Free History Lessons KS1
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,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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