Lesson video

Welcome back to another history lesson, where this week it's space week! And we have already learned about Neil Armstrong, who was the first man on the moon.

But today we are learning about the first woman who went into space, and her name is Valentina Tereshkova.

She's from Russia.

So take a look at my rocket.

Can you help me get inside? You can? Thank you so much.

Now we are going to clap to get me there.

No, let's not clap.

Let's, hmm, what haven't we done? Should we jump? Can you jump to get me into space? I'm going to count down from three.

I'm going to go three, two, one.

And you're going to jump to help me get there.

Are you ready? So stand up wherever you are.

I'm going to close my eyes, 'cause sometimes it's a bit bumpy when you transport me to places.

Ready? Three, two, one.

Jump! Wow! I'm in the rocket, yes! I can't wait to go to space.

Do you want to join me? You do? Fantastic.

Now, can you say blast off to get our rocket started? Ready? Three, two, one.

Blast off! Two, one, booster ignition and liftoff of the space shuttle Discovery, returning to the space station, paving the way for future missions.

We've arrived in space.

Thank you so much for helping me get there in my rocket.

I was really scared.

Were you scared? No, you're just really brave.

I was a bit scared, but I did show lots of courage to get into space.

Now, can you remember what a historian is? Should we have a look at our options? So we have a historian is a person who.

Can you remember? So a historian is a person who studies and writes about the past.

Did you remember? You did? Fantastic.

Now in today's lesson, we are going to be looking at who was Yuri Gagarin? He's really important when we talk about Valentina.

We are going to be looking at who Valentina is, listen to the story of her life, look at the story of her life, and then we're going to draw the story of her life.

Today you will need your exercise book or a piece of paper.

A piece of paper would be better, because we're going to draw her life.

You will need a pencil and you will need a teddy who you can snuggle up to while you listen to the story of Valentina's life.

Now let's do our star words.

Stand up wherever you are and get your hands ready like this.

Ready? Star words, star words, star words.

Your turn.

So it's my turn, then your turn, so you're going to copy me.

Explorer.

An explorer is someone who makes journeys to new and treacherous places.

Moon.

Valentina, your turn.

Tereshkova.

Good.

Cosmonaut.

A cosmonaut is a Russian astronaut.

So if I say the word cosmonaut, you know that means astronaut, but that's what an astronaut is called in Russia.

Space.

Soviet Union.

Historic.

Good job, sit down wherever you are and get ready.

So Valentina Tereshkova is the first and youngest woman to have flown into space with a solo mission, that means on her own.

She is still the first woman to have been on a solo space mission.

She was the first woman in space.

Now, when we talk about Valentina, it's really important you know who this person is.

So this is Yuri Gagarin.

Before I tell you the story of Valentina's life, it's really important that you known who Yuri is.

Now he was the first human to ever travel into space.

He was Russian just like Valentina, and he travelled in a capsule called the Vostok 1.

He went into space two years before Valentina did, but suddenly he died seven years later in a plane crash.

So he died really young.

Now I'd like you to fill in the gaps.

Who was Yuri Gagarin? So Yuri Gagarin was the.

human ever to.

into outer.

Can you write down the sentence in your book and fill in the gaps? Pause the video now.

Fantastic, let's check your answers.

So Yuri Gagarin was the first human to ever travel into outer space.

Now you may have written the word first.

F-I-R-S-T.

That's okay, that's right too.

Now, can you remember what a biography is? So a biography is a piece of writing that tells true fact and information about someone's life.

It's written by another person.

So I have written my own biography about Valentina Tereshkova, and I'm going to be telling you about her life.

Now I have missed out some parts, but I've included some of the really important parts to tell you in a story-like way.

So get comfy and get ready to hear the story of Valentina's life.

Let me just get comfy too.

Are you ready? Great.

So I'm going to read it to you three times.

The first time I'm going to read it to you like this.

