Welcome, Year 5!
Each week we are going to post a Big Question to discuss for our topic of ‘Film’. These questions often require a lot of thinking and discussing, so talk to your family and talk to your friends on the blog. Other people’s answers might make you think about something else.
This week’s Big Question:
Would you prefer to spend your leisure time in Victorian times or nowadays?
Look at a range of sources such as: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/victorian_britain/leisure/
In your Home Learning book you could first brainstorm ways of spending free time as a Venn diagram- 21st century vs Victorian then discuss the differences/ similarities with family or on this blog. Was entertainment better in Victorian times or is it better nowadays? Please give reasons for your answer.
Please proof-read your response before submitting (check punctuation, spelling and grammar).
We look forward to reading your responses,
Mrs Avdiu & Ms Robertson
I would like to spend my leisure time nowadays because in Victorian times the poor children from 5-10 were forced to skip school and work in factories or coal mines to get money for their family,so they had no spare time to go play. Although wealthy children had toys and school, they almost always had a nanny who taught them what was proper and what was not.A normal day was usually nothing more than a lonely monotonous routine.Unlike nowadays, wealthy children would hardly get to talk to or see their parents except for a specified time each day.In conclusion I would not like to spend my leisure time in Victorian times.
Sounds horrid! They did actually have some time for play. Can you research some popular Victorian games or toys the children from that era played with?
Wealthy Victorian children usally played with horses, train sets, doll’s houses and toy soldiers. Unlike wealthy Victorian children, poor children would play with home-made toys such as peg dolls, spinning tops and skipping ropes.
I think I would want to have my leisure time nowadays because in Victorian times the adults were cruel to children . The children rarely
had leisure time in Victorian days because they had to do work .
That’s a good point. Do you know what they did for leisure time?
I think I would rather spend my leisure time nowadays rather than the Victorian times because now we have much more choice of how to spend our leisure time. Due to new technology we now have entertainment such as cinemas and iPads. We also have many more sporting activities which we can participate in. Theo?
We are definitely super lucky to have so much entertainment at our fingertips!
NOWADAYS …
Although it would be interesting to see and enjoy entertainment in the Victorian times , I feel like after a period of time the excitement decreases knowing how much more advanced it is nowadays as we have developed further entertainment but still enjoy some traditional ones. For the Victorians who couldn’t experience the new leisure activities in the present day circus’ , theatres , croquet , horseback riding , cycling , dancing and many many others would have been normal leisure activities and Victorians like we do know would have probably thought themselves lucky to have lots of different entertainment . On the other hand Victorians could play wherever they liked be it a field or the road so they probably enjoyed that whereas children nowadays could not do that in a big dangerous city as modern day times are much more civilized than back then . I would prefer to be safe than to risk getting hurt .
I understand your point. They did really love it when the circus came into town though! Can you find out a little more about this?
I would much prefer to spend my leisure time nowadays as humans have constructed more advanced technology. We have also built larger spaces to hang around, chat and play. Entertainment is better nowadays as we have all kinds of different things such as shopping centres, spas, public swimming pools and cinemas. Victorian children were also treated very badly and were forced to work hard everyday.
Very good points! I agree – children are definitely spoilt for choice these days compared to the Victorian children 🙂
Hi everyone! I would prefer to spend my leisure time today because back in the Victorian times they didn’t get a lot of leisure time as they made children work for most of the time. Also, nowadays we have better equipment for entertainment, such as cinemas, parks, shopping centres and restaurants.
That’s true! What’s your favourite leisure activity?
Hi Year 5. I have uploaded three of the films but Vimeo has a weekly limit which we have exceeded for the week. Therefore I will upload the rest of the films once it allows me to. They are very big files! Thanks for your patience.
Thank you Mrs Avdiu for posting our films.
RESPONSE …
Circus rose to their popularity in the Victorian period as Victorians loved watching exotic animals fight and they also watched jugglers ,
clowns , female acrobats and sometimes for special events children. Sometimes there were aquatic circus’ meaning the ring was flooded with water.
