Using Fiction: teaching Stone Age to Bronze Age in history at KS2
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Outstanding Lessons and smart tasks
This section comprises two parts: the main one is the series of outstanding, fully-resourced and described, lessons graded 1 by an OFSTED history inspector. You are given the learning objectives and every activity in sequence all with accompanying PowerPoint presentations and PDF files. The other lesson activities, from parts of lessons, are called smart tasks, exemplifying features of outstanding lessons and, again, all fully resourced.
Why did they build Stonehenge? SMART TASK Key Question 4
Starter
Reveal slide 2 which is of the standing stones at Stonehenge. Can pupils recognise it as clues are revealed?Step 1
Discuss the fact that it is Stonehenge and explain where it fits in time, showing slide 3 or using the BBC interactive timeline accessed from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/timeline/neolithic_timeline_noflash.shtml Now...What was life like in the Iron Age and how do we know? Key Question 5
Pupils speculate as to what holes in the ground shown in an aerial photograph might be, before annotating an artist’s reconstruction of Danebury Hill Fort. Using the zones of inference technique, pupils work out what they know confidently, what they can infer, and what they...
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How was Britain able to stand firm against the German threat? KQ3
This enquiry revolves around a central contemporary cartoon which encapsulates life on the Home Front and how it was geared towards dealing with the Nazi threat of invasion. Pupils have to identify and then annotate each of the iconic images shown within it, having carried...
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Why did Britain have to go to war in 1939? KQ1
Pupils learn the sequence of events leading to the Second World war before a lively role-play debate in which they exchange well-rehearsed arguments verbally in the House of Commons and then write tight summaries of the key arguments for both sides.
Step 1
Start with the puzzling...
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Why was it necessary for children to be evacuated? Introductory task KQ2
Why was it necessary for children to be evacuated throughout the war, and what was the experience of evacuation really like?
This question has two significant outstanding lessons to cover most of the content and to deliver important skills of asking historical questions and appreciating diversity...
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Has the way we catch and punish criminals improved in the last 100 years? KQ6 Crime and Punishment enquiry
Having analysed a graph showing the way the prison population has risen so dramatically over the last 75 years, pupils speculate as to why that might be before ranking some possible reasons. They then learn about new crimes before preparing for a concluding class debate...
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Why did so much change happen in crime and punishment the 19th century? KQ5
Great range of activities including:
generating enquiry questions about increase in crime from a line graph; explanation builder to work out why; looking at individual punishments on a harshness spectrum and drawing on a range of sources to create an imaginative reconstruction of prison life.
In more...
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Why did punishments become so bloody in the 18th century? KQ4
Pupils label their own copy of a motivating Hogarth print showing popular attitudes to public executions before explaining the puzzling conundrum: when the number of death penalties was increased why did the number of executions actually go down? Really good thinking skills stuff.
Learning Objectives
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- Pupils...
More of the same. How did crimes and punishments change between 1500 and 1750? KQ3
All you need for this lesson on Crime and Punishment 1500-1750 is to turn your classroom into an art gallery and to provide a highwayman’s mask while pupils consider the advantages and disadvantages of being a highwayman and some bells and whistles while pupils explore...
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What does the legend of Robin Hood tell us about medieval justice? KQ2
In the following activities, KS2 pupils learn:
a. that medieval justice was loaded in favour of the rich and powerful;
b. that if you ran away from justice you would be declared an outlaw and could be killed on sight;
c. that Robin Hood robbed from the rich,...
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Planning for teaching 1000 years of Crime and Punishment (KS2 Thematic Unit)
This post-1066 thematic unit has been produced to meet demand from KS2 teachers for a topic that is genuinely relevant and up-to-date for top juniors: something for them to get their teeth into and to voice their own opinions. By providing pupils with a broad...
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KS2 lesson. How do we know what punishment was like 800 years ago. KQ1
How were criminals punished 800 years ago, and how do we know? The story of the fox and the goose
Before you launch into the first key question you might like an introductory lesson in which you explore some of the issues pupils are going to...Outstanding Scheme of Work for teaching the Anglo Saxons
You’ll probably be thinking that there is an awful lot of pre-1066 British history in the KS2 curriculum with the Anglo-Saxons being particularly prominent. The way round this, I think, is to skilfully link your teaching of the Saxons and the Vikings so the interrelationship...
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Planner for Britain at War: The Home Front 1939-45
The new detailed downloadable planner ( July 2017) below has key questions, suggested activities, resources and assessments for teaching The Home Front in World War Two at KS2 and links with the lessons on the site. It has been released, on teachers' request, prior to...
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Why did Germany lose the Battle of Britain?
If Britain was only a few days away from defeat in August 1940 how on earth did she win the Battle of Britain a month later?
