Learning By Topic KS2: Horrible Histories – The Movie and English

Theme/Spelling words: Emperor, Boudicca, rebellion, Celts, captured, revolting, miserable, historical, revolting, gruesome

List spellings in alphabetical order; write synonyms and antonyms for words (where appropriate); create a crossword puzzle for your theme words; write your theme words in sentences or use all of them in a short story, include some effective language features e.g. similes, metaphors, alliteration and personification.

The title of the Horrible History film is Rotten Romans. This is an example of alliteration which is used in the majority of the Horrible Histories series. Why do you think Terry Deary (the author of the books) used alliteration in his titles? Can you give your friends and family members alliterated names?

During Roman times a newspaper of sorts was first used to communicate current affairs. There was no paper back then so messages were inscribed onto stone and placed in spots were people could read them. It was called Acta Diurna meaning daily acts. Create your own Acta Diurna that includes important information for your household and place it in a spot in your household where you know every family member will be able to see it. You probably won’t carve anything into stone but you can choose how you present your work (chalkboard, white board, paper). You could do this every morning for a week!

After having seen the film Horrible Histories: The Movie – Rotten Romans, write a review on the film. (Genre of writing: Personal Response and Review) Top Tip: Remember to include a rating (e.g. out of 5 stars) at the end of your review.

Take a scene from the film that you found to be humorous and recreate it as a comic strip.

Choose another period in time that hasn’t been covered in the Horrible Histories series (so you may choose a time that is considered to be ‘modern’ history), write a story about it Horrible Histories style; it should be entertaining, humorous (make sure that this is done is a sensitive way) and educational. Write in script format and remember to give it an alliterated title! (Cross Curricular: History, Genre of writing: Narrative)

Do you think that children learn more about history through comedy? Discuss.