The Victorians who were going to the circus’ were probably almost certainly rich as I agree with Gabriella poor children ages 5-10 had to go into factories or even coal mines to work there so there was no way they could get tickets.
After having seen one show I presume the Victorians would have been so amazed that they wanted more so when another circus came into town they were tickled pink .
Thank you for sharing your knowledge of circuses. It must have been a very exciting event for the Victorians!
I would prefer to live in modern times.
This is because we have more leisure time and more choice of activities today compared to the Victorian era. It would be interesting to see exactly how people lived in the Victorian times. I would like to maybe visit in a time machine for 1 day, but then I would want to come back to 2020. In Victorian times, they did not have any technology especially entertainment entertaining technology, in modern times, we have entertainment technology like PlayStations are iPads and I would miss these things if I lived in the Victorian era.
Some very good points Dylan. I did not have technology as a child but I still had SO much fun! What’s your favourite leisure activity?
Good afternoon everyone ,
I prefer to be nowadays even though there were many great inventions at Victoria times, it was an interesting time and I love the types of clothes … but there were a lot of difficulties such as : a lot of differences with poverty and the richness and there were a lot of sickness.
Nowadays there is much more technology then before. Today we are facing big issues like virus as the corona virus there, but fortunately, there are more doctors then before to help us .
Maybe there are much more things I prefer in Victorian time , but there were more chances to die because if you were poor you would have very little money and not many chances to survive . For the virus, we have medicine and much more medicament.
Yes, we are very lucky now.
I would rather spend my leisure time in the Victorian times.
While there is better technology today, the Victorians spent their leisure time outside while nowadays we spend it inside mostly. Plus since we can’t go outside now I understand how boring staying inside can be. With the growth of the railway, going to the beach became very popular, which I like doing. So, overall I think that I would prefer to spend my leisure time in the Victorian times.
Thank you Zavan for sharing a different viewpoint. I agree with you – there would have been many more opportunities to play outside then.
I would rather spend my leisure time in modern day times because children in the Victorian times were forced to work from when they were 5. I also think that the adults were being very cruel and mean to the children. Spending some much time working children could even catch all sorts of diseases like lung problems.
Thank you for sharing your opinion Elena.
Dear Year 5,
These are great ideas and it’s impressive to see you thinking so carefully about this Big Question.
On the topic of Films I just want to say how much I enjoyed watching your films on our last day of school last week. Thank you again for providing such great entertainment and high quality films in such a short time frame.
Take care, Miss Coleman
Thank you Miss Coleman! We are glad you enjoyed them.
Dear Miss Coleman ,
Thank you, Miss Coleman for your nice words !
I hope you are safe with your family !
lots
of
love
Violette
Hi Year 5. I was so happy to be invited to watch your films. They were great. You worked really hard. I’m sorry I never had as much time to talk about films as we had planned.
Before I read your fabulous posts I was sure that I was going to say Victorian times. However, you have convinced me that it is much more fun to be a child now than then.
To a Victorian child it must have been so exciting to be there at the birth of cinema. But sadly not all children were; only the privileged few. Entertainment is readily available for more children nowadays.
Imagine, though, being able to go in a time machine and experiencing the very early films though. Then a few years on watching and hearing The Jazz Singer. Or being in a cinema to see epics like Gone with the Wind for the first time. Fabulous.
One of the tasks I have set myself is to look at listings from TV channels and search out some good or important films for you guys. Though you may not agree with me on the quality. I’ll keep you posted.
Hello I hope everyone is doing okay,
I would prefer to spend my time in the modern-day because nowadays you can do so many different activities such as watching television, listening to the radio, art (drawing, colouring in, crafts)and so much more. Secondly, in the Victorian ages children would hardly get any leisure time. The kids from middle class and higher class backgrounds would go to school, the working class kids would go to factories and mines. Both types of lifestyle would include coming back late to a meal(if your family could afford one for you) and going to bed.