The Great Fire of London: a Year 1 history quiz game: what children learn
In September 1666 a fire started in a bakery on Pudding Lane in London. It burned for about four days and destroyed around 13,200 houses, 87 churches and the old St Paul’s Cathedral. The Great Fire of London is one of the events the National Curriculum suggests for Key Stage 1 because it is beyond living memory: nobody alive today saw it, so we learn about it from evidence such as diaries, paintings and maps.
This game asks short questions about what happened, who was involved and why the fire spread so fast. It is a good way to check that children remember the key facts after a story or lesson, and to start conversations about how London, and firefighting, have changed since 1666.
This topic covers a Key Stage 1 statutory requirement in the National Curriculum in England (Subject content): pupils should be taught about “events beyond living memory that are significant nationally or globally [for example, the Great Fire of London, the first aeroplane flight or events commemorated through festivals or anniversaries]”. The programme of study sets this for the whole of Key Stage 1, so schools choose when to teach it; we have placed this game in Year 1 (ages 5–6).
There is no direct equivalent in the US Common Core State Standards.
How to play
Put the events on the timeline from the earliest to the latest, then press Check. Tap an event, then a space on the timeline, or drag it there. Each game has 3 rounds with no timer. When you press Check, the events in the right place stay and show their dates, and you get one more try for the others. You get a point for each event placed right first time. For a quicker go, choose Quick quiz: 10 multiple-choice questions in 150 seconds (choose Relaxed for more time).
Step by step
- Tell the story first. Read or watch a simple version of the story. Children remember facts much better when they know the order: the bakery, the wind, the spreading flames, the escape by boat and the rebuilding.
- Meet the people. Thomas Farriner was the baker. Samuel Pepys wrote the diary. King Charles II was king. Christopher Wren designed the new St Paul’s Cathedral.
- Ask why it spread. Houses were made of wood and built close together, the summer had been dry and a strong wind was blowing. Ask your child which reason they think mattered most.
- Compare then and now. In 1666 there were buckets, fire hooks and squirts. Today we have fire engines, hoses, smoke alarms and brick houses.
- Talk about evidence. There were no cameras in 1666. Look at a painting of the fire together and ask: what can we learn from it?
Worked examples
Example 1: Where did the Great Fire of London start?
Working: Think back to the beginning of the story. The fire started early on a Sunday morning in the king’s baker’s shop.
Answer: A bakery in Pudding Lane.
Example 2: Why did the fire spread so quickly?
Working: Wood burns easily, and the houses were so close together that the flames jumped from one roof to the next.
Answer: The wooden houses were close together.
Example 3: How do we know about the Great Fire today?
Working: There were no photographs, but people wrote and drew what they saw.
Answer: From diaries, paintings and maps made at the time.
Common mistakes and how to fix them
- Mixing up 1666 with 1066. 1066 is the Battle of Hastings, 600 years earlier. Say “sixteen sixty-six” together and notice the three sixes.
- Thinking there were fire engines like today. Show pictures of leather buckets and fire hooks. Fire brigades as we know them came much later.
- Thinking Samuel Pepys started the fire. Pepys only wrote about it. The fire began in Thomas Farriner’s bakery.
Activities to try at home
- Read Samuel Pepys’s description of the fire in a children’s book and act out the escape on the river.
- Build a row of cardboard houses close together, then spread them out. Talk about why gaps helped stop the fire.
- Visit, or look online at, the Monument in London, built near Pudding Lane to remember the fire.
- Print the game sheet and play it after reading a story about the fire.
Ideas for the classroom
- Make a class timeline of the four days of the fire with pictures.
- Hot-seat Samuel Pepys or Thomas Farriner: pupils ask questions and the “character” answers.
- Compare a painting of 1666 London with a photograph of London today.
- Use the quiz as a starter at the beginning of the lesson and again at the end to show progress.
Free printable game and worksheet
The free printable starts with a game sheet, such as a colour-by-answer picture, an answer maze or a secret-code joke, followed by a worksheet. Both use the same checked questions as the online game, and the answers are on the last page. Print it, or save it as a PDF from your browser’s print menu.
Open the free printable game and worksheet
Frequently asked questions
How many people died in the fire?
Only a few deaths were recorded at the time, but historians think the real number was probably higher, because the deaths of poorer people were not always written down.
Did the fire end the plague?
This is an old story, but historians are not sure. The plague was already fading by 1666, and the fire did not reach many of the poorest areas where it had been worst.
Is this game only for Year 1?
The Great Fire can be taught at any point in Key Stage 1, so it suits Year 2 as well.