PLEASE NOTE - This lesson was aimed at Key Stage 3 but should be capable of being used with minimal...Great starter on interpretations of Henry VIII- Key question 1 part 2
Working closely with academic authors, in this case Catherine Fletcher, always gives a fascinating insight into what historians want to write and publishers want to sell. This is fertile ground for exploring the question of interpretations with pupils at KS2 and KS3. With this simple...
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Outstanding medium-term planner for Vikings
This KS2 Vikings planner, judged outstanding by an OFSTED history inspector now links to all the fully-resourced outstanding lessons and smart tasks making the teaching of this topic completely self-contained. Not only does it ensure that you cover all the significant content, and develop key...
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Teaching Anglo-Saxons & Vikings for Key Stage 2
With effect from 2014, the new National Curriculum has afforded separate status for individual units of work on the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings. Whilst this may be applauded in some circles, it has increased the amount of pre-1066 history to be learned, at the expense of...
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Iron Age Hill Fort at Maiden Castle – KS2 outstanding lesson
Iron Age Crimewatch AD 50. Who killed the 52 dead bodies at Maiden Castle? Key Question 6
KS2 pupils work as history detective Time Teams to solve the Iron Age murder mystery. They are given just the briefest of background information before being let loose...Top ten ingredients of a good KS2 post-1066 thematic unit.
Teaching Crime and Punishment as a post-1066 thematic unit at KS2
For a while now, a number of schools have been developing interesting thematic units that span 1,000 years and which redress the KS2 imbalance of pre-and post-1066 thematic studies. One of the most successful appears...
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The Victorian Era: Dark Age or Golden Age?
This is the concluding lesson on the Victorians. It starts with a plate and a poster commemorating the achievements of Victorian Britain to set it in an international context. Pupils are then invited to weigh up the bad aspects of the reign before arriving...
Vikings: What were they like?
This lesson gives the topic on the Vikings a really active start. Pupils are placed in role as Saxon spies who have to find out what makes the Vikings' boats so special. You'll love the technique known as reconstruction relay, because after the fast...
Ancient Greece: Short task on using Greek pots
What can I do with just one Greek pot in the resource cupboard? Collaborative and creative storyboarding
At the core of this activity is the development of pupils' creative imagination and their sense of the past as evidence for just one object. To make it work...
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Why on earth did the Mary Rose, pride of the Tudor fleet, sink so quickly under the nose of Henry VIII himself? Home study option SMART TASK
A tightly structured series of activities on the reasons why the Mary Rose mysteriously sank which incorporates:
a. A history mystery using evidence discovered in the last few years
b. Evaluation of a website
c. Writing a better website explanation with a sense of...
History and literacy – Making sense of a letter from Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn. SMART TASK KQ2 part 3
OR 14 ways of telling this is a love letter
Pupils are given a copy of a letter from Henry to Anne Boleyn. It appears, at first glance to be impossibly hard to read - so many old-fashioned words, such an old-fashioned...
KS2 Quick Quiz on the Vikings
This exit task is a quick way of working out whether the key messages of your teaching about the Vikings have been understood and is best done towards the end of this KS2 topic so that you still have time to remedy any misapprehensions.
But first...
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The opening of Tutankhamun’s tomb KS2: KQ3 part 1
The opening of Tutankhamun's tomb: a reconstruction relay
The activity that forms the basis of this lesson is called reconstruction relay. It is GUARANTEED to enthuse even the most recalcitrant Y4 boy! Pupils have to travel down a tunnel of tables to see pictures of the...So who did build the pyramids? KQ3 part 2
This active lesson for Year 4 has been adapted from the one featured in the QCA Teacher Assessment Activities for history at Key Stage 2 (2006). It involves pupils seeking out clues as in a treasure hunt before researching, as a team, the evidence for...
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Using evidence of Life in Ancient Egypt KS2: KQ4
Crimewatch Ancient Egypt: Tomb Robbers
This fun activity is a brilliant way of developing pupils’ deductive thinking skills in a realistic context. Pupils are cast in the role of police detectives trying to solve a 3,000 year old crime, one with a difference. This...
Embalming the dead in Ancient Egypt KS2: KQ5
Helping the Hopeless Embalmer
This really fun lesson, in the style of 'mantle of expert', asks the children to help the Hopeless Embalmer whose boss has left him in charge of preparing the bodies for the afterlife. Unfortunately, the embalmer is slow to understand and needs...Ancient Egyptian after-life lesson KS2: KQ5 part 2
Understanding the Book of the Dead: from page to stage
Using simple drama techniques to make a very old document come alive, this lesson involves pupils becoming the characters in the pictures of the Book of the Dead so that they can personalise what...
What did Ancient Egypt have in common with other civilizations at the time? KS2: KQ6
The main activity here is called gallery. Pupils are shown images (printed from the KQ6 PowerPoint) which are displayed around the room, as if an art gallery. Pupils have to tour the gallery to find clues as to what these civilizations have in common.
