Learning activities

Starter activities

Starter activity Sa (Links to Ma and Mb)

Teacher to have a bag of objects which typify modern leisure activities such as Nintendo, football, Top Trumps, cricket ball, Sudoku, CDs of music, DVDs. Discuss what these represent. What would a Victorian child's leisure activities be?

Starter activity Sb (Links to Ma and Mb)

Write a list of all the things that children do in their spare time, share with a friend and notice what is similar/different. Discuss as a class how would this be different if they lived in Victorian times.

Starter activity Sc (Links to Mc)

Using Sources 11 and 12, look and compare to a Modern Community sports day or athletics programme. What activities are different or surprising? Discuss what some of the Victorian races might have entailed, for example a cotton and thread race.

Main activities

Main activity Ma (Links to any Starter and Pa)

Use the activity sheets and sources to research and complete the sheets independently or paired.

Main activity Mb (Links to Sa and Sb, also to Pa)

Use the Internet to find pictures and add the sources from the website to illustrate the difference between Modern and Victorian Leisure.

Main activity Mc (Links to Sc and Pb)

Follow some of the Victorian sports programmes: races such as petticoat race, three-legged race, sack race, tug-of-war, egg and spoon. (Teacher to look at the programmes - Sources 11 and 12 - and to decide what the children can do depending on school resources and policies.)

Plenary activities

Plenary activity Pa (Links to Ma and Mb)

Play 'Run around'. Three hoops are set out on the floor with 1 labelled Victorian, 1 labelled Modern, and 1 labelled Both. Teacher to show picture or name an item used for leisure, such as an X-Box. Children have to decide to stand in Modern, Victorian, or Both hoop. This game could be played as a whole class or pairs of children against each other to eliminate to leave a winner.

Plenary activity Pb (Links to Mc and Sc)

Write a short newspaper entry/review/ results of their sports day. Try to imitate the Victorian style. Photographs taken on the day could be added to their entries.

Homework activity

Research the history of the Football Association and which teams were founded in the Victorian era. Children could also look at a TV guide to see which sports are being shown. Which of these would have existed in the Victorian Era?