Lesson video

Hello everyone, it's Mr. Brown here with your English lesson for today, and we are going to be planning, planning a second section of a report on the Great Fire of London, a non-chronological report on the Great Fire of London.

So let's get planning.

The outcome for today's lesson is I can make a plan for writing about how the Great Fire of London spread and stopped.

And the keywords which will help us on our learning journey today are plan and notes.

My turn, your turn, plan, notes.

Very good, well done! Okay, so we're going to start looking at preparing to plan.

That will be the first part of our lesson.

We will then move our learning on to writing the plan.

In this lesson, you'll be making a brief, which means a small and short plan that will support you when writing a section of a non-chronological report on the Great Fire of London.

A plan helps a writer to organise their ideas, thoughts, and information they may want to include in their writing.

In order to plan effectively, which means planning really well, which is what we're trying to do, you will need to prepare by becoming familiar with the key information you'll be sharing in the second section of your report.

The sections of a non-chronological report are structured in this order.

You start with an introduction section, then Section 1 of your main information, and Section 2.

And in this lesson, we are planning the second section, which will be all about how the fire spread and stopped.

Section 1, was about how the fire started.

Section 2 is about how the fire spread and stopped.

To explain how the fire spread and stopped, you'll need to tell the reader how the fire spread, where the fire spread to, how people tried and failed to stop the fire, and how the fire was effectively put out eventually, eventually put out.

So let's remind ourselves on how the fire started.

The fire started over 350 years ago, on Sunday the 2nd of September, 1666.

It started in the evening and it continued for four whole days! It took place in London on a street called Pudding Lane, and you can see a visual there to try and help us understand just how long ago this was.

So from 2024, it was 358 years, going back to 1666, a very, very long time ago.

A man named Thomas Farriner, who was the King's baker, accidentally, which means he did not do it on purpose, he didn't want to start a fire, he accidentally started the Great Fire.

It is believed that he forgot to put out his oven at the end of the day, and a spark from the oven caused a fire to break out in the bakery.

And you can see a picture there of what a bakery might have looked like hundreds of years ago.

So let's check our understanding.

Who was responsible for accidentally starting the Great Fire of London? Was it A, Thomas Farriner, B, Thomas Baker, or C, Thomas Mayor? Pause the lesson.

Have a go at this question now.

Welcome back, everyone, let's see if you are right.

I've got my fingers crossed that you knew it was Thomas Farriner.

A, Thomas Farriner, the King's baker.

So, let's think about how the fire spread.

London was experiencing a very hot, dry summer and at this particular time, there was also very strong winds.

The fire could easily spread from house to house because the houses were so close together and the streets were very narrow, which means they weren't wide, they were narrow.

So we have got hot, dry summer, which means that there isn't much moisture.

The roofs of the houses are not wet, they're hot, and they're dry.

Combine this with strong winds that can push the flames from house to house.

Then you've got narrow streets, where the houses are right next to each other, and suddenly, you're thinking, "This is the perfect environment for a fire to spread." Also, the buildings were mostly made from wood and straw, and these materials burn very easily, especially when they're dry, which they would've been in this summer because it was a hot, dry summer.

The conditions were perfect for the fire to spread and the wind blew the flames from building to building.

Let's check our understanding.

Which three of these made the fire spread so quickly? Was it, A, a hot, dry summer? So we're looking for three of these.

Was it B, windy conditions, C, the spark from the oven, or D, narrow streets with buildings close together? Which three of these made the fire spread so quickly? Pause the video and decide which three now.

Welcome back, everyone.

So did you find the three answers? Well done If you said a hot, dry summer, it was a hot, dry summer in 1666.

And this meant the fire spread quickly because the materials in the houses were dry.

So that would mean that the fire would be up to spread more easily.

Windy conditions.

The wind pushed the fire from building to building.

So well done if you said windy conditions.

C, a spark from the oven, or D, narrow streets with buildings close together? Hmm, what do you think? A spark from the oven or narrow streets with buildings close together? Now the spark from the oven caused the fire, it started because of the spark, but that spark did not contribute to the fire spreading so quickly, that was D, narrow streets with buildings close together.

Well done, if you got those correct answers.

Very quickly, the whole of Pudding Lane was on fire.

Before long, the fire had spread to the nearby areas and it showed no sign of being stopped.

Londoners tried to battle the flames, but with only buckets, axes, and water squirts this did very little to stop the fire.

There was not an organised fire brigade in 1666, and so people would have to fight the fire themselves, so they couldn't call 999 like we do, and the fire brigade would come and help us, that didn't happen.

They even had to collect the water to use to fight the fire from the River Thames.

So they didn't have fire engines bringing the water to the fire, they had to go collect the water and bring it back.

Now the Lord Mayor of London, which is a really important job, this is someone who is in charge of the city, of the City of London, making sure that everything is running smoothly, helping people to be able to enjoy living in London and working in London.

So the Lord Mayor of London was asked if he would allow people to make firebreaks to help stop the fire spreading across the whole city.

However, he said no.

Now firebreaks, are when a building is blown up using explosives like dynamite.

