Wish You Were Here?

Seaside Holidays in the Past (KS1)

A two hour activity-packed hands-on session for one class of KS1 pupils, exploring what seaside holidays were like in the past.

Organisation

During this session you will need to divide the class into 4 groups, with an adult accompanying 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 five adults for this visit.

It is useful if your pupils and staff are wearing name stickers.

This session supports NC KS1 History & QCA History Unit 3 ‘What were seaside holidays like in the past?’

Objectives

• To compare seaside holidays in the recent past with those taken a long time ago, using real objects and photographs, games and activities
• To encourage children to use and develop questioning and historical enquiry skills using different sources of information

Session Outline

Introduction

Welcome to Museum on the Mezzanine/Gosport DC, handling guidelines, facilities and Health & Safety issues explained.

Class Activity

Mystery Seaside Objects – A YES/NO question game using mystery objects in feely bags, to introduce the Seaside Holidays in the Past topic.

Class Activity

Timeline
Using a range of seaside photographs and objects from different periods of time, the group discuss how to tell old from new and then construct a windbreak timeline to show how the seaside and seaside style has changed over time (with guidance from facilitator).

Class splits into 4 groups each accompanied by one adult, and rotate around the following activities (explained by facilitator prior to splitting into groups):

Activity 1 - Are we there yet?
Pupils investigate how children in the past might have travelled to the seaside, taking a steam train trip by playing our ‘Journey To The Seaside’ board game.

Activity 2 - Seaside Stuff
Pupils handle real seaside objects and souvenirs from the past. Each child is invited to select an object to draw and turn their picture into a special framed masterpiece to take home.

Activity 3 - Coastal Cover-ups
Delving into our suitcase of seaside costumes, children try on clothing people wore to the beach in the previous century including knotted hankies, rolled up trousers, Victorian bathing suits and sundresses. They also pose for a photograph in our Edwardian–style Aunt Sally cut-out.

An extra Seaside Photo Activity is available if the group finishes Coastal Cover-ups early.

Activity 4 - Fun & Games
By taking part in playing Shove Ha’penny, trying out their throwing skills on the Coconut Shy and sequencing the story of and handling Punch & Judy, children discover how people in the past had fun on their seaside holiday.

Everyone re-groups for final activity together

Class Activity

Grandma’s Seaside Bloomers
The group gather together for a very special Victorian Seaside story.

Plenary

Facilitator and children discuss some of the things they have discovered today about Seaside Holidays in the Past.

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

Pre-visit Activities

• 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? What time and where were they born? What evidence could they use to answer these questions? They will find out some information from other people’s memories of them and other facts from photographs, objects and documents, which introduces looking for and using historical evidence nicely!
• Define and discuss the following words – seaside, holiday, Punch and Judy, amusements, steam train, modern, old, new
• 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

• Ask the children to imagine that they are going on a day trip to the seaside, and get them to design, draw and write a postcard that they would send to someone to tell them about their trip.
• Make some Punch and Judy finger puppets using our instructions.
• Take your class on an imaginary stroll along the prom, around your classroom, using parasols and umbrellas.
• Make your own Victorian seaside fun corner – with a ‘coconut’ shy, shove ha'penny game and puppet booth and dressing-up clothes.
• Arrange for an older visitor to come in and share their seaside holiday memories during a hot seat interview session with the class.
• Make a seaside history display in the classroom. Ask children to bring in photos of themselves or family at the seaside, and any seaside objects they might have.
• Using an old photograph of a seaside scene 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 seaside photographs of the local area, children can use thinking skills and drama skills to study historical evidence. In small groups, give pupils a copy of an old photograph and set them the task of discussing 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?