Florence Nightingale

This half term, we have been learning all about the life and times of Florence Nightingale and to end our topic, we had a very special visitor.

Can you remember any facts that you have learnt about Florence Nightingale?

When and where was she born?

When did she die?

What was she famous for?

How do we remember her today?

We went back in time to the Crimean War in 1855 in the middle of the Crimean War to learn what it was like to be a nurse or a soldier in Scutari hospital.

Where did the Crimean War take place? Do you know where Scutari is? Use a map to find out. 

The hospitals were dirty and soldiers had to sleep on the floor because there weren’t enough beds. There was no clean water and the food that the soldiers ate was mouldy. Rats carried disease throughout the hospital and many soldiers were dying from the poor conditions rather than their injuries.

Florence took a team of nurses to try and make the conditions better for the soldiers. We imagined what it would have been like to be there as a nurse or a soldier.

What was it like to dress up? Did you enjoy it? Could you have imagined what it was like to be a soldier or a nurse in the Crimean War?

We had a look at some artefacts and had to handle them carefully because they were fragile and old.

We also got to complete lots of other activities like playing with old-fashioned toys and games, making lavender bags and pretending to cook for the injured soldiers.

Thank you Florence for coming to visit, we had an amazing time!

How to continue the learning at home:

• Click here to play the BBC game about Florence Nightingale.
• Use Google to research more about the life and times of Florence Nightingale.
• Draw a picture of Florence Nightingale.
• Write a diary entry about your experience of Florence coming to visit.

Florence Nightingale Workshop

This week, we have had history come to life! As a special treat to finish the end of our topic, Florence Nightingale came to our school. It felt like we were actually in the Crimean War helping Florence Nightingale or being one of the soldiers.

We got a chance to dress up and it was so much fun. We could be Florence Nightingale, one of the nurses who helped her or we could have been one of the soldiers.

The lady brought lots of different artefacts with her so we had the opportunity to handle real-life objects like they would have had in 1854. There was even a severed hand in there too!

We had learnt that the hospitals in Scutari were disgusting. They were full of flea-ridden rats, the food was often mouldy, the water was infected and the injured soldiers often had to sleep on the floor as there were no beds left for them to rest on.

When Florence and her nurses came, she began to change all of this. Florence was using her own money to look after the soldiers and they started to get better. We have learnt that she had a nickname. The soldiers used to call her ‘The Lady with the Lamp’ because during the night, Florence would go and check up on the soldiers to make sure that they were okay with a small lamp.

Everyone had so much fun, teachers included! A massive thank you to Florence for coming to visit us.

What you can do to support your child’s learning at home:

• Ask your child if they can recall any of the facts that have learnt about Florence Nightingale.
• Click here to play a game and learn more about Florence.

Florence Nightingale Role Play Area

We  are so excited to be learning about Florence Nightingale that Miss Varley has created Scutari hospital for us to recreate what it must have been like during the Crimean War.

We have learnt that Scutari is in a place called Turkey so we have the Turkish flag up.

 

We have learnt that Florence was having to look after soldiers in disgusting conditions.

• Soldiers were having to sleep on the floor.
• There was no clean water to drink or bathe in.
• Food was often mouldy or stale.
• There were lots of rats and they were covered in disease and ran around the hospital, passing their bacteria and disease around.
• Many soldiers died from infection rather than their actual wounds.

We have also looked at a timeline of Florence Nightingale’s life to learn facts like when she was born, how old she was when she died.

We love dressing up and using our imagination to try and imagine what it must of been like for Florence, her nurses and the soldiers.

What you could do at home:

• Find out who Florence Nightingale is.
• Find out why is she important to nursing.
• Visit the library to find books about Florence.
• Use the internet to research more about the life of Florence Nightingale.