The Gunpowder Plot

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By Sara Fox

Bonfire Night is an exciting time for many children and can inspire a lot of excited discussion and creative writing. The literacy-themed activity ideas below are perfect for teaching KS1 or KS2 children about the Gunpowder Plot. For a more detailed KS2 lesson, download this ready-made PowerPoint lesson with teachers’ notes.

Read the Bonfire Night poem to introduce Guy Fawkes Night and ask the children to share some of their experiences of Bonfire Night. Find out what the children already know about why Bonfire Night is celebrated.

The Gunpowder Plot is remembered every year on the 5 November in the UK. Bonfire Night is celebrated with bonfires, the burning of a ‘Guy’ and fireworks. Children are often taught the start of this English Folk Verse (c.1870):

Remember, remember!
The fifth of November
The Gunpowder treason and plot;
I know of no reason
Why Gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot!