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Home Activities
Written by Samantha Heywood, Imperial War Museum
Beginning with something familiar helps everyone to learn. Homes reveal
a lot about the people who live there. Visit A
Wartime Home to explore a wartime house - its rooms and contents.
Moving the mouse across the screen will reveal more information about
certain items.
Look around your own home. What would an historian of the future be
able to find out about you and your family, just by looking around your
home? What would they find out about your likes and dislikes, your habits
and hobbies?
Finding out more
Grandparents, older relatives or friends might enjoy looking at this
too - they might have stories of their own to share. Sometimes an image
can release fascinating, hidden memories. They might even have photographs,
letters or their old ration books to show you. Select Rationing
Challenge to find out more about how ration books were used.
What foods were not available at all during the Second World War? Explore
your kitchen - how many of the foods and appliances in there would have
been available then?
A lot of young children were evacuated from cities to the countryside
during the Second World War. Were any of your family or friends evacuated?
Read real Evacuees' Letters
to find out more. Why did evacuees write so many letters?
If it happened today, would you send letters to each other? What other
ways would you use to keep in touch these days?
Finding more sources
Sources of the Second World War are all around us. Look out for war
memorials and plaques which will tell you about the local people who
fought and died in both the world wars.
Post-war houses in the middle of a row of older houses often indicates
a 'bomb hole', where a bomb destroyed one or more houses that have now
been built over.
Low-lying sheds at the bottom of the garden might be an Anderson Shelter or
another bomb shelter.
Concrete pillboxes along the coast and roads in the country can still
be seen today - they were built as part of Second World War defences.
Go to your local library: they will have books and documents which can
tell you what happened to your area during the war. They will have photographs
of the area during the war, or local history booklets for you to use.
Compare the wartime photographs with how the area looks today to spot
the differences and similarities.
Further Information:
Your local library and museum
Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road, London SE1 6HZ:
http://www.iwm.org.uk
National Inventory of War Memorials:
(c/o Imperial War Museum - see above for contact details)
English Heritage:
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/
Commonwealth War Graves Commission:
http://www.cwgc.org/
BBC History kids page:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/forkids/index.shtml
Two primary schools' very own websites on the 2nd World War:
http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/nettsch/time/war.html
http://www.sol.co.uk/s/StThomas/second_world_war.htm
More information about the blitz:
http://www.battleofbritain.net/section-6/index.html
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external links
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