Then we're going to look at pictures, and then we're going to draw the story of her life, okay? So.

Valentina Tereshkova was born in Russia in 1937.

She loved parachuting and did her first skydiving jump when she was 22 years old.

Now America wanted to be the first country to send a woman into space, but Russia did too.

The race was on to see who could get the first woman into space, Russia or America.

You need to be the right size, the right weight and the right height to follow the space flight rules.

400 women were considered to go into space, but Valentina was a perfect match.

She joined the Air Force when she was 25 years old to be part of the programme, even though she didn't really want to go into space.

Five women were chosen from the Air Force to begin their really strict training.

Valentina was chosen for the Vostok 6 mission.

In 1963, Valentina dressed in her space suit, completed her life support checks and was sealed inside the Vostok.

She was 26 years old.

How old was she? Good.

It launched without any problems, and she said, "Hey sky, take off your hat.

I'm on my way." As the spacecraft took off.

Valentina spent almost three days in space and she orbited Earth 46 times.

She went around the earth, sorry, 48 times, all the way around the earth.

Valentina is still the only woman to have flown into space, solo, so on her own.

And she's still the youngest woman ever to do that.

After her space flight, she wanted to continue to be a cosmonaut, a Russian astronaut, but the Soviet space programme did not want to risk losing her after Yuri died so young.

So instead, she became a role model all across the world and did lots of wonderful things.

Wow.

She lived a busy life too, didn't she? Just like Neil Armstrong.

Now we're going to read the story again, but I'm going to show you some pictures.

So continue to be comfy.

You might have a drink with you already.

So let's start to look at some of the pictures with her life.

So Valentina Tereshkova was born in Russia in 1937.

She loved parachuting and did her first skydiving jump when she was 22 years old.

America wanted to be the first country to send a woman into space, but Russia did too.

The race was on to see who could get the first woman into space.

You need it to be the right size, weight and height to fly the space rules.

400 women were considered to go into space, but Valentina was a perfect match.

She joined the Air Force when she was 25 to be part of the programme, even though she didn't really want to go into space.

Five women were chosen from the Air Force to begin their strict training.

Valentina was chosen for the Vostok 6 mission.

In 1963, Valentina dressed in her space suit, completed her space checks and was sealed in the Vostok, which you can see here.

It launched without any problems. And she said, "Hey sky, take off your hat.

I'm on my way." As the craft took off.

Valentina spent almost three days in space.

She orbited the earth 48 times.

Valentina is still the only woman to fly into space solo and the youngest at 26 years old.

After her space flight, she wanted to continue to be a cosmonaut, but the Soviet space programme didn't want to risk losing her After Yuri died so young.

She became a role model around the world.

Now the difference here is that Valentina is still alive, whereas Neil Armstrong, sadly, he died a few years ago.

So Valentina is still alive and is still a role model around the world.

This is what she looks like.

Now, we are going to be mapping the story of her life.

So you're going to need a piece of paper and your pencil, ready to draw pictures to represent the story of her life.

So now we are going to draw our story map.

So we need to have nine boxes on our map.

So what we're going to do is we're going to turn it longways, we're going to fold in to make sure that this side is roughly the same size as that.

We're not folding it all the way.

Then make a crease.

Then you're going to fold the other side inwards and make a crease.

You might need a grownup to help you.

Then open it up and you should have three columns.

Turn it back round, and you're going to fold this side in this time.

So make sure this side is roughly the same size as that side.

Make a crease.

And then fold the other side again, and make a crease.

You should then be left with nine boxes roughly the same size.

Okay, so we're now going to just start mapping the story of Valentina Tereshkov's life.

So first I'm going to do the first three boxes.

Then you're going to have a chance to pause the video and draw it yourself, okay? So box number one, I'm going to write her name.

Valentina.

Valentina.

I might move this down so you can see the first, there we go.

Valentina Tereshkova.

So Valentina Tereshkova was born in Russia, so I'm going to draw a little baby.

