Samuel Pepys and the Great Plague of London

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This was originally part of a 7-week unit looking at the Great plague of London, the Great Fire of London, and Samuel Pepys as a famous person. Please note: these resources pre-date the 2014 National Curriculum.

Key questions:

• What was it like to be in London at the time of the Plague?
• What did people do?
• How do we know?

Great Plague Teachers Notes and Resources 

See links at bottom of page

The aim was for children to:

• learn about and understand a past situation and enter into past lives
• understand the sequence of events during the Plague (chronology)
• read and understand challenging texts
• revisit and consolidate their understanding of the diary and instruction genres. 

Teaching methods

• Storytelling
• Drama and role play
• Reading documents (exemplar)
• Learning about the past
• The Visual Image

See our guide to primary teaching methods

Related lessons:

Samuel Pepys and the Great Fire of London