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Lower Key Stage 2 World War 2: A Child's Eye View from the Home Front
Rationing

Gain a good understanding of how the rationing of food, the need to Dig for Victory and the directive to 'make do and mend' impacted on children and their families during World War 2. Learn about the reasons for rationing and the make do and mend culture promoted during the war.

Session 1 Rationing - what did it mean?

Objectives

History

  • Develop a chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of British and World history.
  • Address historically valid questions about change, cause, similarity, difference and significance.

Geography

  • Describe and understand key aspects of human geography, including: types of settlement and land use, economic activity including trade links, and the distribution of natural resources including energy, food, minerals and water.

Computing

  • Use search technologies effectively, appreciate how results are selected and ranked, and be discerning in evaluating digital content.

Design and Technology

  • Develop the creative, technical and practical expertise needed to perform everyday tasks confidently.

Lesson Planning

Learn about the need for rationing and ‘make do and mend’ during the war; sew a simple rag-bag toy.

Teaching Outcomes:

  • To build a timeline of when resources were rationed during WW2 and to begin to consider how rationing might have affected families at home.
  • To begin to understand that much of our food and many other resources are imported and why rationing was therefore important during WW2.
  • To use the internet safely to research rationing.
  • To practise the skill of sewing by making a rag-bag toy.

Children will:

  • Understand the reasons for the introduction of rationing during WW2.
  • Consider and then research what rationing meant for people at home.
  • Discuss the idea of ‘make do and mend’ and consider why that phrase was important to people, even after rationing had ended.
  • Practise the idea of ‘make do and mend’ by sewing a simple rag-bag toy.

You Will Need

  • Post-it notes
  • Needles and Thread
  • Rags for stuffing
  • Buttons

Session 2 Dig for victory

Objectives

Design and Technology

  • Understand seasonality, and know where and how a variety of ingredients are grown, reared, caught and processed.

History

  • Develop a chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of British and World history.
  • Ask and address historically valid questions about change, cause, similarity, difference and significance.

Lesson Planning

Discover the need to Dig for Victory at home; find out about the role of women on the home front; make your own mini allotment.

Teaching Outcomes:

  • To know which vegetables are naturally able to grow in Britain and to begin to understand seasonality.
  • To consider how our shopping and expectations for fresh fruit and vegetables has changed so significantly since WW2

Children will:

  • Discover the role of women on the home front, including the Land Army.
  • Design and make a mini allotment – planning on how to use all of the space.
  • Learn which fruits and vegetables will grow in our climate and when they would be ‘in season’.
  • Begin to consider the change in the shopping habits and expectations of people living in Britain.

You Will Need

  • Small card box
  • Plasticine
  • Soil
  • Paints and brushes

Session 3 Rationed recipes

Objectives

Design and Technology

  • Understand and apply the principals of a healthy and varied diet.
  • Prepare and cook a variety of predominantly savoury dishes using a range of cooking techniques.
  • Understand seasonality, and know where and how a variety of ingredients are grown, reared, caught and processed.
  • Develop the creative, technical and practical expertise needed to perform everyday tasks confidently.

Science

  • Identify that animals, including humans, need the right types and amount of nutrition, and that they cannot make their own food, they get nutrition from what they eat.

Lesson Planning

Consider the impact of rationing during WW2; prepare and cook a wartime recipe using a limited range of ingredients.

Teaching Outcomes:

  • To prepare and cook a family meal using only rationed allowances and seasonal fruit or vegetables and to practise the skill of peeling a potato.
  • To understand why most people on the home front, especially those who grew their own vegetables, had a surprisingly nutritional and healthy diet.

Children will:

  • Consider rationing of food during WWII and ways to counter it.
  • Prepare and cook using limited range of ingredients.
  • Begin to consider what impact the limitation of some food types may have had on the health of people on the Home Front.

You Will Need

  • Food
  • Peelers
  • Drawing materials