Teaching history at Key Stage 1 (KS1)

Swopping a Great Fire for a volcanic eruption? Looking for a new famous Event at KS1?

In a recent article in the Historical association’s Primary History Sue Townsend makes a very strong case for introducing the teaching the volcanic eruption at Pompeii at KS1. One had to be careful making suggestions like this. After all, history isn’t short of fascinating events,...

How should Scott be remembered today? KQ6

Exciting finale to the topic sees pupils analysing different ways in which Scott has been commemorated in the past, coming up with their own 21st century ideas and then completing a diamond-4 prioritising activity before acting as historical advisers to a stone mason renovating a...

How will your school commemorate the end of World War One in 2018?

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 thinking. This supports two outstanding lessons that feature on the website: What do we...

How to get KS1 pupils into history-13 ideas

If you haven't already come across this School Run website offers 13 different ideas for making history come alive with your pupils, including games, story books, visits, history re-enactments etc. What i like about the list is that they offer examples too. Well worth...

Excellent resource on Great Fire of London for KS1

The Museum of London has a wonderful selection of teaching resources on its website including an infographic poster, an interactive story and perhaps best of all a Minecraft version of 1666’s tragic tale. Find all of these here, at museumoflondon.org....

Do we go on seaside holidays for the same reason people went 100 years ago? KQ4

Children discuss the reasons they might have for going on a seaside holiday NOW and then think of the different reasons why people might have gone 100 years ago. Slides 2 and 3 of the PowerPoint provide some clues. Slide 4 reinforces the key ideas,...

How should we remember Grace Darling?

This last key question of 6 on the medium-term planning, focuses on her legacy and why we should commemorate her. It introduces pupils to a number of ways in which people are remembered before inviting them to use their creative imaginations to come up...

Great new activity on Florence Nightingale- Dear Producer

One of the great challenges of teaching KS1 history is to avoid the pitfall of turning history into just stories from the past. Of course we want our youngest children to enjoy and remember the stories,...

KS1 pupils’ work on Great Fire and Florence Nightingale assessed

You have told us that you need more help on assessment at KS1. So we have now gone beyond principles, suggestions, actual tasks and mark schemes to assessing actual pieces of work. You may already have...

How have seaside holidays changed? KQ5b what our grandparents tell us

This lesson finds children producing a questionnaire, collecting data from grandparents, feeding data into a database and then drawing conclusions. When they then compare their findings with those of another parallel class they become aware that not all people's experiences were the same. How...

Going to the Seaside KS1 Assessing your children’s understanding

Just to let you know that we're piloting a new short diagnostic assessment task on going to the seaside 100 years ago, using the picture here as a stimulus. We've worked out a detailed mark scheme which links to national expectations. Subscribers can request a...

Using data to improve history teaching and learning at Key Stage 1

Given that there is no subject-specific data on history at KS1 this might seem a strange inclusion on the site. Those of you who feel that there is quite enough use of assessment data in the core subjects will be relieved to hear this. So...

KS1 Medium term planner: The sinking of the Titanic Y2

This topic provides an exciting addition to the usual famous events taught at KS1. Not only is there a clear, compelling narrative that pupils can relate to, it also offers opportunities to develop worthwhile historical concepts such as diversity, causation, consequences, interpretations and source analysis....

What are the best ways of stopping disasters such as the sinking of the Titanic ever happening again? KQ6

Pupils are employed as safety advisers to the UK and US governments in the aftermath of the sinking of the Titanic? Their job is to come up with the best, and most cost-effective measures to make sure no disaster such as this ever happens again? ...

Why weren’t more people saved from the Titanic? KQ5

In this problem-solving activity, pupils have to speculate, using a stimulus image and then evaluate a range of given reasons based on their plausibility, placing them on a spectrum. To demonstrate their understanding pupils complete 3 speech bubbles giving the most important reasons coming from...

What was so special about life on the Titanic? KS1 enquiry

What was so special about life on board the Titanic? and was it the same for everyone? KQ2

In this enquiry pupils play Prove it! using a gallery of images to test the evidence and who said that? to explore diversity on board ship. Creatively, they...

