Outstanding History Lessons at KS1

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.

Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole SMART TASK

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…

The Gunpowder Plot : a moving story

This is an account of a lesson taught by Sarah Duck, now a Leading Primary Teacher. She combined high quality story telling with drama to ensure that all children in…

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…

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…

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

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…

Bonfire Night when Granny was a girl: Smart Task

These activities have been designed for the current curriculum, covering the past within living memory and commemorative events. The three PowerPoint presentations, including copyrighted images of the 1950s and early…

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…

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…

KS1 : Going to the Seaside-the mystery of the pier

One of the more interesting features of the Seaside holidays topic is the fact that it opens up discussion, even for young children, on what these novel features were built…

Teaching Myself – Muddled Bags

As you would expect, it is far better to start with the children themselves and images of them growing up, before moving on to look at two or more generations,…

Teaching Nursery Rhymes to Key Stage 1

This topic is extremely well suited to children in Year R as part of the Foundation stage curriculum. Not only does it help children to grasp the difference between past…

Mary Seacole – How should we remember her?

This lesson is the second featuring Mary Seacole. In the first her role was compared with Florence Nightingale’s. The focus now shifts to asking two key questions: which was Mary…

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…

Amy Johnson – KQ1 – Why do you think Amy Johnson was famous?

With the help of the slow reveal of the clues in carefully arranged order, pupils build their knowledge of Amy Johnson’s significance and write their own brief caption to accompany…

Amy Johnson – KQ2 – How did Amy the secretary end up being the first woman to fly to Australia?

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 the 8…

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

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…

Amy Johnson – KQ4 – How did people react to Amy Johnson’s famous flight?

How did people react to Amy at the time, and how do we know? Children generate adjectives to describe Amy’s arrival in Australia using a photograph and short newspaper extracts…

Amy Johnson – KQ5 – How did things change for Amy Johnson after her famous flight?

Was Amy really successful for the rest of her life? A Living graph Smart Task KQ5 The focus here is on the ups and downs of Amy’s life, in the…

Amy Johnson – KQ6 – How can we solve the mystery of what happened to Amy Johnson?

This enduring mystery has puzzled historians for over 75 years. New evidence has just come to light which makes this an ideal opportunity for pupils to explore reasons for themselves….

KS1 Star Lesson on The Great Fire

Why did the Great Fire of 1666 burn down so many more houses than other fires in London at that time? In this exceptional lesson, pupils adopt the role of…

How well do you and your pupils know Florence Nightingale?

Here are 10 probing questions. See how you get on. Oh, and the answers are given below, in case you need them. As if! Q1. How was Florence Nightingale received…

Teaching Famous Events at Key Stage 1 – Outstanding Lessons

There are two types of events that are expected to be taught to KS1 pupils as part of the National Curriculum. One is commemorative events and anniversaries, the other significant…

6 top history ideas to cover in your Great Fire topic

Many of you will be starting your Great Fire topic this term. Naturally you will want this to be exciting as well as challenging and you will want to focus…

Keeping up-to-date with your teaching of the Great Fire at KS1

If you get the chance, between the end of term and April, to visit the Museum of London’s exhibition Fire! Fire! don’t hesitate. There are some extraordinary exhibits and it…

Y1 explore the contents of the mystery bag

What’s in the bag and who does it belong to? Great Fire Smart Task

An object-based problem-solving approach to learning about life during the Great Fire This Smart Task is just part of a lesson and uses the power of concealed objects to fire…

Jack has forgotten what has happened to him. Can the children help jog his memory?

Using nursery rhymes to develop thinking skills in YR: Jack and Jill and the Queen of Hearts

This lesson was kindly provided by David Cowie and his team at Ringwood Infants C of E School. Their theme for a three week block was Nursery Rhymes. Particular sessions…

Past beyond Living Memory: Key Stage 1

Lessons and shorter activities. Please note that these lessons and smart tasks have accompanying resources to download and that most of the PowerPoint presentations on the site have been kept deliberately…

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…

Using De Bono’s Thinking Hats to develop thinking skills at Key Stage 1 via the topic the Great Fire of London. Smart Task

Two infant teachers from southern Hampshire, Julie Syms from Crofton Hammond Infants and Nicola Beazley from Sarisbury Green Infants, have created a composite description of their experience of using de…

Outstanding History Lessons and Resources at KS1