Free Samples for Teaching History At KS1 - Lessons and Resources | Keystage history

ks1 history activity Explore our free KS1 history resources and discover the approach that makes Key Stage History different. These free samples give teachers access to a selection of tried-and-tested history lessons, Smart Tasks, planning guidance and assessment activities designed specifically for pupils in Years 1 and 2.

You’ll find engaging classroom ideas covering popular KS1 history topics including the Great Fire of London, Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole, seaside holidays, the Moon Landing and more. Each resource is designed to develop children’s historical knowledge and thinking through purposeful enquiry, imaginative activities and carefully chosen historical evidence. Use these free resources in your classroom and get a flavour of the much wider collection of KS1 history lessons and resources available to Key Stage History members.

The Great Fire – KQ1 – How can we work out why the Great Fire started?

This innovative session places pupils right from the start of the enquiry in the role of detectives to discover when, where and why the Great Fire of London broke out….

Going to the seaside – KQ2 – What did people do at the seaside 100 years ago?

From mime to movie. SMART TASK This fun activity is carried out by children working on tables of six. Half the class work on one image, the other half on…

florence nightingale statue

Smart task Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole: Who said it? / Who am I?

This simple task encourages children to spot the differences between Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole. With a large A4 image of Florence on one side, and Mary Seacole on the…

teds

Toys – KQ3 – How can we tell these toys are old?

This smart task complements the existing lesson on the site using ICT . Rather than re-write the whole lesson this is added as an extra task. Using slides 2-5 show…

guy fawkes

The Gunpowder Plot: Prove it using a gallery of images

This skilfully differentiated lesson places pupils in the role of detectives that have to find evidence to back up statements that have been made about the Gunpowder plot. They are…

Help Tom to fight the Great Fire. Smart Task

This ICT based activity draws heavily on the superb new website created as a joint enterprise by the National Archives, National Portrait Gallery, Museum of London and London Fire Brigade…

lest we forget

How will your school commemorate the end of World War One?

This short advice sheet invites schools to consider how they will commemorate the centenary of armistice day and provides an illustrated PowerPoint presentation offering 8 attractive ideas to set you…

Mary Anning Expert Advice

Expert Advice: Key Stage 1 – Mary Anning

She sells sea shells: planning a topic on Mary Anning, Dinosaur hunter, using the Anholt’s Stone girl, Bone girl “Would you like to go Dinosaur hunting? Well one young girl did…

keystage 1 expert advice

Expert Advice: Key Stage 1 – Planning for a cross-curricular topic on Going to the Seaside

This advice is for KS1 teachers planning a cross-curricular topic and focuses on how to integrate history, geography, literacy and ICT. Start the topic with a brief discussion with the…

Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale Lesson and sample planner

Fighting Fit. What did Florence do to improve the lives of the soldiers when she arrived in the Crimea? One example of a series of lessons for teaching Florence Nightingale…

History assessment

Assessment for learning in Primary history

Assessment for Learning is much vaunted and many faceted. If we break down what it means in its constituent parts, many of you will feel that you do most of…

planning

Long term planning for history at Key Stage 1

Superficially, Key Stage 1 seems the least complex history curriculum to plan because the burden of content to be covered seems manageable. Scratch beneath the short section that describes the…

class activity

Thinking skills in history at Key Stage 1

There is nothing particularly radical about using a thinking skills approach to history at Key Stage 1, but there are certainly two main pitfalls that snare the unwary. The first…

Seaside Smart Task

Smart Task: KS1 – Assessment in history

Key Stage 1 assessment in history It is really hard to find quality examples of assessment tasks at Key Stage 1 that actually work in the classroom with children of…