On Monday, year 5 arrived at school and they were transported back to the year 1665. Boys and girls were separated into different classrooms, with the teachers being very strict, much like in a Stuart era school. The morning started with the boys and girls learning, in silence, an extract from Shakespeare’s Macbeth which they then had to recite to the class.
For the remainder of the morning the girls learnt valuable skills such as sewing and baking, ensuring they were well prepared to be housewives! They baked gingerbread biscuits and also practised their handwriting.
The boys also practised their handwriting and spent time playing games such as chess and draughts. Mr Peters was very strict!
However throughout the morning we noticed Miss Courtney coughing a lot, then she started scratching and big red boils appear on her arms! As she spread her germs, the illness started affecting some of the year 5’s and they came out in red ringed rashes! Eventually, we decided to quarantine those who were displaying symptoms and called the Doctor. The doctor confirmed that they had the Plague so a red cross was put on the door to warn others that it was contaminated with the Plague!
After lunch, to help protect us from the Plague we made herb bags just like they did in the Plague in 1665. We used cloves, rosemary and thyme, along with some mint and rose essence. Also, we made silhouettes of rats to decorate the corridors with!
Finally, because our final product is to make a Horrible History episode about the Plague, we watched some episodes of Horrible History.
Year 5 had a fantastic time igniting the Plague and can’t wait to continue their learning about it in order to create their Horrible History documentary.
