Great Fire of London English Pack

#TheCompleteEnglishPack20lessons

Your class will have the opportunities to develop their literacy skills as they write newspaper reports about the fire and imagine they were present at the time and write diary entries. They will also read the book Vlad and the Great Fire of London and then practice their sequencing, retelling and inference skills. Finally your class will have the opportunity to develop their understanding of writing in past and present tense as they learn about London in the past and the present.

This Year 2 Great Fire of London lesson pack comes packed with PDF lesson plans, lesson slides, differentiated and alternative activity ideas as well as all the printable resources. Everything you need to teach 20 fantastic English lessons all about the Great Fire of London. Are you looking for more Great Fire of London resources? Take a look at our cross-curricular topic bundle!

#AllNEWSPAPERREPORTS5LessonsinPack

Download this Year 2 Great Fire of London Newspaper Report planning pack to turn your KS1 class into 17th century journalists!

Your class will explore the features of newspaper articles and gather facts about the Great Fire of London, before planning and writing their very own newspaper reports about this key historical event.

This set of five Year 2 Great Fire of London Newspaper Report English lessons comes with everything you need to successfully get your class writing newspaper reports. There are detailed lesson plans with differentiated activity ideas, slideshows for each of the whole-class teaching inputs and a range of fun, engaging and challenging printable teaching resources, including worksheets, model texts, challenge cards and checklists.

#AllDIARYENTRIES5LessonsinPack

Travel back in time to the 17th century with this 'Great Fire of London' diary entries lesson pack for KS1 children.

Your class will delve into the past and question how we know about historic events. Children will be introduced to Samuel Pepys and explore his account of the Great Fire of London through his famous diaries. After, children will be transported back in time by using their senses. They will imagine what life might have been like at the time of the Great Fire, before finally writing their very own account of the events of Sunday 2nd September 1666.

This set of five Great Fire of London Diary Entries English lessons for Year 2 comes complete with detailed planning, slides to support teaching input and a range of differentiated resources. All ready to download with the click of a button!

#AllVLADANDTHEGREATFIREOFLONDON5LessonsinPack

This Vlad and the Great Fire of London planning pack for Year 2 children helps develop their reading comprehension skills as they enjoy the popular story written by Kate Cunningham. Please note, due to copyright restrictions we cannot provide a copy of the text with this scheme. You will need to obtain a copy separately.

Within the five lessons in this pack the children will practise their sequencing, retelling, inference, research and predicting skills. They will have the opportunity to use their previous knowledge and vocabulary around the Great Fire of London to inform their independent work and discussions. The lessons include a chance for the children to look at and use non-fiction books to research information on Samuel Pepys using the contents and/or the index pages.

Our Vlad and the Great Fire of London KS1 reading comprehension pack comes with all the lesson plans, PDF lesson slides, differentiated and alternative activity ideas as well as all the printable resources that you will need.

#AllLONDONPASTANDPRESENT5LessonsinPack

In this London Past and Present KS1 Planning Pack for English, your Year 2 class will travel back in time to find out what London was like in the 1600s and compare it to modern-day London. They will become experts at writing in both the past and present tenses.

To begin with, your KS1 class will use detailed non-fiction texts to find out differences between London past and present. They will then go on to sort sentences about London into those written in the past tense and those written in the present tense. They will be taught that verbs indicate the tense of a sentence and will identify these. In the next lesson, using expanded noun phrases to describe London is the focus. Then, your Year 2 class will learn the spelling rules for changing present tense verbs into the past tense. In the final lesson of the unit, children will apply everything they have learnt to write a comparison between London past and present.

This The Great Fire of London - London Past and Present KS1 English Planning Pack contains everything you need including interactive slideshows for each lesson, detailed lesson plans created by an experienced teacher with differentiated activities and all the Great Fire of London KS1 worksheets you will need. Looking for more Great Fire of London resources? Download this Vlad and the Great Fire of London Planning Pack for Year 2.

#Lesson1NewspaperReportsFullStopsandCapitalLetters

This full stops and capital letters KS1 English lesson gives your Year 2 class the chance to find out lots of facts about the Great Fire of London, all through badly punctuated sentences that are missing full stops and capital letters!

The included slideshow presentation goes through some examples together, introducing your Year 2 class to the idea that proper nouns need capital letters, as well as the start of a sentence. They will also practise spotting where two sentences need to be separated by a full stop.

During their independent learning activities, your children can then practise correcting sentences about the Great Fire of London by putting in missing capital letters and full stops, or sort sentences into those that have been correctly punctuated and those that haven't.

#Lesson2NewspaperReportsSequencingEvents

This Year 2 Great Fire of London Sequencing Events lesson will give your KS1 class the chance to become more familiar with the key events of the Great Fire of London in preparation for writing their newspaper reports.