The ability...
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If life was so hard in Victorian cities, why did Wilf move his family there?
If life was so hard for families in the towns why did so many leave the countryside and move to the towns in Victorian times? - a history mystery
Starting a lesson with an apparent contradiction is a good way of engaging pupils interest. This 'history...
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Linking history with numeracy; a Tudor enquiry Key question 3 part 2
More glass than wall? Is this a fair description of Hardwick Hall? And how do we find out?
This SMART task links history with numeracy asking pupils to apply numeracy techniques to a famous historical building. Pupils are shown a photograph of an early Tudor building,...Primary History: Teaching Victorian Britain Key Stage 2
Astonishingly, at a stroke, Gove has removed the Victorians from the KS2 history curriculum where it had reigned supreme for decades. At least he thinks he has. Most primary teachers will not give up this topic without a struggle so will either use their locality...
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Teaching Life in Tudor Times for KS2
The world has gone mad! Gove has axed the Tudors from Key Stage 2 history. My advice. Carry on regardless. It is too good a learning experience for pupils for them to miss out on. if you want to see how you could infiltrate...
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Evacuation enquiry – links with numeracy KQ2
This lesson comes towards the beginning of the topic after pupils have explored the nature and reasons for evacuation. I am grateful to Julie Tzivanidou of Cove Junior School, near Farnborough , for providing the original version of the PowerPoint presentation.
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Learning objectives
- pupils learn to...
How to teach Ancient Greece to Key Stage 2
Teaching Ancient Greece in the 2014 history curriculum. To all intents and purposes, the ancient Greek planning and all the outstanding lessons fit just as perfectly with the new curriculum from 2014 as well as the existing one. The only difference might be is where...
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Extending the BBC website on Eric the evacuee KQ2
The BBC children’s history section has been in touch with the school asking for their help in extending their website section on Eric the evacuee. There is nothing wrong with it: indeed, it is very popular. That’s why they want to make it longer. There...
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How well do you and your KS2 pupils know the Stone Age to Iron Age topic?
A brief set of diagnostic questions to set your Y3 pupils towards the end of the Stone Age to Iron Age topic to check on their understanding of the key changes - with answers!
Resources
How well do you and your pupils...
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How well do you and your pupils... Curator’s dilemma. Which 8 objects should we show to explain how Britain coped with the effect of war on the Home Front? SMART TASK KQ4
In this activity pupils are cast in the role of local museum curators specializing in the commemorating and interpreting of Life on the Home Front during World War Two. A new museum is being built and they need expert advice. The dilemma the pupils have...
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Britain during World War Two – Call My Bluff SMART TASK KQ4
This activity is designed to promote creative thinking as well as to deepen pupils’ understanding of the objects that are unfamiliar to us but everyday items on the Home Front during World War Two.
It comes early in the topic, before pupils have seen the objects...
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Christmas for children on the Home Front during World War Two: SMART TASK KQ4
This is not an outstanding lesson as such, more a collection of good ideas and support material to stimulate even better ideas of your own.
Working as expert design consultants for a local museum pupils have plenty of scope to be creative in the way they...
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Britain at war. The Home Front KQ5
Why is it so difficult to be sure what life was really like on the Home Front?
Two great tasks which together make up Key Question 5 of the Britain at War medium term plan, Why is it so difficult to be sure what life was...Latest News: Is the recent Must farm Bronze Age find in the Fens really another Pompeii?
The recent archaeological dig in the Fens has unearthed a series of wooden houses built on stilts and enclosed with an ornamental palisade in what has been described as the best-preserved Bronze Age site in Britain.
The discovery of a human skull, jewels and weapons has...
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Ideas for teaching the post-1066 thematic unit at Key Stage 2
Whatever you choose to study for your post-1066 thematic unit here are some pointers to help.
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- Try to make as much use as you can of your existing Tudor, Victorian and Life in Britain since the 30s as you can. What’s to stop you re-working...
Teaching Local History at Key Stage 2
So, where do we start if we haven’t a clue about Local History?
Unlike all other areas of study Local History has no real prescribed content. If you live in the middle of a new town, then your locality is quite different from that of a school...
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How effective was Anglo-Saxon justice: what should we do with Edgar?
This lesson is 2014-ready and matches the new curriculum requirements
Pupils work in groups to create a series of short dramatic enactments, each of which illustrates a way of keeping law and order / punishments meted out in Saxon times. These are then summarised before giving...
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Why did the Roman Emperor Claudius leave hot sunny Italy to invade cold wet Britain? Key Question 1 part 2
This lesson uses a variety of approaches including role play, decision-making, card sorts, hot seating and completing speech bubbles. The focus is clearly on causation. It follows on from lessons in which pupils have already talked about the meaning of the term invasion and...
