Rich and Poor Tudors

Who were the Tudors?

The Tudors were the royal family of England and Wales from 1485 to 1603, who came to power when Henry Tudor defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth. The Tudor dynasty comprised some of Britain's most famous monarchs, including Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, and the Tudor period remains one of Britain's most well-documented and researched period in history.

Your KS2 class will start this scheme of work by considering what, if anything, they already know about the famous Tudor family and the Tudor period. The included slideshow presentation for the teaching input helps place the Tudors on a timeline of British history and introduces your KS2 children to each of the Tudor monarchs.

During their independent learning time, your class can the use differentiated Timeline Cards to establish a timeline of the main events of the Tudor period, write a Fact File on what they know about the Tudors already (and from the learning in the lesson), or sort Event Cards into whether they predict each event happened before, during or after the Tudor period.

The Great Chain of Being

In this lesson, children will learn that the Tudors believed your position in life was determined by God, in a system known as the Great Chain of Being. The included slideshow presentation will help themexplore the social structure of Tudor society from the very richest to the very poorest, and learn that moving up the social scale was extremely unlikely.

Your KS2 class can then demonstrate their understanding of Tudor society in a number of ways, including by answering questions in a crossword puzzle, drawing a diagram or discussing and comparing character profiles. Differentiated worksheets, an Information Sheet, Label Cards and Sorting Cards are all provided to support these activities, alongside an easy-to-follow lesson plan.

Lesson 3

Tudor Food

In this Tudor Food KS2 lesson, your class will explore the varied diet of wealthy Tudors and compare this with the more limited diet of poorer Tudors. Whilst rich Tudors enjoyed venison, swan and peacock, accompanied by sweet pies and spiced wine, poor Tudors relied on simpler meals made from bread, pottage (a thick stew of vegetables and grains), and occasionally meat or fish. The included slideshow presentation for this lesson guides your children through what different Tudors ate, and the reasons for this, including details about the Sumptuary Laws, which governed what different classes of people were able to eat by law.

Once your class has a basic overview of Tudor food, they can then use the differentiated True or False Cards to play a fun game about Tudor food, create their own quiz using the Quiz Template and Blank Question Cards provided, or even have a go at making pottage! A Pottage Recipe Card and an Information Sheet are also provided to support these activities.

Lesson 4

Tudor Houses

During the teaching input of this Tudor Houses KS2 lesson, children will explore photographs of surviving Tudor houses and reconstructions on the provided slideshow to start to get an idea of what Tudor homes were like for both the rich and poor. As well as exploring how traditional Tudor houses were made using wattle and daub, your class will find out how materials like bricks and window panes were starting to be used by wealthy Tudors, and how separate rooms started to be established in the downstairs of Tudor homes instead of one large living space.

Additionally, your class will consider what creature comforts we have today that wouldn't have been available to any Tudors, whether rich or poor, and what it would have been like to live in a Tudor house.

As well as looking at the exterior and interior of Tudor houses, there is also the opportunity to study some Tudor inventories to see what Tudors left behind when they died. Children will read these primary sources and establish whether they think the inventory belonged to a rich or a poor Tudor. A lesson plan, Picture Cards, Vocabulary Cards, differentiated worksheets, Tudor Inventories and a Challenge Card are all provided to support children's independent learning activities.

Lesson 5

Tudor Clothes

This fascinating lesson delves into the complicated world of Tudor clothes! The lesson starts with the teaching input slideshow exploring some of the fashion choices of rich Tudors, including doublets, hoses and garters, slashed sleeves, mantles and flat caps for men, and corsets, gowns, headdresses, kirtles, petticoats and farthingales for women.

It then goes on to explore the Sumptuary Laws, which dictated what Tudors were and weren't allowed to wear depending on their station in life. For example, only members of the royal family were allowed to wear purple, and you had to be the rank of baron or above to wear gold or silver. As children explore these laws, which dictated everything from the fabric to the colour, they will consider why these laws were put in place and enforced so strongly, and how this left poorer Tudors to wear simpler items made of wool, linen and sheepskin in a limited colour palette!

During their independent learning activities, they can then design their own outfit for a particular Tudor using what they have learnt about the Sumptuary Laws. There is also the option to work in groups to do some further research about Tudor clothes. An Information Sheet, Tudor Clothes Glossary, differentiated worksheets, Design Cards and Research Cards are all provided to support these activities.

Lesson 6

Family Life

To start this lesson, children will consider what their own family life might have been like if they were living in Tudor times. How would they earn money? Would they go to school? Would they go on holidays? After discussing these questions, children will find out a bit about what family life was like through a series of true or false statements presented on the whole-class slideshow. Through these statements and the subsequent explanations, your KS2 class will start to develop an understanding of Tudor family life for both rich and poor families, including family size, education, leisure activities and marriage.  

Children can then express their understanding of what they have learnt in a variety of ways during their independent learning time, including answering a series of questions in role as a Tudor child on differentiated worksheets, or completing a Diary Entry sheet for a particular Tudor child based on the information provided on a set of Family Profile Cards. Discussion Cards and Information Cards are also provided to support their learning.

Lesson 7

A Summary

The last lesson of this series gives your class the chance to consolidate and summarise everything they have learnt about the lives of both rich and poor Tudors. During the teaching input slideshow, they will discuss as a class what they think were the biggest differences between the lives of rich and poor Tudors, and each come up with three words to summarise what they think life was like for different classes of Tudors.

During their independent learning time, they can then express their understanding of the lives of rich and poor Tudors in a variety of ways, including sorting Fact Cards into the correct sections of a worksheet, writing their own information booklets using the Booklet Template and Booklet Template Instructions provided, or undertaking a set of Challenge Cards to write their own page of a group Information Booklet.

They will finish the scheme off with a fun End of Unit Quiz to assess how much they can remember!