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Heritage Education
A Victorian Christmas

1st - 12th December 2008

A Victorian mother and son building a snowman
PH1035/6371 Produced with kind permission of Warwickshire County Record Office and Warwickshire Museum Service

A special Day Project for Key Stages 1 & 2 based at St John's House Museum and the activity centre.

A fantastic opportunity to visit St John's House and celebrate Christmas as the Victorian's would have done
  • Participate in a Christmas themed lesson in our Victorian classroom.
  • What did the Victorians eat at Christmas? Find out by following a traditional Christmas pudding recipe and then make your own peppermint creams.
  • Handle a variety of household objects and find out what working in the kitchen was really like.
  • How did the Victorians celebrate Christmas? Sing carols around the tree and have a go at a selection of Christmas art and craft activities - make salt dough ornaments, handle toys and more.



For information about charges and how to book

Curriculum links

The visit links directly to KS1 History Unit 1: How are our toys different from those in the past? History Unit 2: What were homes like a long time ago? and KS2 Unit 11:What was it like for children living in Victorian Britain?

It covers the following KS1 & 2 Knowledge, skills and understanding:
  • Chronological understanding: 1
  • Knowledge and understanding of events, people and changes in the past: 2
  • Historical interpretation: 3
  • Historical enquiry: 4
  • Organisation and communication: 5

Learning objectives: Children will learn to
  • identify similarities and differences between old toys and new toys
  • recognise different rooms and household objects from a long time ago
  • compare modern and Victorian schooling
  • consider what life was like for children in the past
  • collect information from a range of sources and draw conclusions about the Victorian period
  • understand that ways of life differed greatly across Victorian society

Learning outcomes: Children will be able to:
  • use clues to infer the use of an object
  • talk about aspects of home life long ago
  • identify distinctive features of a Victorian school
  • suggest what Victorian children might have done in their spare time
  • suggest what life was like for children living in the past

The following Thinking Skills are also covered:

Information processing: Comparing/contrasting information; Identifying and analysing relationships.
Reasoning: Giving reasons for opinions/actions; Inferring; Making deductions; Using precise language to reason.
Enquiry: Asking questions; Drawing conclusions.







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