We started our block of lessons with learning about the events that led up to and during the Great Fire of London, using a timeline to discuss chronology and order events:

Then we moved on to learning about Samuel Pepys. We found out he worked for the King at the time of the fire and wrote a diary, using a special code. He was so worried about his cheese during the fire that he dug a hole and buried it underground!

We looked at sources and their reliability in the next lesson. We completed our first source analysis sheet using the diary to prompt our learning. 

After that, we researched and learnt about the fire service - or lack of it in 1666 and how it differs to our fire service now. We couldn't believe the difference and can't wait to speak to a real fire fighter next week and then look at a fire engine in a few weeks time when they come to visit!

We learnt that there were many reasons as to why the fire spread so quickly - houses were built from flammable material and were built very close to each other in the 1600s. The weather had been very dry and it was very windy on the 2nd September 1666 which didn't help with the fire spreading. People had to rush to collect water from the River Thames using leather buckets.

Our last lesson was on Understanding Legacy - what the Great Fire of London taught us and what we have learnt from it. We learnt that there is a memorial statue for Samuel Pepys and The Monument to help us remember those in the Great Fire.