In this particular case, we explored the Great Fire of London because my 9-year-old son has a fascination with fire and burning things! To start any topic or project, I always ask the children what they already know, and I’m often surprised by their answers. Capturing this pre-existing knowledge helps set a baseline for our learning journey. We then brainstorm what we would like to discover next. This step is crucial; for example, one question that arose was, “I don’t think they had fire brigades, so how did they put the fire out?”

After brainstorming our ideas and questions, we start with some research and run through our findings. We keep a record of this on the Collage app.

Things don’t always follow a logical order as the children get excited and sometimes divert from the plan. This is okay; exploring their natural curiosity and not suppressing their thoughts often leads to new discoveries, innovations, and child-led problem-solving.

Here is a summary of what we covered on this topic:

History

We investigated the following questions:

• When was the fire?
• How did it start?
• How did they put it out?
• Why did it burn for so long?
• Who started the fire?
• What changed as a result of the fire?

Maths

We explored the year 1666 by linking it to reading and ordering numbers on a number line. This unexpectedly led to a session on negative numbers, showcasing how learning can evolve.

Geography

My 7-year-old daughter initially didn’t know where London was precisely, so we examined maps of London from the past and present. We discussed how they differ and why. We also looked at where London is in relation to where we live and reviewed maps of the UK to reinforce the knowledge of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales.

Design and Technology

We designed and built cardboard models of buildings, discussing the style of shops and how shopkeepers often lived above their shops. My daughter experimented with making cob-style walls by mixing straw and clay, while my son created tools used during the fire and re-enacted the fire by burning our ‘Pudding Lane’ outside!

Science

The children were curious about the materials used in the houses. We set up an experiment to test which material—wood, cardboard, straw, stone, or brick—burned the fastest. We also explored how quickly alcohol and oil burned, recording our findings in a chart and hypothesising outcomes.

English Reading and Writing

Reading Samuel Pepys’s diary provided a wonderful opportunity for us to create our own diaries, documenting our thoughts and daily events for a week.

Music

We enjoyed learning “London’s Burning,” a nursery rhyme related to the Great Fire of London. We practiced it on the recorder, sang it as a family, and attempted to perform it in a round.

PSHE

We discussed fire safety by watching a video from the London Fire Brigade and role-playing what to do in a fire. We practiced calling the fire brigade, including reciting our address and phone number.

Other Possible Links

I had planned a couple of additional activities but let them slide when our interests shifted:

• Design & Technology: Cooking bread, as it was a bread shop where the fire started.
• History: Visiting a museum to view artefacts or art from around the same time as the fire.
• Art: Drawing with charcoal (burnt wood).
• Geography: Comparing London to world maps and exploring capital cities. If we were closer, I would have liked to visit Pudding Lane and use mapping skills to plan a route following the fire.