She was born in Russia in 1937.

She loved parachuting and did her first jump when she was 22 years old.

So I'm going to draw a little parachute.

A person here.

There's some strings attaching the parachute.

Okay, box number one done.

Oh, she was 22, so I'm going to write she was 22.

America wanted to be the first country to send a woman to space, but Russia did too.

The race was on between America and Russia.

The race was on to see who could get the first woman into space.

I'm going to draw first.

Going to draw a little lady.

First woman into space.

I'm going to draw some planets to show they wanted to be the first woman in space.

Okay.

Box number three.

Make sure that you write the numbers as well, it's really important.

So number three.

You had to be the right size, right weight and height to follow the space flight rules.

So to follow the rules, you have to be the right, the right height.

You had to be the right weight.

I'm going to draw a little weight here.

And you had to be the right size.

And Valentina was a match for all of those things.

Now it's your turn.

Can you pause the video and draw box number one, two and three? Okay, now I missed that part off, there were 400 women here who were considered to be in space flight programme.

Sorry, so add the number 400 here were considered.

Now she joined the Air Force when she was 25 years old, even though she didn't really want to go to space.

So she joined the Air Force when she was, how old was she? Good, 25 years old.

And I'm going to draw a plane to represent the Air Force.

Even though she didn't really, she didn't really want to go to space.

We're going to draw a cross through the planets on the space that I've drawn there to show that she didn't really want to go.

Number five, five women were chosen from the Air Force to begin their strict training.

So I'm just going to draw one, two, three, four, five smiley faces to show that there were five people, five ladies considered to go into space.

Number six, Valentina was chosen for the Vostok 6 mission.

So I'm going to write that, Vostok 6 mission in 1963.

So she dressed in her space suit.

So I might draw a little person in a little space suit.

It looks more like a gingerbread man, but we're going to go with it.

So she was in her space suit.

Looks a bit like a gingerbread man, but we're going to go with it.

She dressed in her space suit, completed her life support checks and was sealed in the Vostok 6.

Remember, it looks like this, doesn't it? Like a big ball.

Number seven.

So pause the video and draw number four, five and six.

Okay, now we're going to do seven, eight and nine.

So number seven, it launched without any problems. And she said, "Hey sky, take off your hat.

I'm on my way." So I'm going to draw a picture of her in her space suit.

This is her helmet.

Going to draw her eyes so you can see her eyes and a little smiley face to show she was in her space suit, ready to go.

She said, "Hey sky, take off your hat.

I'm on my way." You could write that down if you want to.

Box number eight.

Valentina spent almost three days in space.

She orbited Earth, that means she went round the Earth 48 times.

I'm going to draw an arrow all the way around, and I'm going to write 48 to show that she went round the Earth 48 times.

Gosh.

Valentina is still the only woman to fly to space solo and the youngest at 26.

So I'm going to draw a rocket to show that Valentina is still the only woman to fly solo into space at 26 years old.

Okay.

And last box, number nine.

After her space flight, she wanted to continue being a cosmonaut, but the Soviet programme did not want to lose her after Yuri died.

She became a role model around the world.

So they wanted to keep her safe and they didn't want her to be any danger, in any danger, because when you go to space, it's really dangerous.

So they wanted to keep her safe, and she was a role model all the way around the world.

So I'm going to draw a planet to show that she was a role model.

Okay.

Now you can draw box number seven, eight and nine on your story map.

Pause the video and do that now.

Now that we have mapped the story of her life, can you retell the story using your story map to someone in your house? I'm sure they would love to hear who Valentina is and what wonderful things she did in her life.

Now remember that when you're retelling your story, you need to stand up straight, speak really clearly, and you can use actions to help you if you want to, if you remember it that well, but you could hold your story back up.

But don't hold it up here, because you won't be able to hear your voice, so hold it nice and low.

Stand up straight and speak really clearly about the story.