It worked for me: key stage 1 cameos

Contents | Can you prevent another Great Fire?

Bringing Guy Fawkes back to life

Drama need not be a complicated, full stage production. It can range from recreating a simple picture that represents an event or involves children retelling a familiar story. As children develop their understanding and their ability to pretend you can move them forward to the next step and start them questioning what they see.

To develop the children’s understanding of the Gunpowder Plot, Kathryn used drama to allow the children to explore and develop their knowledge of the story, why certain things happened and the significance of specific artefacts. This approach can help children to develop their language and creative skills.

Interpreting the Gunpowder Plot

Before the lesson the children were familiar with the basic story of the Gunpowder Plot (having used a ‘washing line’ activity to sequence the events) and had looked at some of the key characters. The children were split into mixed ability groups, allowing all children the opportunity to put forward their opinions and develop their interpretations. Kathryn often finds that children who are shy in whole class situations thrive in drama-based activities.

As a class they then discussed the key points of the story. The real aim of this lesson was for the children to think how people might have behaved, what things might have been said, and to answer questions such as: ‘Would any of the plotters have argued against the plan?’ The scene was set. Each group was provided with props – a lamp, a big piece of cloth and some pieces of A4 paper. It was intended that each group would then use the props to recreate part of the Gunpowder story.

As the children started work the immediate discussion was on the props. ‘What could they be used for?’ ‘Why would Guy Fawkes have used them?’ The lamp and the cloth were used in a very obvious way, most children huddling under the cloak when plotting, or wrapping it around a child who was pretending to be King James watching Guy Fawkes being tortured. In most groups they used the paper more imaginatively. Some used it as a map to plan where to hide the gunpowder, others rolled it up and used it as a scroll informing the King of the plans to kill him.

Adding to the drama

As the lesson progressed Kathryn could see children developing their roles and the story. In this lesson she encouraged each group to recreate certain scenes from the plot, using the pictures from the history pack as a guide. When they had ‘freeze framed’, they looked at each tableau and discussed what was going on. The children were then asked to add speech to illustrate their points. The children used phrases such as ‘You will be tried for treason’ when Guy Fawkes was discovered by the guards. Some groups portrayed the King’s reaction and his decision to torture the plotters, with some children declaring ‘I will never tell, no matter what’.

After watching the groups to perform, they were encouraged to ask questions of each other, for instance ‘Why did you use the map?’ The majority of the children were able to answer the questions and explain their thinking behind it. This lesson was just one in a sequence. Using drama in this way then allowed the children to take part in ‘hot-seating’ activities and produce some work about the Gunpowder Plot, written from different perspectives.

From a teaching point of view this lesson enabled Kathryn to assess the children’s knowledge of the plot and whether they had an understanding of ‘cause and effect’. She believes that once children can understand the idea of simple consequences, they can then move on to develop higher level thinking skills and really become good history detectives and inquisitors.

	Children used a lamp and a piece of cloth to act out how Guy Fawkes would have hidden the gunpowder and the conversations he might have had.

Contents | Can you prevent another Great Fire?