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

Give the children copies of maps from the period of the Tudor exploration and ask them to identify European countries and countries and areas from the wider world such as Australia, Africa, America and the Caribbean. Ask them to make a list of three countries that do not appear on the map and to identify other differences between the Tudor maps and present-day maps.

Give the children a copy of a map dating from the period before the voyages of exploration and ask them to compare it with the Tudor map to note the countries that had been added. Ask the children to suggest reasons why the maps changed during Tudor times. Establish that it was a period when sailors, particularly from Europe, went on voyages of exploration and, as a result, knowledge of the world developed. They could use a template of a map of the world today and colour code it to contrast the knowledge of the world before and after the voyages of exploration with the world today. The changes over time could be placed on a time line.

Use a time line to establish the chronological periods between the present and the Tudor period. Discuss with the children why people explore the world and space today. List the reasons why people explore the world today on a flip chart or white board.

Establish with the children that the Tudors were looking for new countries in which to trade wool and other goods and to bring back expensive items, eg spices and furs to sell at home. People were also looking for a place where they could practise their religion in freedom. Explain that the Tudors were looking for new lands in which to settle. List the reasons why the Tudors explored the world in a different colour on the flip chart or white board.

Ask the children to write paragraphs in the chosen colours to show reasons for exploration in Tudor times and today. Using a Venn diagram, discuss the reasons that are the same and the ones that are different.

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.

Tell the story of Drake's voyage. Give the children a time line to note the main events of the voyage against the correct dates. These dates and events can then be added to the world map and linked together to show Drake's route around the world.

With the help of the children, retell the main events of the story. Ask the children to consider why the voyage was made. They might fill in individual matrices, each with a heading, eg Reasons to do with Drake's own wishes, Reasons to do with money, Reasons to do with England. Individuals could form groups to pool their ideas about one set of reasons and then make group lists. As a class, discuss all the reasons why the voyage was made.

Ask the children to recall people who settled in England in the past and their reasons for leaving their own country to settle in England. What would it have been like to leave their homelands? Use this as a basis for discussing what it would have been like for English settlers to leave England and go to America to settle: How would the long journey have affected them? What supplies would they have needed on the journey and when they landed? What would they have had to do first? How would they have fed themselves when supplies ran out? How would they have kept in touch with England? What dangers would have faced them? Write the children's answers on a flip chart or white board.

Tell the story of the Roanoke Colony. Discuss the problems these settlers faced. Add 'new' problems (identified with the children) to the list on the flip chart.

Identify the reasons why the Roanoke settlement failed. Statements might be sorted according to the problems encountered, eg Amerindians, supplies, lack of knowledge about farming.

Provide the class with a writing frame to answer the question: What problems did settlers face when they settled in Roanoke? Why did the settlement fail?

Find out what the children already know about the people living in America at the time the Tudors were ruling England. What else do you need to know? Put questions on the flip chart. Give the children some sources of information about the indigenous Americans to help them find answers to their questions.

Give the children a picture showing how English settlers viewed indigenous peoples. Using their knowledge of the indigenous people, ask them to identify ways in which the picture gives a false impression of the Amerindians. Why might the English view the indigenous people in this way? eg fear, prejudice, different experiences/customs/culture. How might this have led to problems between the settlers and the Amerindians?

Using their knowledge of the Amerindians and their customs, ask the children to write an account of the Roanoke settlement from the Amerindian perspective.

Ask them to consider each of the items on their list under three headings: 'No impact on life today', 'Impact on life today' and 'Not sure'.

Discuss their findings and agree a list of those things that have had a lasting impact.