Teaching Amelia Earhart at KS1
A study of Amelia not only fits within the requirement to compare significant people linked by theme (here it is flight) over time, it also provides a great opportunity to look at a successful female pioneer working in a male dominated world.
In 1930s America Amelia enjoyed rock-star status for her ground-breaking and daring flights, and was a role model for all ambitious young girls. Not only was she a pilot who set numerous flying records, she also worked as a mechanic, not to mention her skill as a writer. Its likely that you will want to look at Amelia’s achievements alongside the Wright brothers (and possibly comparing with Amy Johnson too) showing how aviation rapidly developed in the 20th century. You may even want to go further and include space travel and moon exploration.
The key disciplinary concepts we are looking to explore here are those linked with motivation and an understanding of significance, alongside strengthening pupils’ chronological understanding.
Amelia Earhart – KQ1 – Why do we think that Amelia was famous?
This introductory session starts with firing pupils’ curiosity via a slow reveal in which pupils build a picture of her…
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Amelia Earhart – KQ2 – What were the main events in Amelia’s life that shaped her ?
Having listened to an illustrated description of Amelia’s early life, pupils have to select suitable adjectives to describe her character…
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Amelia Earhart – KQ3 – Why was Amelia so keen to fly when so few women at the time were interested?
A relatively short session exploring Amelia’s motivation starts with pupils drawing on their prior knowledge to consider why she took…
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Amelia Earhart – KQ4 – What were the main ups and downs in Amelia’s life?
Using the living graph technique pupils sequence the events of Amelia’s flying career and then physically create points on a…
Read MoreAmelia Earhart – KQ5 – How do we know so much about Amelia’s life when she lived so long ago?
In this session pupils get to work as history detectives matching clues within sources to statements historians have made about…
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Amelia Earhart – KQ6 – What was Amelia’s greatest achievement and how should it be remembered?
Working towards the end goal of producing a book cover to encapsulate the key details of Amelia’s achievements, pupils learn,…
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