Now when the fire reaches that building, there's nothing there for it to burn, it's been blown up, it doesn't exist anymore.

So this is why it would stop a fire spreading, hence, being called a firebreak.

Firebreaks are gaps where a fire has nothing to burn.

These will be created by people blowing up buildings with gunpowder.

On the third day of the fire, The Lord Mayor had no choice but to agree to using firebreaks to try and stop the fire spreading.

So he didn't want to destroy the city that he obviously loved very much, the city that his job was to look after.

But he knew that he had to stop this fire, otherwise, the entire city could be destroyed.

So he said that the people could use firebreaks.

True or false? Firebreaks are created by people blowing up buildings with gunpowder, is that true or is that false? Pause the lesson and decide for yourself now.

Welcome back, everyone.

Let's see if you were right.

Firebreaks are created by people blowing up buildings with gunpowder is true, they are.

Well done if you said true.

The winds gradually, which means very slowly, and gradually over maybe hours or even days, the winds gradually dropped.

And this helped to slow the spread of the fire across London.

After four days, the fire was eventually extinguished, which is an amazing word, which means put out, the fire was put out, extinguished on Thursday, the 6th of September.

The damage caused by the Great Fire of London was immense.

It was huge.

436 acres of London were destroyed.

That is such a big area of land.

436 acres of London were destroyed.

13,200 houses were completely ruined.

Out of London's 109 churches, 87 of them were wrecked by the fire and had to be torn down.

It took over 50 years for the parts of London destroyed by the fire to be fully repaired, 50 years! New rules and regulations were designed to prevent such a disaster from ever happening again.

Streets were widened, houses spaced further apart.

So we've now got wider streets, instead of the narrow streets, the houses are spaced further apart, rather than being right next to each other, and buildings now had to be made of brick, instead of wood.

Brick is a much less flammable material, which means it doesn't burn easily like wood does.

The Great Fire of London is one of the most significant events, significant means, very important, significant events to ever take place in London, and people still learn about this devastating part of history today.

So over 350 years later, we are still teaching you about this devastating part of history.

Let's check your understanding.

Which three of these were done as part of new rules to stop a disaster like the Great Fire of London ever happening again? Which three of these? A, the streets were widened.

B, fire alarms were added.

C, houses were spaced apart, and D, buildings were made from brick, Which three of these were done as part of new rules to stop a disaster like the Great Fire ever happening again, which three? Pause the video and decide for yourself now.

Welcome, back, okay, so let's see which three of these were done.

A, the streets were widened.

C, houses were spaced further apart.

So the fire couldn't easily spread from one house to the next.

So is it B, fire alarms added? Or D, buildings made from brick? Now, B fire alarms added is something that we now have in place that helps stop big fires like the Great Fire of London happening, but they didn't have the technology to have fire alarms put in place in 1666.

So the answer is D, buildings made from brick.

Well done if you said A, C, and D.

Okay, let's have a practise task.

I would like you to fill in the blanks with the words below.

So you can see there are five blanks and five words in that box that I would like you to use to put in place of the blank, so that this paragraph makes sense.

I will read it to you now, and then I'll leave a gap so you can see where the word needs to be added.

The fire spread quickly because the weather had been, something, dry and windy.

So the weather had been, something, dry and windy, what could that word be? Down the bottom, you've got buckets, Mayor, 50, hot, wood.

I suggest you try adding a word in to see if it sounds right, see if it makes sense.

The fire spread quickly because the weather had been, wood, dry, and windy.

Hmm, I don't think that makes sense.

Let me keep going.

Furthermore, the houses were all close together and made of, something, and straw.

Hmm, what could that be? They were made of something and straw.

There was not an organised fire brigade in 1666, so Londoners tried to fight the fire themselves.

However, with only leather, something, axes, and water squirts, they had little chance.

The Lord, something, ordered firebreaks to be used, which involved blowing up buildings with gunpowder to try and stop the fire spreading.

The fire raged for over four days before the wind died down and it was eventually stopped.

It took over, something years, to repair the damage done.

How many years did it take to repair the damage that the Great Fire of London caused? Okay, over to you now, fill in those blanks, pause the video, and have a go now.

Welcome back, everyone.

Okay, let's see how you got on.

So the fire spread quickly because the weather had been, hot, dry, and windy, hot, dry and windy.

Furthermore, the houses were all close together and made of wood and straw.

There was not an organised fire brigade in 1666 so Londoners tried to fight the fire themselves.

However, with only leather buckets, axes, and water squares, they had little chunks.

The Lord Mayor ordered firebreaks to be used, which involved blowing up buildings with gunpowder to stop the fire spreading.

The fire raged for over four days before the wind died down and it was eventually stopped.

It took over 50 years to repair the damage done.

Well done if you managed to find the right words for those gaps.

Okay, let's move on to writing the plan.

When we write a plan, we use notes.

Notes are short and capture key vocabulary and important information.

The purpose of notes is to help the writer to organise information easily for future use.

We use bullet points when note-taking and they look a bit like this.

