Year 5 - Victorian inventions

This week, in History, Year 5 have been finding out more about some of the important inventions of the Victorian period that changed the way that people lived, worked and travelled. We found out that many of the things we take for granted today such as photography, telephones, electric light bulbs and cars were invented during Queen Victoria’s reign. We also found out about some of their more bizarre inventions such as the ‘tempest prognosticator’ which used leeches to try to predict the weather.

The pupils were then given a 5 minute challenge to come up with their own invention to solve a common problem. We had inventions for people who don’t have time to walk the dog, for those who find homework boring, those who want to change their outfit lots of times and ways to see through walls and doors. The explanations for how their inventions work were very creative!

After watching a clip from Dragon’s Den, we planned a pitch that we will present to Queen Victoria for her Royal seal of approval. We can’t wait to hear their very persuasive pitches next week.