Final Moon Landing lesson (KQ3) available now on request

Pleased to announce that final Moon Landing lesson resources for KQ3 are available on request as we find the last missing piece of the copyright jigsaw! Subscribers simply email us and we'll send all the lesson resources, by return, prior to full upload....

What happened during the Great Fire and how do we know?

This lesson focuses on the idea of evidence and proof. Can pupils find evidence to back up statements made in books? Can they tell which is the strongest piece of evidence to support a statement. By learning how to select the sources which they think...

Remembering the sinking of the Titanic – a famous event for KS1

All the lessons for this topic have now been uploaded along with the Medium-term planner....

Launching the Titanic enquiry, drawing on pupils’ prior knowledge

What do we already know about the Titanic and what can we work out from a picture? KQ1

This lesson's activities are designed to release any prior knowledge pupils might have about this well known story. By focusing on clear and detailed illustrations pupils quickly develop...

KQ4 Florence Nightingale’s days are numbered. Brilliant cross-curricular History and Mathematics

Every so often you see an inspiring example of history and numeracy working together seamlessly. Such a lesson was taught by Ros Boulton of South Farnborough Infants. She wanted her children to do far more than draw a simple timeline of Florence Nightingale’s life. She...

Did Grace Darling really carry out the brave rescue on her own?

This Year 1 lesson on historical interpretations starts with a stark comparison of 2 images of the rescue showing very different detail. Pairs of pupils are then given 1 of 5 other picture versions which they have to turn into a mime to highlight...

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

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 another interesting image. Each table is given an A4 colour picture either A or B. For...

Planning for a cross-curricular topic on Going to the Seaside

This advice with associated downloadable resource below 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 children about where they are going on their summer...

2 fun facts for pupils studying Florence Nightingale at KS1 and 2 key learning points

Just thought these two fun facts might interest your pupils, building on infants' interest in animals rather than death rates from dysentery! So the two facts are: 1. As a child, Florence already showed an interest in nursing by mending broken dolls and fitting splints to injured...

KQ3 Smart task What did people really think of Florence Nightingale?

This lesson was taught by Judith Holmes, of Awbridge Primary School, Hampshire. Judith has supplied QCA with a number of her high quality lessons and planning. They can be found in the 'History Matters/ It worked for me' part of the site. In this...

The learning process in history at KS 1

Given that this site specialises in giving practical support to busy teachers and subject leaders, you may be surprised to find a section on the theory of learning. Well, don't worry it is very short! With so much theory and so many research findings...

KS1 |Great Fire interactive resource

Just thought I'd bring to the attention of those who haven't yet seen it the interesting resource put together by the Museum of London and other agencies a year or so ago. You can find it here

Why did the Great Fire burn down so many houses?

This Great Fire lesson focuses on developing children's powers of explanations. They will already have looked at the sequence of events and will be able to offer a few simple reasons. This lesson aims to take them beyond a simple list towards deeper understanding of...

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 given responsibility for a range of statements carefully matched to their learning needs. They work...

How shall we rebuild London after the Great Fire?

This lesson gives full rein to children's creative flair, disciplined by evidence. The City of London is offering a prize for the best design for a rebuilt London after the Great Fire. If the children know the causes well, and they should do after using...

Grace Darling: setting up the enquiry

This is the first lesson on an enquiry into Grace Darling: what she did, and why she was famous. The kernel of the lesson is a slow reveal activity which works really well on an Interactive White Board. The key image comes from the...

Teaching In Living Memory to Key Stage 1

Within living memory is one of the periods of time KS1 pupils need to study. At first sight it might seem obvious that this is the period best suited to Year 1, because it is more familiar. If you think a little longer you may...

Polly put the kettle on. Learning about then and now, past and present

Can you find Polly's kettle on the range?

This is one of a series of 3 separate sessions on different nursery rhymes, building up children's understanding of the concept of past and present and giving them a vocabulary to describe the past. The focus is on developing the idea that there was a...

How do we know what holidays were like 100 years ago? KQ3

Designing an authentic Edwardian Seaside Poster

This KS1 history lesson uses the Mantle of the Expert approach to place pupils in role as historical advisers to a film producer. Their job is to create an historically accurate poster which will trail the new film set...

