Outstanding History Lessons at KS1 | Keystage History

class activity Outstanding history Lessons at KS1. If you have ever searched the internet for inspiration for your history sessions you will know how frustrating it can be. Luckily the answer is at hand. Built up from twenty years’ experience of working with infant schools, the site brings into one place some of the best history lessons you can expect to find. Not only are they logically developed with clear learning objectives, thoughtful structure and fit-for-purpose, fully-resourced activities, they are all in some ways creative or imaginative. They are not run of the mill. They will almost certainly fire your imagination and stimulate an even better idea.

ks1 history activity

Outstanding Lessons: Key Stage 1

If you have ever searched the internet for inspiration for your history sessions you will know how frustrating it can be. Luckily the answer is at hand. Built up from…

toys old and new

Teaching Toys to Key Stage 1

Toys is an obvious topic to select for infants. Not only is it appealing , at least initially, it is also one where you can find a good range of…

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KS1 Medium term planner: Toys through time (Term 1 or 2 of Y1)

This is one of the earliest topics to be taught at EYFS/KS1 following on from Myself. As we know this topic (preferably after Christmas) can engage children’s senses, fire their…

Toys – KQ1 – What are our toys like today?

Because the topic is aimed at children beginning key stage 1, it is a good idea to spend more time covering this key question in order to establish a sound…

toys

Toys – KQ2 – What are other people’s toys like?

This session comprises two very simple tasks: matching objects to the young children who would usually play with them, followed by a follow-up task, this time on the theme of…

mary seacole

Are you teaching the right things about Mary Seacole to your children? 10 things to be sure to teach

Are you teaching the right things about Mary Seacole to your children? 10 things to be sure to teach: 1. Mary was not a nurse as pupils would understand the…

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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…

Titanic – KQ1 – 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? This lesson’s activities are designed to release any prior knowledge pupils might have…

scott of the antartic

Teaching Scott of the Antarctic to Key Stage 1

Those of you who are thinking that this choice of famous person seems to presage a return to an Our Island Story approach to heroes and derring-do, couldn’t be further from…

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KS1 Medium Term Planner – Man’s First Moon Landing Y2

The current history curriculum at KS1 asks schools to provide a little more coherence in their choice of famous people to study, suggesting that they might be linked by theme….

titanic deck

Titanic – KQ2 – What was so special about life on the Titanic?

What was so special about life on board the Titanic? and was it the same for everyone? In this enquiry pupils play Prove it! using a gallery of images to…

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

Titanic – KQ3 – How could the unsinkable Titanic sink?

This Y2 lesson takes pupils understanding beyond that of knowing what happened to the Titanic to work out why it sank. The aim is to go beyond simple one cause…

moon landing

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

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…

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KS1 History Planner for Scott of the Antarctic topic

Medium term planning and planner for Scott of the Antarctic KS1 This topic has been designed for Term 3 of Y1 but would also suit use with older pupils. It…

stormy seas

Grace Darling – KQ1 – Setting up the enquiry – What did Grace do that made her famous …and why is she remembered today?

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…

titanic

Titanic – KQ4 – How should we film the sinking of the Titanic?

Stephen Spielberg has asked for a historically accurate poster for a new film he is planning on the sinking of the Titanic. He wants school children to design a poster…

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Scott of the Antarctic – KQ1 – Who on earth is this famous person?

This fun first lesson on Scott of the Antarctic using the slow reveal technique of an iconic image to enable pupils to work out the clues as to why the…

grace darling

Grace Darling – KQ2 – Why did Grace Darling act in the way she did?

An active lesson in which pupils generate adjectives and then use a Diamond-4 ranking activity, followed by hot seating, to ascertain Grace’s motivation. A broader context is achieved by asking…

apollo 11

Moon Landing – KQ2 – Why did the astronauts risk their lives going to the moon?

This session for KS1 children comprises three distinct activities. Activity 1 – Story telling Activity 2 – Diamond 4 Activity 3 – Teacher-in-role as Neil Armstrong Learning objectives Pupils are…

moon landing small

Moon Landing – KQ3 – How were they able to get to the moon and back safely?

This lesson focuses on how the astronauts were able to get to the moon and back safely. There are 2 activities to engage the pupils, activity 1 – sequencing images…

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Scott of the Antarctic – KQ2 – How did Scott get to the South Pole and what happened then?

You can use this task on Scott’s journey to the South Pole in a number of ways: as a simple sequencing task, which really challenges across the ability range or…

Grace Darling – KQ3 – 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…

scott game

Scott of the Antarctic – KQ2b -Scott of the Antarctic: From sequencing to Living graph Key question

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…

Moon Landing – KQ4 – What did they do on the moon?

This lesson uses differentiated resources as a starting point to help children access the detail of man’s first steps on the moon surface at an appropriate level. I have marked…

scott of the antartic

Scott of the Antarctic – KQ3 – Why did Scott risk his life going to the South Pole?

