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Key Stage 1 Famous for more than Five Minutes - NEW LOOK
Communicators

Meet William Caxton and Tim Berners-Lee and discover how they both changed the way we communicate. Journey back through time to discover how people recreated and printed text in the past. Try out a variety of ways to reproduce your writing for mass consumption. Create edible illuminated manuscripts and your own printing press. Go on to create an online blog or website.

block outcomes

Session 1 Communicating information past and present

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Objectives

History

  • Learn about the lives of significant individuals in the past who have contributed to national and international achievements.
  • Identify similarities and differences between ways of life in different periods.

English

  • Discuss and express views about a wide range of texts at a level beyond that at which they can read independently.
  • Write sentences by saying out loud what they are going to write about and composing a sentence orally before writing it.
  • Write for different purposes.

Lesson Planning

Write a book review and think about the ways it could be shared with others. Find out about the ways information was shared in the past and compare them with today’s digital world.

Teaching Outcomes
 To learn about, analyse, and make a timeline of key developments and people associated with print communication.
To write and share a book review about a chosen book.

Children will:

  • Write a book review about a favourite book as part of a ‘book outreach team’.
  • Order methods of communication (and associated key people) through time, and identify the pros and cons of each method.

Provided Resources

  • Information sheet with 'book outreach team' letter and return label
  • Methods of communication timeline booklets
  • Information with analysis questions

You Will Need

  • Access to a printer
  • Books
  • Boxes
  • 7 toys

Weblinks

There are no weblinks needed for this session.

Session 2 Creating an illuminated manuscript

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Objectives

History

  • Identify similarities and differences between ways of life in different periods.

Art

  • Use drawing and/or painting to develop and share their ideas, experiences and imagination.
  • Develop a wide range of art and design techniques in using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space.

Lesson Planning

Explore the art of writing books out by hand and have a go at designing and creating your own edible illuminated manuscript.

Teaching Outcomes
 To learn about how books were created before the printing press.
To create an illuminated manuscript.

Children will:

  • Learn that in the past texts had to be handwritten.
  • Explore illuminated manuscripts and have a go at creating their own, using their book review.

Provided Resources

  • Examples of illuminated manuscripts
  • Instructions for making an illuminated manuscript

You Will Need

  • Rice paper
  • Icing pens and tubes
  • Some Rich Tea biscuits.

Session 3 Caxton and his printing press

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Objectives

History

  • Learn about the lives of significant individuals in the past who have contributed to national and international achievements.

Art

  • Develop a wide range of art and design techniques in using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space.

Lesson Planning

Learn about Caxton and his printing press. Try making your own printing press and print a book review. Find out how Caxton recreated images in his printing. Create an image plate and print it to accompany your review.

Teaching Outcomes
To ‘meet’ William Caxton and learn about his printing press.
To create text and pictures using a printing process.

Children will:

  • Learn about Caxton and his printing press.
  • Create and test out their own printing press using individual letters.
  • Explore how Caxton recreated images.
  • Create a printed image to accompany their book review.

Provided Resources

  • Instructions for making a printing press
  • Instructions for making printed illustrations
  • Letter from William Caxton
  • Examples of woodcuts

You Will Need

  • Magnetic or wooden letters or similar
  • Card strips
  • Double sided tape
  • Cloth
  • small water bottle
  • Blu-Tack
  • elastic band
  • Paper and foam board

Session 4 The WWW revolution and Tim Berners-Lee

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Objectives

History

  • Learn about the lives of significant individuals in the past who have contributed to national and international achievements.

Computing

  • Recognise common uses of information technology beyond school.

Lesson Planning

Learn about the history and development of the WWW, and its inventor, Tim Berners-Lee. Investigate a range of children’s book review blogs and decide which features work well and which don’t.

Teaching Outcomes
 To ‘meet’ Tim Berners-Lee and learn about his World Wide Web.
To compare various book review blogs and websites, identifying key features.

Children will:

  • Meet Berners-Lee and learn about his invention of the World Wide Web.
  • Explore online children’s book review sites and identify features they do and don’t like.

Provided Resources

  • Web game instructions
  • WWW lucky-dip strips
  • Photo of Tim Berners-Lee

You Will Need

  • 4 balls of wool or string

Session 5 Creating an online book review blog

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Objectives

History

  • Identify similarities and differences between ways of life in different periods.

Computing

  • Use technology purposefully to create, organise, store, manipulate and retrieve digital content.

Lesson Planning

Use research from the previous session to design a children’s book review blog; Start to create an online book review blog. Create a section on the history of book publishing.

Teaching Outcomes
 To learn about the process of children’s book printing from different eras.
To design an online book review blog/website using previously identified features.
To start to upload and edit the content of an online book review blog/website.

Children will:

  • Design their own book review blog based on research from previous session.
  • Start to create their blog design online.
  • Create a page to accompany their blog on the history of children’s book printing.

Provided Resources

  • Children’s book detectives cards
  • Examples of children’s illustrated books
  • Possible features of a book review blog or website

You Will Need

You do not need any particular resources for this session.

Session 6 Completing an online book review blog

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Objectives

History

  • Learn about the lives of significant individuals in the past who have contributed to national and international achievements.

Computing

  • Use technology purposefully to create, organise, store, manipulate and retrieve digital content.

Lesson Planning

Complete and tweak an online book blog. Create a ‘visual story’ for Caxton and Berners-Lee to include in your blog.

Teaching Outcomes
 Create ‘visual stories’ about the significance of Caxton and Berners-Lee.
Finish designing and creating an online book review blog/website.

Children will:

  • Complete the creation of their book review blog.
  • Create and add to their blog a ‘visual story’ of Caxton and Berners-Lee, showing how they contributed to the development of ‘printed’ communication.

Provided Resources

  • Caxton and Berners-Lee: pictures, items and symbols
  • Sample visual story

You Will Need

  • Digital cameras and scanners

Weblinks

There are no weblinks needed for this session.

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