• Introduction
• Food Rationing - Notes for Householders
• Persuasive Writing
• More Resources for Persuasive Writing
• Healthy Eating
• More Resources for Healthy Eating
• History
• More Resources for History
• Areas of Learning
• Learning Outcomes
• Inspiring Learning for All
• Related Items in the Record Office

Food and Diet in World War II

Food Rationing - Notes for Householders

These ideas for activities use the article 'Food Rationing - Notes for Householders' taken from The Whitby Gazette, 12th January 1940. Click on the image opposite for a larger version of the article.  

• Create a set of question cards labelled ‘How’, ‘What’, ‘Why’, ‘When’, ‘Who’ and ‘Where’. Pupils should take it in turns to turn over a card and ask a question about the article beginning with the key word. The teacher should model this first and then ask pupils to follow, working as a whole class, in small groups or with partners. Other pupils in the class or group should try to answer the question.
• The article could be used as the beginning of research into rationing. Pupils could then be asked to consider what questions the article does not answer, pose these questions and follow other research trails.  
• Use the text for shared or guided reading and find language and text features related to newspapers and/or formal language.  
• Highlight the text to show:  why rationing was necessary, what took place, how the system worked.

The article dated  13^th September 1940 , 'No Scarcity of Food - Raids have little effects on stocks', could be used to supplement this work.

• Pupils could decide which foods could/should be rationed in the present day and why. They could then write a newspaper article to explain this modelled on the 1940 examples.