During the teaching input, your class will be introduced to the 5Ws (who, what, when, where and why/how) and explore why these are important in newspaper reports. They will then go on to sequence the events of the Great Fire until they have a coherent timeline. The final challenge of the lesson is to identify the 5Ws of the Great Fire of London in the timeline they have established.

This lesson comes fully planned and ready to deliver to your Year 2 class. There's a detailed lesson plan, a slideshow for the teaching input, differentiated activity ideas and a range of printable teaching resources.

#Lesson3NewspaperReportsFeaturesofaNewspaper

This Features of a Newspaper lesson for Year 2 gives your class the chance to read a newspaper report about a historical event, identifying the features and language used, in preparation for writing their own newspaper articles about the Great Fire of London.

Your class will read the model text together, then go through the points on the provided slideshow explaining the features and why they are important for a newspaper report.

During their independent learning activities, they can then either sort sections of a newspaper into an appropriate order to create a report about familiar historical events, or create exciting headlines for familiar stories.

#Lesson4NewspaperReportsPlanningaNewspaperReport

Your Year 2 class will be planning a newspaper report about the Great Fire of London in this ready-to-teach KS1 English lesson. Your class will draw on everything they have learnt, both about the Great Fire of London and the features of newspaper reports, to plan their own report on the Great Fire, choosing a particular focus for their article.

The included slideshow presentation helps your class consider why planning a newspaper article is important and will help them narrow down a focus for their article. Will they write an article about the start of the fire, about the end of the fire, about the destruction of St Paul's Cathedral? Let them decide, then give them time to plan what information they will need to include.

This lesson comes fully prepared with a lesson plan, slideshow, differentiated activity ideas and a range of printable resources.

#Lesson5NewspaperReportsWritingaNewspaperReport

This Writing a Newspaper Report KS1 English lesson challenges your Year 2 class to follow the plans they created in the last lesson to write their newspaper reports about the Great Fire of London.

The included slideshow presentation goes through some of the things the children will need to think about as they write their newspaper reports and challenges them to include features such as noun phrases, exciting sentence starters and conjunctions in their work.

They will then work independently to write their newspaper reports, using the differentiated checklists provided to ensure they have included everything they need to include.

#Lesson6DiaryEntriesSamuelPepysDiaries

This KS1 Great Fire of London Diary Entries lesson for Year 2 introduces children to the events of the Great Fire of London, through Samuel Pepys' diaries. First, children will discuss what a diary is and why diaries are written, before considering the importance of diaries when finding out about the past.

Capture your children's imaginations by reading a simplified version of Samuel Pepys' diaries. Children will find out about the events that took place and how the fire ripped through London, destroying buildings and leaving people homeless. Children will also get to know Samuel Pepys and his role in stopping the fire from spreading.

During their independent activities, children will answer questions about Samuel Pepys' diaries, designed to test their comprehension and memory of what happened on that windy weekend in 1666. As an alternative activity, children will be given diaries written by people who could have lived through the Great Fire of London. Their challenge? To work out who the diaries belong to! This KS1 Great Fire of London Diary Entries lesson is ready to teach, including handy downloads of Samuel Pepys' diary, differentiated activities and slides to support teaching input.

#Lesson7DiaryEntriesFeaturesofaDiary

Following on from the previous lesson, your KS1 children will recap the events of the Great Fire of London and look again at examples from Samuel Pepys' diary in more detail. This time, the lesson will focus on features of a diary entry.

Using the slides to support teaching, you will run through the features of a diary with your Year 2 children, including the use of personal pronouns and past tense verbs, taking time to learn about each one before challenging the children to independently identify features of a diary entry.

This lesson comes with detailed planning and differentiated worksheets to suit all learners. We have done the hard work so you don't have to!

#Lesson8DiaryEntries5Senses

In this KS1 Great Fire of London 5 Senses lesson plan, children will be transported back in time to 1666 where they will use their senses to imagine what life might have been like in 17th century London.

To set the scene, children will listen to the sounds of fire burning whilst looking at images of the Great Fire of London. They will be challenged to use their senses to describe what they can see, hear and smell and then imagine how they would have felt during the fire. Afterwards, children will independently write descriptive sentences using the 5 senses.

This Year 2 Great Fire of London 5 senses lesson plan comes with helpful resources, including a senses word mat, picture cards and audio files to make the past come to life. In addition, every lesson comes complete with detailed planning and slides to support teaching and learning.

