History at key stages 1 and 2 (Year 5/6)

Unit 19: What were the effects of Tudor exploration?
Section 3: How did people explore the world in Tudor times?

Objectives

Children should learn:

to collect information from a range of sources and draw conclusions about life at sea
to appreciate the dangers and discomfort of voyages of exploration
to communicate their knowledge and understanding in a variety of ways

Activities

Outcomes

Children:

Give the children sources that describe going to sea during the period, eg navigation, food, sea monsters, superstitions, punishments, daily life and disease. Divide the class into small groups, each using sources about one aspect. Ask the children to make notes of what they can find out about life on-board ship. Ask each group to present their findings to the rest of the class. The work might be displayed as a large topic web with an illustration of a ship in the centre.

Give the children an account of a voyage. Ask the children to add any new information to the topic web. Are there any points of disagreement in the different sources of information? Why is this?

Ask the children to construct a grid of the things that sailors might have enjoyed and the things they would have disliked about the voyage.

find out and record aspects of the daily life of sailors
identify enjoyable and disagreeable aspects of life at sea
recognise that there are different interpretations of voyages and give reasons for this
record information in different ways

Points to note

The use of small groups enables the children to focus on one aspect and then to 'snowball' the information. It is important to use a display so that each enquiry is available to all children.

There are editions of the voyages of Christopher Columbus and Hakluyt's The principal navigations, voyages and discoveries of the English nation 1598-1600 and accounts of the Cabots' voyages as well as Drake's voyage.

The accounts were often produced by leaders of voyages who underplayed the difficulties that the sailors experienced. Children could discuss why this is so. The children could be set a piece of extended writing in place of the grid. This would make a useful piece of extended writing and link with The National Literacy Strategy: Framework for teaching

Sections in this unit

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This unit is divided into sections. Each section contains a sequence of activities with related objectives and outcomes. You can view this unit by moving through the sections or print/download the whole unit.


	1. How did knowledge of the world change during the Tudor period?
	2. Why did the Tudors explore outside Europe?
	3. How did people explore the world in Tudor times?
	4. Why did Drake circumnavigate the world?
	5. Why did the Roanoke settlement fail?
	6. What were the effects of the English settlement on the people living in America?
	7. What impact has Tudor exploration had on our lives today?