Our Town in The Past

Local History Key Stage 2
A 2 hour session for one class of KS2 pupils, exploring what life was like in the past in Gosport, using real objects and documents.

Organisation

During this session you will need to divide into four groups, with an adult with each group. When doing group work the session leader will oversee the session but adult helpers will ‘lead’ each individual group. We suggest a minimum of four adults for this visit.

It is useful if your pupils are wearing name stickers.

This session supports QCA History Unit 18 and National Curriculum KS 2 Local History Study.

Session objectives

To explore what life was like in the past in Gosport, using real objects and documents, including:

• Examining the characteristic features of objects that might have been used by people living in Gosport in the past, using real museum collections
• Using original 19^th Century and modern maps to explore how the town has changed over time
• Discovering what photographs and pictures reveal about how life has changed in the area
• Investigating historical documents to find out about someone who lived in Gosport

Session Plan

Introduction

Welcome to the session, handling guidelines, facilities and Health & Safety issues discussed. Purpose of visit explained. Set ‘Detective Challenge’ to interrogate different aspects of Gosport’s past, and explain that they will be presenting their findings to everyone at the end of the session.

Using ‘Can you find…?’ Cards, Children are given 15 minutes to look around the museum.

Children then divide into 4 groups (pre-determined by teacher). Each group will be given one particular part of Gosport’s past to focus on. Each group will then rotate around four activities:

Activities

In Touch With The Past
Children will handle real objects from Gosport’s past e.g. bricks, domestic iron, and think about the local people who might have made or used them. Each child is invited to select an object, undertake an observational drawing in their detective notebook, and complete some questions (can be completed at school if time is short).

Picture This
The group are given photographs and pictures of the local area and asked to sort them into themes e.g. shopping, transport, streets. Pupils select a photo they like and work in pairs to think about their photo’s using a work card. If there is time, the pairs can report back to the rest of their group about what they think their pictures can reveal about past life in the area.

A Gosport Life
Using a selection of original documents, pupils investigate what records can tell us about the life of previous Victorian Gosport resident, Miss Elsie Snape.

Mapping the Changes
Looking at 19th century and modern maps, students will identify changes in the town over recent centuries. They will search for similar buildings and features on the maps, features which only exist on the 19th century map, and features which do not appear in the 19th century, but are visible on a modern map.

Conclusion

Once activities are completed, pupils (in their groups) discuss their topic and identify at least 3 things they want to present to the rest of the group about Gosport in the past. They have 10 minutes to discuss and plan a 2 minute presentation. They can use photos and objects to illustrate it.

Finally each group presents their findings to the rest of the class.

The following is a list of suggestions for work at school or elsewhere, which you may find useful as an introduction to or as a more in-depth study of the session you have booked at the Museum on the Mezzanine.

Pre-visit Activities

• Ask children to think about and discuss what the role of a museum is.
• Encourage your class to think how we would find out about what happened in the past. A good way to do this is to ask them to think about themselves. How would they find out what they were like as a baby? What did they like to eat? What was their first word? What were they dressed in? Do they have a middle name? What time and where were they born? What evidence could they use to answer these questions? They will find out some information from other peoples memories of them and other facts from photographs and documents, which introduces looking for and using historical evidence nicely!
• Brainstorm what the students already know about Gosport and the local area. Where did they find out this information? This can lead into a discussion about primary sources – photos, objects, maps, diaries and other documents.
• Define and discuss the following words – Evidence, Census Record, Documents, Artefact, Trade Directory.
• Using a copy of a local census record, set your class the task of trying to read the Victorian writing. Discuss with them why Census records are taken, and what they show. Why are these a useful resource when looking at local history? Census Records can be found online at www.ancestry.co.uk and at Hampshire Archives and Local Studies
• Locate different modern maps of your school area. What information do these maps include, what do they exclude?
• As the children will be handling real objects during their visit, encourage them to think about the special things that they have at home, and how they treat them.
  
  Why are these objects important to them? How do they take care of them? Would they ever let anyone else touch them?
  
  What instructions would they give to someone else they allowed to touch them?
  
  This is to start them thinking about how they might handle precious objects at the museum.
• Split the children into working groups, and ask each group to pass an object around, showing how they best think it should be handled and held, so that it doesn’t get dropped and damaged. Ask each child to say one thing that they notice about the object – encourage them to consider all of the senses, not just what they see – what does it feel like or smell like? (Apart from taste, in which case you can talk about why this is not safe for children or the collections!)

Post Visit Activities

• Select one local building (this could be your school) and set the children a challenge to find out as much about it as possible, using historical documents and other evidence. They could, for example, talk to family members who might remember the building as it was, look for census records on www.ancestry.com, look for old pictures in books/the library/the museum archives or ask for help in the local newspaper to find information. They could design a poster or booklet to show what they have found, or make a wall display to show the rest of the school.
• Using an old photograph of a street scene or activity in your area as inspiration, ask the children to think about what is happening in the photograph and develop and write a story based on the characters or activities they can see.
• Using old photographs of the local area, children can use thinking skills and drama skills to study historical evidence. In small groups, pupils are given a copy of an old photograph and discuss in their groups what they think is happening in the photograph. They must then do a freeze frame of the activity in the photograph to show the rest of the class. To extend this activity you could ask them to bring the picture to life for 10 seconds after it was taken – What are people saying? What happens next?