#Lesson9DiaryEntriesPlanningaDiaryEntry

In this Great Fire of London Diary Planning lesson for KS1, children will briefly recap the features of a diary before being transported back in time to September 1666. Your Year 2 class will be planning a diary entry about the Great Fire of London in this ready-to-teach KS1 English lesson.

Your class will draw on everything they have learnt, both about the events of the Great Fire of London and the features of a diary, to plan their own diary entry as if they were there during the Great Fire. The slideshow included looks at the structure of a diary and asks children to consider where they were when they found out about the fire, how they felt and what they did next, to support their diary planning.

This lesson comes fully prepared with a lesson plan, slideshow, differentiated activity ideas and a range of printable resources.

#Lesson10DiaryEntriesDiaryWriting

This Diary Writing KS1 lesson challenges your Year 2 class to follow their plans they created from the previous lesson to write their diary entries about the Great Fire of London.

The slideshow included will show children two example diaries, children will need to decide which diary is better and why, taking into account whether the writer has used all the features of a diary. This will encourage children to think about what they need to include when writing their own diary entry, including past tense verbs, personal pronouns and writing about main events.

Children will get to participate in a shared write, whereby you can model to children how you would like their diaries to look and what they should include. This lesson comes with differentiated worksheets and a detailed lesson plan to support teaching and learning.

#Lesson11VladandtheGreatFireofLondonRetellingtheStory

Learn and enjoy 'Vlad and the Great Fire of London' by Kate Cunningham together with your Year 2 class as they use time adverbials and actions to help them retell the story orally.

This lesson provides you with the time and resources to challenge your KS1 class to retell the story using child-friendly illustrations to prompt their retellings. The children can film themselves telling the story, which could be used to support their learning in the following lessons.

This single lesson download includes a detailed lesson plan, PDF lesson slides as well as all the accompanying printable resources you'll need to support your class as they retell this story.

#Lesson12VladandtheGreatFireofLondonSequencingtheStory

Test your class's sequencing skills in this second lesson as they order events from the story using the provided printable resources.

Discuss which events came first and think about which ones are within the beginning, middle or end of the story. The children will then be challenged to order illustrations and worded prompts for these events independently.

Download this single lesson plan pack which includes a detailed lesson plan, PDF slides, differentiated activity ideas and printable resources to support your class.

#Lesson13VladandtheGreatFireofLondonInferringInformation

Help your Year 2 class develop their inference skills as they distinguish what the text has explicitly told them and what they can infer about the characters from their actions.

The children will explore text and illustrations to investigate just how much information they can collect about the characters, without being told explicitly. They are then challenged to answer questions about the story and character, or alternatively, ask their own questions to show their understanding.

This single lesson pack comes with all the planning and resources you'll need, including detailed PDF lesson slides. Please note, we do not provide a copy of the text with this lesson. You will need to obtain a copy elsewhere.

#Lesson14VladandtheGreatFireofLondonResearchingInformation

This complete Vlad and the Great Fire of London KS1 lesson pack challenges your Year 2 class to use their researching skills to find information on the mysterious man burying cheese in the story.

The children will discuss and use the different organisational features such as contents pages and index pages to find information they want about Samuel Pepys.

This KS1 lesson pack contains a detailed lesson plan, PDF lesson slides and accompanying printable resources.

#Lesson15VladandtheGreatFireofLondonPredicting

In this final lesson your Year 2 class are challenged to use their understanding and knowledge of the the story to predict what might happen next to Boxton and Vlad.

The included lesson slides offer some information about what actually happened after the real fire was extinguished. The children can use this information as well as what they already know about the characters to predict what might happen next to them. The children are challenged to think about how likely a prediction is and why it will be more, or less, likely to happen.

This lesson pack comes with everything you need to teach a prediction lesson based around the story of 'Vlad and the Great Fire of London' by Kate Cunningham, including a detailed lesson plan, differentiated activity ideas, printable resources and PDF lesson slides.

#Lesson16LondonPastandPresentHowwasLondoninthe1600sdifferenttoLondonnow

In this London past and present lesson, your Year 2 class will begin by using images of London to discuss how they can see London has changed since the 1600s.

They will then read non-fiction texts to deepen their understanding and will record differences they find in a table. They might research buildings in London, crime and punishment, the River Thames, facts about the city or entertainment.

This London past and present KS1 single lesson download includes a detailed lesson plan, PDF lesson slides as well as all the Great Fire of London KS1 worksheets required.

#Lesson17LondonPastandPresentSortingsentences

In this London past and present lesson, your Year 2 class will begin by learning what is meant by the past tense and the present tense.

They will then look at how verbs within a sentence indicate its tense and will practise sorting verbs into either the past or present tense. Once secure, children begin sorting sentences about London and identify the past or present tense verbs within them. At the end of the lesson, children are challenged to help change a piece of present tense writing about London in the 1600s into the past tense.

