The Home Front

You will no doubt have reference books, videos etc to help the children ..... so ......

This section of our website contains activities based on evidence which ask that children think about what it was like for women and children in Britain between 1939 and 1945.  There is much more that could have been included but our English National Curriculum is so overcrowded that this is all there is time for us to present ...

Children at war .... gives an opportunity to think about evacuation. The activities presented give an opportunity for children to write captions, brief descriptions, a diary and to try improving a first draft.   There is also an activity which involves use of calculators and leads to a spreadsheet activity.  A slideshow of city scenes poses a pertinent question !!!

Women at war ... continues the language arts theme and asks the children to think about women working in factories , as social volunteers, in the forces and as air raid wardens.

Messages of War ... raises the issue of propaganda and invites the children to use the examples as a model on which to base inventing propaganda of their own. A selection of clip art is included in case you wish to develop the children's cut and paste skills and design posters on the computer.

Music in War ... is probably a bit of light relief. As an attempt to encourage children to take the experience a little more seriously questions on lyrics are included ( which will also develop comprehension ). Life didn't stop ... the music played on. But the music and the lyrics are themselves historical evidence!!

Rationing ... not enough to go around. Here we are interested in the problem of clothing. There's a spreadsheet exercise to help children think about some of the problems and solutions.

Commonwealth War Graves ... the site does not deal with the horrors of war. Nevertheless children know that death of loved ones happened every day.  The database available here will let them search perhaps for their surname ....