This year is the 80th anniversary of the climatic events that brought about the end of the Second World War. These events will be of interest to teachers and educators alike as they seek to engage and develop their children’s experience of learning history.
Connecting with personal narratives
Being such a recent period of history, World War II is the perfect topic to study social history. Ideas for this might include suggesting to the pupils to talk to their grandparents about their parents’ experiences in the war. It’s amazing what you find out. I once met a Chindit, a SAS veteran of the Burma Oil campaign, and my Grandfather was one of Montys Desert Rats. Your children might discover a Beven Boy in the family or a Land Girl. By finding out about our family children can more easily develop nuanced understanding of the past and the people in the past.
Artefacts as tangible links to history
There may be family artefacts. My other Grandfather found a camera and when he had the film developed it included photographs of Hitler himself! My favourite family artefact is a service bible from my Desert Rat Grandfather where he has written about where he served under the official guidance not to write where you have served. Your children might discover medals, service bibles or other artefacts. These are again useful as a tangible contact with the past and potentially a jumping off point for a powerful piece of writing or class discussion.
Exploring educational goldmines
You can encourage the children to visit museums such as the Blitz Museum in Coventry. This is a fantastic micro museum full of artefacts which brings the Coventry Blitz to life. Museums are a wonderful resource and are usually connected to the records office which is a useful resource for teachers. With a little bit of help from the librarians you can get very specific information about the war years including local newspapers on microfilm. It is possible also to look at the names on the local War Memorials and research them using ancestry.com or other research sites. This is another opportunity to make the events of 1939-1945 ‘real’ in a personal sense to the children. These are real people who lived in their local community.
Bringing it all together
All these opportunities can be supported with a Portals to the Past World War II workshop. These workshops are delivered by knowledgeable experts who deliver engaging and interesting workshops for your children. World War II is an engaging topic with lots of opportunity for social history and personal history whereby the children learn as much about their families and friends as much as they do about the topic. World War II is a rich period with the potential for discussion, writing and art.
If you are interested in booking one of our workshops, or would like some more information, please contact us today to discuss how we can help – Contact Us.