To recognise a diary. Write a message using the same code as Samuel Pepys.
To record some events about Samuel Pepys and his diary along a prepared timeline.
National Curriculum: Recall some details about a person's life; describe what happened; recall some details about some events that happened a long time ago; sequence events on a time line.
Resources required:
Activity sheet 1; a diary;
Online story of Samuel Pepys; activity sheet 2
Teaching Activities: Introduction: Discussion with children about 'diaries'. Look at a diary. Discuss its features. Why do people use diaries? What do people write in diaries? Talk about the diary of Samuel Pepys. Why is his diary important? What kind of things did he write in his diary? How did he write his diary? [Activity sheet 1]
As a class, write a diary for one day. Share ideas. How could we make sure that other children in our school did not know what we had written in our diary? Introduce the idea of writing in a way that other people could not read it. Remind children that Samuel Pepys did not want other people to be able to read his diary so he wrote in a different way, using a code. Introduce the code Pepys used, Shelton's shorthand. Model a few sentences using the code. [Activity sheet 1] Having written their message, find out whether their friends can read it.
Some children could work out a different code and keep a diary for a week.
Activity:
Write a message to a friend. You could tell your friend about something you did yesterday.
Record some events in the time line. [Activity sheet 2]
Plenary:
Share some outcomes. Discuss whether the messages had been easy or difficult to read. Send one of the messages to children in another class and discuss why it will be difficult for them to read it.
The 'completed' time lines could form the basis of a class timeline for Samuel Pepys.
