Over the past few weeks, Year 1 have been busy making Tudor houses in order to create our very own Great Fire of London in school.
They worked in pairs to first design their houses, exploring historical designs and noticing that many of the houses were wider at the top than the bottom. They considered the materials that Tudor houses were made out of (and how flammable those materials were), before discussing what they could use to create their houses. Next each pair selected the two cardboard boxes that they were going to work with and created a design, thinking about how they would join their boxes together and then strengthen them.
The first part of the make involved the children stuffing their boxes with straw to make them more flammable, sealing the boxes and then joining them using masking tape. Next they used paper mache to strengthen the boxes and secure the join.
After that, the children painted their houses white. Once they had dried they used cardboard buttresses to support the houses and keep them standing upright.
Once their houses were stable, each pair painted on the wooden beams before decorating and then attaching their roof.
The children had a great time making their houses and are very excited to burn them to recreate the Great Fire of London next week!
Here are some of the finished results:
