A Day at the Seaside

Experience all the fun and excitement of a day out at the seaside in Victorian times without leaving your classroom. We’ve selected some of our favourite Victorian photos, posters and prints from The National Archives’ huge collection of images. You’ll find below lots of suggestions for sensory activities that you can easily do in your classroom. They’ll help you use our images as a starting point to bring all the sights, sounds, smells and experiences of the Victorian seaside to life.

We recommend you follow the six sections below in order, but you don’t need to use every image or do every suggested activity. Just choose or adapt the ones that are most suitable for your students. There are sensory activities, signed videos, sound files and ideas for further discussion – hopefully something for everybody. You may even come up with some ideas of your own for activities based on our images. If you do, we’d love to hear about them!

This resource is suitable for students working from P1 to KS2.

P Scale links:

  • English (Speaking and listening)
  • Geography
  • History
  • Music

National Curriculum links:
History – The Victorians Download the activity pack (399MB)

Part One – Entering the Archives

You may not be able to visit The National Archives with your students, but you can literally immerse them in the world of historic documents, paper and parchment.

Part Two – Where shall we go?

Let's take a look at a Victorian map and decide where to go on our trip to the beach.

Part Three – How shall we get there?

It's time to choose a method of travel for our trip to the beach.

Part Four – On the beach

Where do we want to sit on the beach? What activities can we do while we’re here?

Part Five – On the pier

Let's take a walk along the pier.

Part Six – Time to go home

Our day at the seaside is ending.