Video Unit 1 Teaching notes
Summary of video
The video is about Beamish, the Living Museum of
the North, and what visitors can see and do there.
Preparation
Before watching the video, you may need to pre-
teach, or review, the following vocabulary:
maid, plough, tractor, coal mining, agriculture,
kitchen utensils, steam engines, re-creation,
restored, mines, coal, ponies.
Write these words on the board and ask students if
they know what any of the words mean. If students
don’t know the words, they can look them up in their
dictionaries and explain the meanings to the class.
Background
Beamish is a famous open-air museum located in
the village of Beamish in County Durham, England.
The museum aims to preserve an example of daily
life in urban and rural north-east England in the
early 20th century.
The museum covers 350 acres and is made up of a
mixture of original and replica buildings showing
how people lived in the late Victorian and
Edwardian eras. There is a huge collection of
working vehicles and equipment on display, as well
as thousands of historical artefacts. Visitors can talk
with costumed staff and see animals used in
farming and mining.
Beamish has won several awards and has
influenced other ‘living museums’. It is a very useful
educational resource and also helps preserve some
rare and traditional breeds of animals.
Go
Read the questions with the class and elicit answers
from individual students. Encourage students to
give a personal response and use their suggestions
to start a class discussion.
With weaker classes, read out the questions and
allow students time to think about their answers
individually. Put students into pairs to discuss their
answers. Then ask some students to report back to
the class.
Answers: Students’ own answers.
Comprehension check
1 Watch the video. Choose the correct answers.
Pre-watching: Students focus on the questions.
With weaker classes, read through the questions
together and check students understand them all.
► Play the whole video. Students choose the
correct answers. With weaker classes, play the
video again and pause after each question.
Answers: 1 b 2 b 3 c
2 Watch again. Number the things in the order you
see them.
Pre-watching: Ask students to try to remember the
correct order of items before watching the video
again. With weaker classes, check students
understand all the words.
► Play the video to check their answers. Ask
students to read out the items in the correct order.
With weaker classes, read out the items and ask
students to call out the correct numbers.
Answers: 6, 1, 4, 8, 5, 3, 7, 2
3 Watch again and correct the words in bold.
Pre-watching: Ask students to try to correct the
words from memory before watching the video
again to check. With weaker classes, read through
the sentences together and ask the students to
work in pairs to correct the words.
► Play the video and pause after each sentence to
check answers.
Answers: 1 workhorses 2 museums 3 sweets
4 trams 5 ovens 6 classes
4 Complete the sentences with the words in the
box. Then watch again and check your answers.
Pre-watching: Look at the words in the box with the
students. With weaker classes, check their
understanding of the words by giving a brief
definition of each one to elicit the correct word. With
stronger classes, you could ask students to give
definitions for each word. Ask students to complete
the sentences before they watch the video again.
► Play the video and pause after each sentence to
check answers.
Answers: 1 visitors 2 industries 3 traditions
4 objects 5 homes 6 mines
Video Unit 1 Teaching notes
Extension
Ask students to ask and answer the questions in
pairs. Monitor and help. With weaker classes, give
students time to read through the questions and
think about their answers before they work in pairs.
Finally, ask some students to report back to the
class.
Answers: Students’ own answers.
Fast finishers
Ask students to imagine they spent a day at
Beamish last weekend. Ask them to write sentences
about what they saw and did there.
Optional activity
Ask students to write one true and one false
sentence about Beamish, based on the video. They
can use the questions on the worksheet to help
them. Divide the class into two teams and have
students from each team in turn read out one of
their sentences. Students from the other team say if
the sentence is true or false. Award one point for
each correct answer and award extra points if
students can correct the false sentences.
Language check
Past narrative tenses
Past simple
Women baked bread in ovens that belonged to the
whole street.
Past continuous
In the late 1950s, the old traditions and customs
were disappearing.
5 Write sentences using the past simple or the
past continuous.
Students use the prompts to write sentences using
the correct past simple or past continuous form of
the verbs. Check answers with the class.
Answers: 1 Life was very different in the 1900s.
2 We were travelling on a tram at two o’clock
yesterday. 3 People often cooked on coal fires in
the 1800s. 4 Did schools have separate classes for
boys and girls? 5 John was eating supper at six
o’clock last night. 6 Were you having a lesson at
ten o’clock today?
6 Match the sentence halves and then complete
the sentences using the past perfect.
Students match the sentence halves and then write
the second half of each sentence using the correct
past perfect form of the verbs. Check answers with
the class.
Answers: 1 b hadn’t been to a museum before.
2 e had worked since she was a teenager.
3 c she had made bread lots of times.
4 a many coal mines had closed.
5 f hadn’t brought any money.
6 d had cooked on a coal fire.
7 Complete the text with the correct past form of
the verbs in brackets.
Tell students to read each sentence carefully and
decide which tense to use before they complete
them with the correct form of the verbs. Check
answers with the class.
Answers: 1 visited 2 had 3 had given 4 arrived /
had arrived 5 saw 6 was using 7 were wearing
8 told

Past perfect
By the late 1950s, traditional industries had started
to die out.