Can we help our American millionaire to make his castle come alive? SMART TASK

This activity uses the idea of the Mantle of the Expert to engage children in a serious, real-life task. A very wealthy American has just bought a ruined English castle. He wants to bring it back to how it was 700, yes 700 years ago! ...

Spying on your rival lord’s latest new castle

This is a really fun way of helping children to look closely at the detail of a medieval castle. They are cast in the role of spies for their local lord ( Earl Fuddy Fuddy), who has an old-fashioned castle. He has heard that his...

Bonfire Night when Granny was a girl: Smart Task

These activities have been designed for the new 2014 history curriculum, covering the past within living memory and commemorative events. The three PowerPoint presentations, including copyrighted images of the 1950s and early 60s from Mary Evans picture library give children a flavour of a familiar event...

Washday in the past; helping the hopeless Mr Lather

The children will be familiar with the range of processes involved in washing clothes in the past. They will have watched programmes such as Magic Grandad and will have explored a range of artefacts such as a mangle and a dolly-stick/posser. The aim of...

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 Museum. It appears on the Learning Curve section of the National Archives site. The interactive...

Roles of learners

One of the best ways of exciting young children in history is to put them in role. Dorothy Heathcote's approach called Mantle of the Expert invests expertise in the pupils, giving them a real, adult role to play. On the accompanying diagrams (see downloadables) you can...

Imaginative history outcomes at Key Stage 1

Left luggage activity on the Titanic using artefacts provided by a Southampton Museum

A key part of motivating infants in history is providing interesting practical products that really stimulate their interest. When so many young pupils naturally find it difficult to communicate their ideas in written form, we need other interesting ways of enabling them to show...

50 imaginative history learning activities for Key Stage 1

Information run, matching questions to the relevant sources which provide the answer

This ground-breaking section offers a massive range of ideas, arranged in alphabetical order. Some of the titles may seem a bit esoteric but experience of working with hundreds of teachers has taught me that we need a short-hand way of describing activities, so that we...

Are you teaching your KS1 the truth about Guy Fawkes?

In many schools I hear teachers tell the same story about Guido Fawkes. Guy Fawkes was angry at the King and the government for the way it treated Catholics. He then brought together a team of plotters intent on killing the king and his cronies...

Scott of the Antarctic: From sequencing to Living graph Key question 2

This activity enabled children to see how certain events had a positive or a negative effect on Scott's expedition to the South Pole. The children in Year One also needed an activity that would enable the visual learners, and those that learn best by doing,...

Views of learners on history at Key Stage 1

There has been very little published research on the views of infants on their history work. I think we might be able to predict that most pupils would be positive about their experience, especially if it were taught in a lively way with plenty...

Has man ever been to the moon and how can we know for sure? KQ1

Varied introduction to the Moon Landing topic with pupils actively involved in sequencing, speculating and then the killer activity called Prove it in which they have to use a gallery of visual clues to find evidence to prove that man really did go to the...

Why do you think Amy Johnson was famous? Smart Task KQ1

In this session on Amy Johnson (KQ1 on the planner) children learn to: predict from small clues link together disparate pieces of evidence and draw conclusions based on the clues they are given. With the help of the slow reveal of the clues in carefully arranged order, pupils build...

Amy Johnson story-telling relay KS1

How did Amy the secretary end up being the first woman to fly to Australia? Smart Task KQ2

This short, fun activity using mime and props, tells the story of Amy Johnson's first flight to Australia in a way that children will never forget. Each of...

Why was flying to Australia so difficult for Amy Johnson? Smart task KQ3

Having heard the story of Amy Johnson's life, pupils are now asked to focus their attention on explaining why it was such a difficult feat for Amy to achieve at that time. Can they think of any ideas themselves before working out from clues on...

Teaching history at Key stage 1

What was so special about life on board the Titanic? and was it the same for everyone? KQ2

What do we already know about the Titanic and what can we work out from a picture? KQ1

From mime to movie. SMART TASK

Designing an authentic Edwardian Seaside Poster

How did Amy the secretary end up being the first woman to fly to Australia? Smart Task KQ2