Following on from our visit to Bramhall Hall and our learning about the Tudor monarchs, I wanted to do a separate short study on Tudor explorers. The Tudors were fond of exploring and the end of the Tudor reign was known as the Golden Age of Exploration. I think it’s a really key thing to learn for lots of reasons and I have shared here our approach.
D and E were 7 and 6 at the time of this lesson.
Resources Required
- Tudor Explorers Powerpoint
- Exploration map from Teaching Packs Tudor Guide
- Spanish Armada Timeline
- Spanish Armada powerpoint
- Lapbook templates from Home School Share.
- A3 Card for lapbook
The Lesson
We started by talking about the Tudors, and recapping what we had already learnt about the different Tudor monarchs and how England had changed during their reign. We then read the Tudor explorer powerpoint and located the various spots on a map. We talked about Sir John Hawkins who was the first English Merchant to be involved in the slave trade and talked about why that was important to understand the UK (and the world) now in light of Black Lives Matter.
We then looked at the Spanish Armada in detail and completed the timeline activity (making it into a fold-out for the lapbooks. I had then used the templates from Home School Share to create six inserts about the six explorers mentioned in the powerpoint. The children then added something about each one and placed them in chronological order in their lapbooks.
I then had four more inserts with the following questions:
- Why did the English explore?
- What was the Elizabethan period known as?
- What was it considered a Golden Age of Exploration?
- What was the first English Merchant to be involved with the slave trade?
We then added in a map that showed the different trade routes and decorated the cover with a ship image.
This was by no means a big and indepth lesson, but it got across the idea that England explored the world, the reasons why and what it eventually led to in terms of slavery and established trade routes for the later industrial revolution.
It’s important to note that I’m writing this at a time when the Black Lives Matter movement is (rightfully) gaining huge prominence and we might be seeing, finally, steps taken in the right direction. I shared images of my children at Bramhall Hall in the same week as this movement was gathering a lot of publicity and I had people tell me that I should skip this part of history. I also saw people sharing memes on Facebook and other social media that talked about how they can tell you how many wives Henry VIII had but can’t tell you about Edward Colson (whos statue was toppled that week). I replied that all history is relevant, and the Tudor period in particular as it was the first time we, as a nation, became involved in the slave trade. I agree that the national curriculum for history needs a rethink, but I would urge parents to dig deep into the topics that they were taught at school and look to reframe them in line with today’s conversations.
Other Things to Explore
There’s a lot more that you could explore here with this topic, especially with older children but here are some ideas:
- Undertake a more indepth study of some of the explorers mentioned
- Write a diary entry about how it might feel to travel to and discover a new land.
- Compare the trade routes of the Tudor era with trade today. A quick look in your fruit bowl should provide some interesting discussion as a starter
- Look at how trade links established in the west compared with those established in the east.
- Create a Spanish armada shadow puppet show using simple props
- Take a look at my Tudor Monarchs lapbook.