Revise the grammar points by asking the following

questions: Who visited the museum? Who did you
see? What were you doing at two o’clock
yesterday? What did you do last weekend? What
had you done by ten o’clock today?
Video Unit 1
CLIL: Living history
Go
Answer the questions.
1 What museums can people visit in your country?
2 What can people learn about at these
museums?
3 What do you think life was like in the early 20th
century?
Comprehension check
1 Watch the video. Choose the correct answers.
1 What is Beamish?
a a shop b a museum c a modern town
2 When did the museum open?
a in the 1950s b in 1972 c in the early 1900s
3 What can’t you see at Beamish?
a shops b a dentist’s c a hospital
4 Complete the sentences with the words in the
box. Then watch again and check your answers.
homes industries mines objects traditions visitors
1 Beamish has nearly half a million __________
every year.
2 Coal mining and agriculture were traditional
__________ in the north-east.
3 People wanted to remember the old __________
and customs.
4 A project collected thousands of __________
from the past.
5 At Beamish, you can see __________ and
shops from Victorian times.
6 You can also see the tiny pit ponies that worked
down the __________.
Extension
A

2 Watch again. Number the things in the order you

see them.
1 ___ handmade sweets
2 ___ an old house
3 ___ a tram
4 ___ tiny ponies
B
5 ___ a steam train
6 ___ a map
7 ___ a school
8 ___ a maid

3 Watch again and correct the words in bold.

1 In Victorian times, farmers used tractors to
plough fields. _____
2 Beamish is one of the most popular towns in the
UK. _____
3 Beamish has got shops where you can buy
handmade bread. _____
4 Visitors travel around Beamish on old buses.
_____
5 In the mining village, women baked bread in
houses that belonged to the whole street. _____
6 The local school had separate playgrounds for
boys and girls. _____
Look at the photos and answer the questions.
Photo A
● Who is the woman in the photo?
● What things can you see in the kitchen?
● How is this kitchen different to modern kitchens?
● Is cooking easier today? Why? / Why not?
Photo B
● What food are the people in the photo buying?
● Have you ever tried this food?
● How are takeaway restaurants different now?
● Do you think people ate more or less healthily in
the early 20th century? Why?
Video Unit 1
Language check a many coal mines / close.
b not / go / to a museum / before.
Past narrative tenses
c she / make / bread / lots of times.
Past simple
d cook / on a coal fire.
Women baked bread in ovens that belonged to the
e work / since / she / be / a teenager.
whole street.
f not / bring / any money.
Past continuous
8 Complete the text with the correct past form of
In the late 1950s, the old traditions and customs
the verbs in brackets.
were disappearing.
Last week, my class (1) ______________ (visit)
Past perfect Beamish museum. We all (2) ______________
By the late 1950s, traditional industries had started (have) a great time. Before we left the school, our
to die out.
teacher (3) ___________ (give) us a list of
6 Write sentences using the past simple or the questions to answer about the museum. After we
past continuous. (4) ____________ (arrive) at Beamish, we
1 life / be / very / different / in the 1900s (5) ______________ (see) a farmer. He
______________________________________ (6) ______________ (use) two big horses to pull a
2 we / travel / on a tram / at two o’clock yesterday
plough. We met lots of museum staff. They
______________________________________
(7) ______________ (wear) old-fashioned clothes.
3 people / often / cook / on coal fires / in the 1800s
______________________________________ They (8) ____________ (tell) us about life in the
4 schools / have / separate classes / for boys and past and we answered all our teacher’s questions!
girls?
______________________________________
5 John / eat / supper / at six o’clock last night
______________________________________
6 you / have / a lesson / at ten o’clock today?
______________________________________

7 Match the sentence halves and then complete

the sentences using the past perfect.
1 Before we went to Beamish, I … ___
______________________________________
2 At Pockerly Old Hall, we met a maid who … ___
______________________________________
3 The maid didn’t use a recipe to make bread
because … ___ _________________________
4 In the 1950s, people had to find new jobs
because … ___ _________________________
5 Jenny couldn’t buy any fish and chips because
she … ___ _____________________________
6 We ate fish and chips which people … ___
______________________________________