BBC site has some great radio clips we enjoyed listening too. Although it says KS2, we found them perfectly fine and very informative for our children who are KS1. As we had already discussed chimney sweeps, the children enjoyed listening to the clips about Charlie the chimney sweep. We started with the first, which had them hooked, and then they wanted to listen to the other episodes. They are acted out with different voices for the characters, and sound effects and this added to the appeal, and hooked their interest.
We have also been reading
We also have it on audio book, and we find it useful to have both, as the children seem to pick up different things from both formats. The book they dip in and out of, reading different bits at different times, and the audio book they like to sit and listen to while doing something else, like play with lego etc. It would also be good to listen to in the car.
It does cover a lot of history, and appeals to children, as it tells it how its is warts and all. Be warned, some parents however may find it a little bit too much, well it's not called Horrible Histories for nothing. But if it gets children interested, and therefore absorbing information you may have to overcome your own reservations! All I can say is Horrible histories has suddenly got my 7 year old hooked on history, and as far as I'm concerned that can only be a good thing. Our audio book is a combination of Vile Victorians and Terrible Tudors in one box, which I can't find on Amazon now. The Vile Victorians CD audio book they have now is this one.
A friend also recommended a Sparks book – Chimney Charlie, which I can only find on amazon as a collection of three Victorian stories together in one book. It's aimed at KS2, and apparently it is a bit sad, so if you have sensitive children it may not be suitable younger. Then again it's supposed to be a true depiction of Victorian life, which was in real a bit sad, and hard for some.
So that's my outline of what we have been covering about the Victorian period, does anybody else have any other suggestions for books, or resources for this period of history?
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