Years 5 and 6 had a very engaging start to their new Topic, World War 2 (WW2), with an artefacts handling session at Chelmsford Museum.
They learnt about how the war affected one family in Chelmsford, in particular, before enjoying two handling sessions.
In one session, they explored rationing of food and clothing by ‘visiting’ the local shops in the experience to purchase their rationed goods.
In the other, they learnt about air raids. They handled a number of artefacts related to air raids including gas masks, rattles, bells and a water pump. They experiencing some time in a mock air raid shelter to understand how people in WW2 felt and thoguht about how people might have made the best of the time they had in there.
They returned to school full of excitement for their Topic and armed with further questions they want to know about World War 2.
A huge thank you to the parents that gave up their time to make the visits possible, we really appreciate the ongoing support of parents with our visits.
Pupils use a manual water pump while exploring how Chelmsford residents would be ready to put out fires during WW2 air raids.
Pupils are shown authentic WW2 ID cards and ration books and calculated how much of each food type they’d be allowed to purchase under WW2 rationing rules.