History · Year 2

Active learning ideas

The Aftermath: A City in Ruins

Active learning helps Year 2 students grasp the human scale of the Great Fire’s destruction by moving beyond dates and facts. When children sort images, role-play experiences, and build models, they connect abstract numbers like 13,000 houses to real stories of loss and recovery.

• National Curriculum Attainment Targets
• KS1: History - Events beyond living memory
• KS1: History - Cause and consequence

• 20–40 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 4 activities

Activity 01

• Stations Rotation
• 30 min · Small Groups

Sorting Stations: Before and After

Prepare stations with images and descriptions of London landmarks, homes, and streets before and after the fire. In small groups, children sort items into 'destroyed' or 'survived' piles, then label changes. Groups share one key loss with the class.

What happened to people's homes and belongings after the Great Fire?

Facilitation Tip

During Sorting Stations: Before and After, circulate and ask guiding questions like 'What do you notice about the church in both images?' to focus attention on key details.

What to look for

Provide students with two images: one of a London street before the fire and one depicting ruins after. Ask them to write one sentence describing what happened to the buildings and one sentence about how people might have felt.

• Remember
• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Self-Management
• Relationship Skills

Activity 02

• Stations Rotation
• 25 min · Pairs

Role-Play: Homeless in 1666

Assign roles like families, bakers, or churchgoers who lost everything. In pairs, children improvise dialogues about missing homes and plans for tents by the river. Debrief with drawings of their feelings.

How did the fire change the lives of people living in London?

Facilitation Tip

When running Role-Play: Homeless in 1666, provide simple props such as blankets or bowls to ground the scenario in sensory experience.

What to look for

Ask students to hold up a green card if they think a person would have had a home after the fire, and a red card if they think they would have been homeless. Discuss their choices, focusing on the scale of destruction.

• Remember
• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Self-Management
• Relationship Skills

Activity 03

• Stations Rotation
• 40 min · Small Groups

Model City: Ruins and Recovery

Provide blocks or boxes for groups to build a mini-London, then 'fire' it by knocking parts down. Discuss hardest losses and sketch rebuild ideas. Display models for a class walk-through.

What do you think was the hardest thing for people to deal with after the fire?

Facilitation Tip

For Model City: Ruins and Recovery, model how to layer materials to show depth and texture in the rubble, so students understand the physical scale of destruction.

What to look for

Pose the question: 'What do you think was the hardest thing for people to deal with after the Great Fire?' Facilitate a class discussion, encouraging students to share their ideas and justify them with reference to the loss of homes, belongings, and familiar places.

• Remember
• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Self-Management
• Relationship Skills

Activity 04

• Stations Rotation
• 20 min · Whole Class

Empathy Discussion: What Was Hardest?

In a whole class circle, show source extracts on homelessness. Each child shares one hardest thing using a talking stick, then votes on top challenges. Record on a class chart.

What happened to people's homes and belongings after the Great Fire?

What to look for

Provide students with two images: one of a London street before the fire and one depicting ruins after. Ask them to write one sentence describing what happened to the buildings and one sentence about how people might have felt.

• Remember
• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Self-Management
• Relationship Skills

A few notes on teaching this unit

Approach this topic through concrete, sensory experiences rather than abstract discussion. Start with the immediate physical environment—ask students to close their eyes and imagine the smell of smoke or the sound of collapsing beams. Research shows that emotional engagement strengthens memory, so use diary excerpts to anchor learning in real voices. Avoid overemphasizing heroic narratives of rebuilding, as this can overshadow the suffering experienced by ordinary people.

Successful learning looks like students using primary sources to explain how different people were affected, articulating specific challenges faced by the homeless, and sequencing the slow process of rebuilding with confidence.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During Sorting Stations: Before and After, watch for students grouping images only by wealth or location.

  Guide them to sort images by type—houses, churches, shops—and then discuss how each type was destroyed regardless of wealth, using mixed examples from the station.

• During Model City: Ruins and Recovery, watch for students rebuilding the city immediately, skipping the temporary camp phase.

  Remind them to include a labeled 'temporary camp' area on their model using materials like fabric or paper, connecting it to the timeline of events.

• During Empathy Discussion: What Was Hardest?, watch for students assuming everyone recovered quickly.

  Use diary excerpts as conversation starters, asking students to read aloud one line that shows long-term hardship, such as 'We sleep in the fields, hungry and cold'.

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Methods used in this brief

• Stations Rotation