First World War learning resources

Home life in the First World War

Age range: Age 5 to 11 (KS1 and KS2)

Subjects: History and English

Learning focus: Students will learn what life was like at home for the children of the First World War by investigating 2 photographs.

Resource: Home life in the First World War

This learning resource includes:

• 2 photographs (a group of girls knitting and group of boys in the wolf cubs)
• teachers notes with information about home life, including ideas of books and poems of the time
• a quiz

The Hill and the Flux families

Age range: Age 8 to 16 (KS2, KS3 and KS4)

Subjects: History, English, RE and citizenship

Learning focus: The students will look at how the war affected a large family and consider the choices and the consequences which scattered this family all over the world.

Summary: There were 2 families with 11 children who were cousins. Students will discover the family history of each person. Amy was a VAD nurse, her cousin Mabel, a Land Girl.  Four of the cousins died, but not all in the circumstances you might imagine. One left his autograph on a church wall in France before he was lost in battle during the spring offensive of 1918 and several emigrated in search of a better life. Find out where they lived, who survived and what happened after the war.

Resource: The Hill and the Flux family

This learning resource includes:

• the family history of 12 members of of the Hill and Flux families
• an activity with a questionnaire and further teaching ideas

This resource can also be used with the ‘nurses’ and ‘life in the trenches’ learning resources.

Alf Flux and his kit bag

Age range: Age 8 to 14 (KS2 and KS3)

Subjects: History and English

Learning focus: Students will learn what life was like for an ordinary soldier one hundred years ago in the trenches of the First World War.

Summary: This learning resource follows the story of local man Alf Flux from boyhood in Hambrook to the trenches of the Western Front.

Resources:

• Life in the trenches slides
• Teachers information

This learning resource includes:

• slides
• accompanying teacher’s information and suggestion notes for each slide
• activity of writing postcards

This resource can also be used with the Alf Flux and his kit bag loan box. This includes a replica kit bag full of a soldier’s personal belongings that can be handled by students. Find more in the section on loan boxes on this page.

Amy Hill autograph book

Age range: Age 11 to 16 (KS3 and KS4)

Subjects: History, English, art and design, RE and citizenship

Learning focus: Students will learn what life was like for nurses and soldiers, in a local convalescent hospital during the First World War.

Summary: Amy Hill was a VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) nurse at Cleve Hill Hospital during the First World War. The wounded soldiers needed to recover from their injuries. They wanted something to do to pass the time, so Amy gave them her autograph book to write in. Some wrote poems, others drew pictures and cartoons. This resource gives students the challenge to discuss and respond.

Resources:

• Wounded on the Somme
• Cleve Hill Hospital

This learning resource includes:

• an introduction to the Amy Hill autograph book
• 6 worksheets of individual drawings by soldiers of the First World War
• an activity for art and design or written response to each sheet

This resource can be used with others such as wounded at the Somme and the Hill and the Flux family learning resources.

Stories of school children

Age range: Age 5 to 11 (KS1 and KS2)

Subjects: History and English

Learning focus: Students will learn what school children did for the war effort and will find out about the skills they learned and the rewards they received.

Summary: This is the story of the school children of Yate and Chipping Sodbury who contributed during the war. Girls and boys in local schools worked hard for the war effort. The girls were instructed at school on how to knit mufflers or scarves and socks for the troops. The boys joined the Scouts, ran messages and kept watch for the army who were stationed at Chipping Sodbury protecting the railway.

Resources:

• Children in the First World War slides
• Teachers information

This learning resource includes:

• slides
• teacher notes and suggestion notes for each slide
• activity: writing letters

This resource can also be used with the home life in the First World War learning resource.

The Warmley Grenadiers

Age range: Age 8 to 14 (KS2 and KS3)

Subjects: History and English

Learning focus: The students will learn how some of the local girls of Warmley played their part in the war effort making grenades and keeping up the morale of the troops at the front.

Summary: This is the story of the women who worked in a factory making grenades in Warmley near Kingswood. They made 10 million hand grenades. This was dangerous and repetitive work which made a substantial contribution to the conflict. To keep their minds occupied they made up little love poems or sayings and put these in the grenade boxes to cheer up the soldiers at the front.

Resources:

• The girls who made grenades slides
• The Warmley Grenadiers teachers information

This learning resource includes:

• slides
• teacher notes and suggestion notes for each slide
• activity: writing poems