KS1 History Resources, Lessons & Planning
Explore our KS1 History Resources by Topic
Explore expert-created KS1 history resources, lesson plans, medium-term planning, PowerPoints, assessments, quizzes and knowledge organisers for Years 1 and 2.
You will find masses of advice on how to make KS1 history lessons fun and how to help pupils to take their first steps into the fascinating world that is the past. You will be helped to design and plan an exciting primary history curriculum in line with the requirements of the National Curriculum taking into account the difficult areas of assessment and progression in history. You also will be helped to make the most of history’s contribution to the whole curriculum by being shown cutting edge practice in the areas of cross-curricular planning, literacy, thinking skills and creativity.
If it is imaginative ideas for KS1 history lessons you are looking for, then you will definitely want to spend time in the teaching section with its hundred great primary history teaching strategies and in the learning section with its wide range of imaginative approaches and brilliant ideas for products that children will love.As a subject leader, you will find easily accessible advice that is ‘right on the money’. Years of helping hundreds of infant teachers with their history planning, resourcing, and monitoring in history, has enabled me to know exactly what is needed, and which support strategies really work.
| KS1 History Topic | Resources include |
|---|---|
| Amelia Earhart KS1 | Amelia Earhart lessons, flight history, assessment, quiz and significant-person resources |
| Amy Johnson KS1 | Amy Johnson lessons, flight and exploration activities and significant-person enquiries |
| Castles KS1 | Castle history lessons, chronology, change over time and enquiry activities |
| Caxton & Bell KS1 | William Caxton and Alexander Graham Bell lessons, planning and significant-person resources |
| Christopher Columbus KS1 | Columbus lessons, planner, knowledge organiser, assessment and exploration enquiries |
| Florence Nightingale KS1 | Florence Nightingale lessons, historical enquiries, planning, assessment and resources |
| Grace Darling KS1 | Grace Darling lessons, enquiry activities, planner, assessment and resources |
| Great Fire of London KS1 | Great Fire lessons, PowerPoints, scheme of work, assessment, quiz and knowledge organiser |
| Gunpowder Plot & Guy Fawkes KS1 | Guy Fawkes and Gunpowder Plot lessons, historical sources, role play and enquiry activities |
| Louis Braille KS1 | Louis Braille lessons, planner, significant-person enquiries and classroom resources |
| Mary Anning KS1 | Mary Anning lessons, medium-term planning, assessment, quiz and knowledge organiser |
| Mary Seacole KS1 | Mary Seacole lessons, planner, assessment, historical interpretation and resources |
| Moon Landing KS1 | First Moon Landing lessons, planning, enquiries, assessment and classroom resources |
| Nursery Rhymes EYFS and KS1 | Reception history activities using nursery rhymes to explore past and present |
| On the move (transport) EYFS and KS1 | Transport activities using to explore past and present |
| Queens KS1 | Elizabeth I, Queen Victoria and Elizabeth II lessons exploring monarchy and change over time |
| Reception History Topics | EYFS and Reception activities introducing children to past and present, chronology and historical vocabulary |
| Remembrance Day KS1 | Remembrance Day, poppies and First World War history lessons and activities |
| Rosa Parks KS1 | Rosa Parks lessons, Civil Rights history, enquiry activities, assessment and quiz |
| Scott of the Antarctic KS1 | Captain Scott lessons, exploration history, enquiry activities, assessment and quiz |
| Seaside Holidays KS1 | Seaside holidays through time, lesson plans, historical sources, comparison and planning |
| Titanic KS1 | Titanic lessons, historical enquiries, planning, assessment, quiz and knowledge organiser |
| Toys Past & Present EYFS and KS1 | Toys past and present lessons, chronology, historical comparison, planning and assessment |
| Wright Brothers KS1 | Wright Brothers lessons, history of flight, planner, assessment, quiz and resources |
Creativity in History at KS1 and KS2
What follows below is an attempt to summarise the key points from recent research and to illustrate them with lively examples. I expect this area of the site will grow…
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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 certainly two main pitfalls that snare the unwary. The first…
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Linking history and literacy
There is now a considerable amount of advice available to schools on how to link history with literacy, but OFSTED still finds that the opportunities are not being sufficiently exploited….
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Opportunities for Citizenship Education in KS1 History
History offers an excellent context for developing many of the worthwhile skills and understanding that form part of the citizenship curriculum. If you want your pupils to see two sides…
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Curriculum models for KS1 history
It seems a logical extension of the advice on long-term planning of the curriculum to offer you some models of what it might look like. As you know, the devil…
Read MoreCurriculum Rationale
Rationale for KS1 history planning The KS1 history curriculum offers you considerable choice in which topics you choose and how you sequence them. Nowadays it involves a more thematic approach…
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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…
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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…
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Louis Braille – evaluating the video
This lesson comes at the end of the sequence of lessons which explore Louis Braille’s life and achievements. Rather than using a video for information and atmosphere, this lesson uses…
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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 1 that actually work in the classroom with children of…
Read MoreHistory for pupils with EAL in Key Stages 1 and 2
Most of you will be well-versed in strategies for helping children with EAL access other subjects in the curriculum and will not need detailed guidance on general issues. To help…
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S.E.N. in history at Key Stage 1 and 2
By inclusion we mean three things here: setting suitable learning challenges, responding to pupils’ diverse needs, and overcoming potential barriers to learning and assessment for individuals and groups. Below are…
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Forward planning in history at Key Stage 1 and 2
It goes without saying that a history improvement plan must reflect the whole school approach. There is no need for it to be different. Usually the following structure is used…
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Prioritising your work as history subject leader at Key Stage 1
When you are new to the role, your first priority must always be to establish the health of the subject before you start on any grand improvement schemes. This may…
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Developing your staff
Nearly all teachers enjoy teaching history and will want to improve the quality of their own teaching so that children can make better progress. However, the demanding task of improving…
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Monitoring in history at Key Stage 1
Almost every subject leader I know feels that they ought to be doing more monitoring, as if ordered to ‘Go forth and monitor!’ Because time is so scarce for this…
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General advice regarding progression in history at Key Stage 1
This section outlines the key indicators of progression. The other section looks at each strand in detail. We all need to understand what constitutes progression in history, but much more importantly…
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Long term planning for history at Key Stage 1
Superficially, Key Stage1 seems the least complex history curriculum to plan because the burden of content to be covered seems manageable. Scratch beneath the short section that describes the demands…
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History Teaching Smart Tasks for Key Stage 1
This section of the site look at smart tasks: short enquiry-led thinking skills activities. Unlike the outstanding lessons section, they do not attempt to offer a lesson plan but do…
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Teaching interpretations in history at KS1
For many teachers of infants, interpretations is the hardest of all the ideas to get across. It is an abstract idea that can easily confuse, rather than clarify, if we…
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Enquiry in history at KS1
History is full of rich and interesting stories, and pupils love to hear them. Indeed, a good story well-told is an important teaching ploy with infants. But we want even…
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Great Fire Smart Task – What’s going on in our mystery picture?
This simple starter activity uses a large, coloured, artist’s reconstruction of Pepys burying his possessions when he knows it is time to finally flee his home. Children will be familiar…
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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…
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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 interactive story and perhaps best of all a Minecraft version of 1666’s tragic tale. Find all of…
Read MoreWritten by Neil Thompson
All content on Keystage history is written and quality assured by Neil Thompson, a former history teacher, county history adviser and Ofsted inspector with more than 30 years’ experience in history education.