Teachers - Plan your own School Guy Fawkes Day!

Select from the links below to download resources for your School to use.

Designed by teachers for teachers. All the information included in this site will enable you to convince your staff and more importantly, your head to have a Guy Fawkes Day. It runs parallel with the National Curriculum and Term 1 in the NLS for each year group.

Why Guy Fawkes?
Had Guido Fawkes and his counterparts succeeded in blowing up the houses of parliament, life as we know it today may well have been very different.

Have you ever been to a bonfire party or made a guy to burn on the top of a bonfire? Do you know why it is that every year on the fifth of November we see the skies all over Britain lit up with beautiful fireworks and roaring bonfires?

Let's take a step back in history to 1605
The 5th November 1605 was the day a plot to kill King James I of England was discovered and stopped. Being king meant that James was the head of the Church of England; the legacy that Henry VIII had left. The Catholics believed that the Pope should be the head of the church and therefore were not happy to follow the king's rules. Any Catholic caught disobeying James was severely punished. They were made to pay fines or put into prison. Catholic priests and bishops were often put to death. As you can imagine, the Catholics were very unhappy with the situation, so a group of Catholic men worked together in secret and planned to kill King James by blowing up the houses of Parliament. This was the start of the Gunpowder Plot.

Literacy
We have planned the following literacy lessons for your use. They are basic and can be adapted by you to suit your class & school's needs. Resources will follow the lesson plans and we hope they will be useful.

Download literacy lesson plans in Word format
documents require Microsoft Word
please email us if you require these documents in an alternate format

[Reception] [Year1] [Year2] [Year3] [Year4] [Year5] [Year6]
list of additional resources - books and videos

Download resources for Lesson Plans
documents require Microsoft Word

[Story - years 3 and 5]
[year 3 worksheet]
[News report - no punctuation, newspaper layout - year 4]
[News report - no punctuation, no layout - year 4]
[News report - punctuated, no layout - year 4]
[News report - punctuated, newspaper layout - year 4 (finished sample)]

[alternate activity - poem (Leonard Clark)]

Download Certificate
print and hand out to all participants, word format
[Certificate]

Other subjects
If you are planning a whole day of 'Guy' events then here are some ideas for you to adapt to your needs.

Art/DT
Breadth of Study; 5a
Exploring a range of starting points for practical work, for example themselves, experiences, images, stories, drama, music, natural and made objects and environments.

• "Make a Guy Fawkes Hat"
  [view instructions online]
  [download instructions in Word format]

• Firework pictures inspired by 'November 5th' by Leonard Clarke.
  [download poem (Leonard Clark)]
  You could use a medium of your choice. It could be, wax resist, pastels, paint, collage, etc… (Why not just do something you like doing yourself?)

• Design and make a magnetic firework. Children design a firework and make it 3D, insert a magnet. The children then design an appropriate firework scene on a piece of card. Attach another magnetic metal 'handle' on the back that they can then use to make the firework fly across their picture.

• Design a poster to advertise bonfire night. The poster could include safety rules for handling fireworks and/or reasons for celebrating bonfire night.

IT
There are a selection of time filling activities available on this site for the children to complete online (students should be encouraged to click the Schools link on this website to view the activities) or for you to print off and adapt, or photocopy for use in the classroom from the list below:

• [spot the difference - Word format]
  [spot the difference - view online]

• [wordsearch years 2 and 3 - Word format]
  [wordsearch years 2 and 3 - view online]

• [wordsearch years 4, 5 and 6 - Word format]
  [wordsearch years 4, 5 and 6 - view online]

• Design a fact sheet about the gunpowder plot. Children should draw pictures and write facts using information from the story and the newspaper article. You could use the online Gunpowder Game (BBC) for ideas.