Everything you need to teach this London past and present KS1 lesson is included in the pack. There is an interactive slideshow, a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities and all the printable resources needed.

#Lesson18LondonPastandPresentDescribingLondonusingexpandednounphrases

In this London past and present lesson, your Year 2 class learn to identify nouns in a sentence and will find out that, when adjectives are used to describe these, expanded noun phrases are created.

Children read descriptive texts about London and identify expanded noun phrases within them. They then move on to developing their own expanded noun phrases to describe London. Improving base sentences provides opportunity for them to apply their understanding of how expanded noun phrases can be used to improve writing.

This London past and present KS1 lesson pack contains everything you need to teach this lesson including an interactive slideshow, a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities and all the Great Fire of London KS1 worksheets you will need!

#Lesson19LondonPastandPresentRulesforchangingwritingintothepasttense

In this London past and present lesson, children begin by learning the spelling rules for changing present tense verbs into the past tense. They look at examples and practise applying what they learn to changing new sets of verbs into the past tense.

After looking at irregular verbs and the progressive form to describe ongoing activities, children change writing about London in the present tense into the past tense. Alternatively, they play a game of 'Four in a Row' to revise the spelling rules.

This London past and present KS1 single lesson download contains everything needed to teach this lesson including a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities, an interactive slideshow and all the printable resources required.

#Lesson20LondonPastandPresentComparingLondoninthe1600stoLondonnow

In this London past and present lesson, children will be learning how to use conjunctions such as 'whereas' or 'although' to write sentences which compare London in the 1600s to London now.

They practise as a class first using sentence frames and prompts to support them. They then apply what they have learnt independently to produce a comparison between London at the time of the Great Fire of London to the city we know today. Alternatively, your class might become open-top bus tour guides taking the rest of the class on a tour around London, explaining how it has changed since the 1600s.

This London past and present pack contains all you will need to teach this lesson including a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities, an interactive slideshow and all the printable resources needed.

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Curriculum Objectives covered

• listening to, discussing and expressing views about a wide range of contemporary and classic poetry, stories and non-fiction at a level beyond that at which they can read independently
• discussing the sequence of events in books and how items of information are related
• becoming increasingly familiar with and retelling a wider range of stories, fairy stories and traditional tales
• being introduced to non-fiction books that are structured in different ways
• drawing on what they already know or on background information and vocabulary provided by the teacher
• making inferences on the basis of what is being said and done
• answering and asking questions
• predicting what might happen on the basis of what has been read so far
• participate in discussion about books, poems and other works that are read to them and those that they can read for themselves, taking turns and listening to what others say
• explain and discuss their understanding of books, poems and other material, both those that they listen to and those that they read for themselves

• add suffixes to spell longer words, including –ment, –ness, –ful, –less, –ly
• apply spelling rules and guidance, as listed in English Appendix 1

• writing narratives about personal experiences and those of others (real and fictional)
• writing about real events
• writing for different purposes
• planning or saying out loud what they are going to write about
• writing down ideas and/or key words, including new vocabulary
• encapsulating what they want to say, sentence by sentence
• evaluating their writing with the teacher and other pupils
• re-reading to check that their writing makes sense and that verbs to indicate time are used correctly and consistently, including verbs in the continuous form
• proof-reading to check for errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation [for example, ends of sentences punctuated correctly]
• read aloud what they have written with appropriate intonation to make the meaning clear

• learning how to use both familiar and new punctuation correctly (see English Appendix 2), including full stops, capital letters, exclamation marks, question marks, commas for lists and apostrophes for contracted forms and the possessive (singular)
• expanded noun phrases to describe and specify [for example, the blue butterfly]
• the present and past tenses correctly and consistently including the progressive form
• subordination (using when, if, that, or because) and co-ordination (using or, and, or but)
• the grammar for year 2 in English Appendix 2
• some features of written Standard English
• use and understand the grammatical terminology in English Appendix 2 in discussing their writing

• listen and respond appropriately to adults and their peers
• ask relevant questions to extend their understanding and knowledge
• articulate and justify answers, arguments and opinions
• participate in discussions, presentations, performances, role play/improvisations and debates

• Formation of nouns using suffixes such as –ness, –er and by compounding [for example, whiteboard, superman]
• Subordination (using when, if, that, because) and co-ordination (using or, and, but)
• Expanded noun phrases for description and specification [for example, the blue butterfly, plain flour, the man in the moon]
• Correct choice and consistent use of present tense and past tense throughout writing
• Use of the progressive form of verbs in the present and past tense to mark actions in progress [for example, she is drumming, he was shouting]