So you can see there, they've got kind of a thick full stop that's floating on the left side, and then that's where you'd write your notes next it, and those are called bullet points.

Let's check our understanding, which two of these are things that notes help us to capture? Is it full sentences, unimportant information, key vocabulary, important information, A, B, C, or D? Which two of these are things that notes help us to capture? Pause the video and decide for yourself now.

And welcome back.

Okay, let's see if you managed to get these right.

So notes help us to capture key vocabulary, the important words, and important information, the things that we know we need to include in our piece of writing.

That's what notes help us to capture.

Notes are not full sentences, and unimportant information, well, if it's not important, it shouldn't be in your notes.

Notes are not written in full sentences and do not require capital letters, full stops or commas.

However, capital letters should still be used for proper nouns.

For example, London is a proper noun, and Lord Mayor is a proper noun.

These should still be used because if we don't use those in our notes, it might confuse us and we might end up not using a capital letter for London, for example, when we come to do our writing.

Notes can be made of just a few words.

The writer making the notes just needs to understand them.

That's the only person that the notes are for.

They are not there to be marked or read by lots of people, they are just for you.

So as long as you understand the notes, that's perfect.

The writer then takes the notes and turns them into full sentences.

Let's check our understanding.

When we write a plan, which of these do we use? Is it A, full sentences, B, drawings, or, C notes? Pause the video and decide which of these do we use when we write a plan, over to you.

Welcome back, okay, let's see.

Now we know in a plan we do not use full sentences.

We could use drawings, but it might take a long time to do a drawing.

The plan should be completed, you know, in quite a short space of time.

So it's notes, well done if you said, C.

Here is an example of some notes from a plan about how the Great Fire of London spread and stopped.

So you can see this is definitely not in a full sentence, there's no capital letter at the start.

All that we have is hot & dry, that symbol means and, hot & dry weather + wind = fire spread quickly.

This person's notes are almost a bit like a maths equation.

You've got an addition symbol there, and an equals symbol.

So we've got hot &dry weather + wind = fire spread quickly.

The writer can take these notes and turn them into one or even two full sentences.

For example, London had experienced a lot of very hot and dry weather.

Also, it was very windy when the fire started and these conditions made the fire spread extremely quickly across the city.

So those notes, hot & dry weather + wind = fire spread quickly," have been turned into two full detailed sentences.

That's what we're aiming to do.

Which notes helped the writer to write this sentence? So let's read a sentence.

There was no organised fire brigade in 1666 so Londoners used leather buckets, axes and water squirts to fight the fire.

Which set of notes helped the writer to write that sentence? Was it, A, firebreaks? And then there's a dash.

Firebreaks - stop fire spreading.

B, No fire brigade - leather buckets, axes, water squirts, or C, hot & dry weather + wind = fire spread quickly.

Which sets of notes, A, B, or C helped to write the sentence, there was no organised fire brigade in 1666 so Londoners used leather buckets, axes and water squirts to fight the fire? Pause the video and decide for yourself now Welcome back, everyone.

Let's see if you were right.

Congratulations if you said B, no fire brigade - leather buckets, axes, water squirts.

That's the note and the sentence you can see there, there was no organised fire brigade in 1666, So the words "no fire brigade" have been turned into, "There was no organised fire brigade in 1666 so London has used," and then I've got a list, "Leather buckets, axes, and water squirts." That's in my note.

And then I've added in my sentence, "To fight the fire." Well done if you said, B.

Okay, time for a practise task.

I would like you to write three or four sets of notes about how the fire spread and stopped.

Use the prompts below to help you.

So I've given you a box of prompts, things like hot, dry, windy, wood & straw, narrow streets, leather buckets, axes and water squirts, Lord Mayor, and firebreaks.

These are things that I would expect to see in your notes.

I would like you to use bullet points for each note.

And here's an example, and I've put this bullet point as the third in the list because in chronological order, this is where it would come.

No fire brigade - leather buckets, axis, water squirts.

That's an example for you to use.

So now it's over to you.

Write three to four sets of notes about how the fire spread and stopped.

Pause the video and have a go at writing your notes now.

Welcome back, everyone, let's have a look at some notes that you might have used.

Hot & dry weather + wind = fire spread quickly.

That's a really effective note helping me to be able to write a sentence all about how the weather and the wind contributed to the fire spreading quickly.

Wooden houses with straw roofs on narrow streets.

No fire brigade - leather buckets, axes, water squirts.

Lord Mayor allowed firebreaks - explosions = stop fire.

They are notes, and you could use them to write full sentences 'cause that's exactly the purpose of notes.

Well done, excellent work today! Let's summarise our learning.

The fire spread quickly because the weather was dry, hot and windy.

The fire spread easily because the buildings were made of wood and straw and were close together on narrow streets.

There was no fire brigade, so Londoners used leather buckets, axes and water squirts to try and fight the fire.

A plan helps a writer to organise their ideas, thoughts, and information they want to include in their writing.

Notes can be used in a plan to help organise key information and are not written in full sentences.

Brilliant work, I will see you again very soon!.