| The Home Front and The Dancing Frog |
Chislehurst
Caves |
| As part of our Home Front topic, pupils have brought in artefacts from the 1940s, including ration books, a gas mask and a tin helmet. We visited Chislehurst Caves in Kent. These human- made caves have a fascinating history which dates back to their creation by Roman slaves. Over time they have been used by Druids for ceremonies, in the 1960s for dances and, during World War 2, as an air raid shelter for thousands of local people. |
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| typical items on the home front | |
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We also visited The Museum in Docklands,
where we met A.R.P. warden Daisy Harris, who gave us a taste of daily
life, in the East End of London on the home front. We sat in a reconstruction
of a public air raid shelter and learnt from Daisy that they were
generally quickly and badly built which led to them often being damp,
crowded and uncomfortable places to be. There was an opportunity to
handle objects from the period and to look at the difference between
a child’s and an adult’s gas mask. |
| One of Year 3’s models based on the illustrations in Quentin Blake’s “The Dancing Frog”. |