The concept of an intrepid explorer may not be completely alien to even the youngest children as the media does focus a lot on individual record breaking, whether it be…

grace darling grave

Grace Darling – KQ4 – How do we know about Grace Darling’s actions which happened so long ago?

There are two distinct elements to this session. Firstly, pupils develop a sense of period and of evidence by thinking about the sources historians would use to find out about…

titanic lifeboat

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

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…

moon landing

Moon Landing – KQ5 – Would you take the Golden Ticket and travel to the moon?

This lesson follows on from lessons introducing the reasons why men first went to the moon, what they did when they were there, and the evidence we have for their…

lifeboat

Grace Darling – KQ5 – How did sea rescue improve as a result of Grace Darling’s story?

This session comprises 2 principal activities: matching descriptions of lifeboats to time periods to deepen pupils’ sense of change, continuity and chronology; sequencing and then selecting images for a Museum…

modern lifeboats

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

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,…

apollo 11

Moon Landing – KQ6 – Commemorating the Moon Landing

How do you think we should remember the first man on the moon on July 21st 1969? What symbol could we use? Coming at the end of the topic this…

Scott of the Antarctic – KQ4 – How do we know what happened on Scott’s last journey? A KS1 smart task

Pupils have already studied Scott’s last journey and have turned a series of events into first a living graph and then a board game to show the ‘ups and downs’…

grace darling

Grace Darling – KQ6 – 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…

scott of the antartic

Scott of the Antarctic – KQ5 – Why did he not get to the South Pole first?

In this lesson in the teaching sequence on Scott as a famous person, or as part of a more integrated topic on Cold lands, pupils have to solve a history…

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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 is added as an extra task. Using slides 2-5 show…

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Toys – KQ4 – What sorts of toys did our grandparents play with and how do we know?

Optional question: What toys did our grandparents get as Christmas presents when they were your age? Start with a discussion about how we can begin to investigate what toys were…

toys

Toys – KQ5 – Who played with these toys in the past? and how can we know?

This is particularly suitable as an extension question for the older/ higher attaining pupils in KS1 if you are teaching this topic to a mixed-age class. Important note: Before starting…

toy museum

Toys – KQ6 – How can we set up our own toy museum?

This final KS1 lesson on the Toys topic cements children’s understanding of old and new in an interesting way. Activity 1 Use the book Lost in a Toy Museum as…

Sample page from outstanding website produced by Warwickshire's Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum

Toys old and new: Sorting and setting

This lesson draws on some excellent resources you may not have come across, produced by museums in Bedfordshire and Warwickshire. Not only do they look at old and new and…

OFSTED’s report on teaching of Toys-outstanding lesson

When the inspector entered, the pupils were sitting on the carpet around the teacher. She was gently exploring whether they understood the concepts ‘old’ and ‘new’and the differences between the…

Teaching Gunpowder Plot

How did Guy Fawkes feel before, during and after the night of the 5th November: pupils do the thinking.

Getting children to think about how Guy Fawkes felt, before, during and after the Gunpowder plot. This simple task, resourced by a short PowerPoint presentation (not provided, but use images…

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Gunpowder Plot Smart Task: Dear producer

Over the last few sessions, the children have become familiar with the story of the Gunpowder Plot using a range of strategies from ‘A moving story’ and ‘Prove it!’ (see…

In Living Memory: Key Stage 1

Comparing pupils’ lives with the recent past not only enables pupils to handle more familiar sources and make direct comparisons with their own experiences, it also opens up opportunities for…

Using role play area when teaching Castles at KS1

There are at least 6 ways you can help young children make sense of the past using your role play area. 1. Colourful Costumes Having a range of costumes enhances…

william caxton

Teaching Caxton and Bell at Key Stage 1

These two famous people are linked by the theme of communication; spreading the word. Tim Berners-Lee founder of the world wide web could also be mentioned to bring the topic…

wee willy winkie

Comparing different nursery rhymes: Wee Willie Winkie

This fun lesson uses images and very simple text as well as artefacts. It provides an essential grounding in an understanding of the concepts of ‘then and now’, and a…

scott of the antarctic

Scott of the Antarctic – KQ6 – How should Scott be remembered today?

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…

florence nightingale

Fighting Fit. What did Florence do to improve the lives of the soldiers when she arrived in the Crimea?

In this lesson children compare the appalling conditions in the hospitals on Florence’s arrival at Scutari. With the help of animated rats!! They list the most significant problems and then…

The Gun Powder Plot; using drama

Using drama to teach the Gunpowder Plot at KS1: a big hat, a lantern and a sleeping guard

You may choose to use drama for any number of reasons. You might simply want to recap the story. Perhaps your aim is to deepen children’s understanding of the plotters’…

Florence Nightingale

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…