Outstanding History Lessons At KS2

ks2 classroom

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 when they were grading individual lessons.

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.

Mayan civilisation – KQ6 – Additional information – Why did 90% of Maya ‘disappear’ around 900AD?

This article comes largely from the Historical Association website Around 900AD, most of the Maya disappeared from the historical record. Many of their cities were deserted. No more stelae [special…

KS2 Islam -Today is anniversary of start of Building of Baghdad

If you are teaching Islamic civilization at KS2 you might like to watch a short podcast which looks at the start of the building of Baghdad on 31 July 762.

Brief 10 question diagnostic assessment task for KS2 Ancient Egypt

Pupils have to answer 10 fairly open ended questions for which answers are provided reflecting the knowledge and understanding outlined in the medium term planner. Q1 How can we know…

Planning for teaching Ancient Greece KS2

The main foci throughout this planner are: Ideas, Beliefs, Attitudes (especially the role of women); Way of life (contrasting Athens with Sparta and grasping that ideas flourished in a society…

Ancient Greece – KQ1 Part 1 – How can we possibly know so much about the Ancient Greeks who lived over 2,500 years ago?

Any study of ancient Greek society must begin with an appreciation of the physical features of Greece. Landform and climate do not explain the vast and varied achievements of the…

Ancient Greece – KQ1 Part 2 – Theseus and the Minotaur: Is there any evidence for the legend?

This KS2 smart task places pupils in the role of detectives trying to prove that the legend of Theseus and the Minotaur may actually have been been a fact. First…

Ancient Greece – KQ1 Part 2 – Background information

This short article provides some background information to support your teaching of Key Question 1 Part 2. Set the lesson in a chronological framework. It is probably worth chunking up…

Ancient Greece – KQ2 Part 1 – What can we work out about everyday life in Ancient Athens?

There are three distinct parts to Key Question 2 but each centrally based around the need for pupils to use evidence of different forms. The introductory PowerPoint shows 4 contrasting…

Ancient Greece – KQ2 Part 2 – Ancient Greek vases: the answer lies on the pot

This KS2 history lesson, in which the decoration of a Greek pot is slowly revealed, features two cracking activities designed to set pupils thinking deeply, laterally and creatively. It is…

Ancient Greece – KQ2 Part 3 – What was life like for women in Ancient Greece?

This simple lesson on life for women in Ancient Greece, based around a PowerPoint presentation, makes an excellent contribution to literacy and also makes pupils aware of the nature of…

Ancient Greece – KQ3 Part 1 – Why was Athens able to be so strong in the 5th and 6th century BC?

As well as recapping Athens’ natural advantages (coastline to trade by sea, expand into colonies and capture slaves) and their natural resources (silver mines) pupils focus on the significance of…

Ancient Greece – KQ3 Part 2 – The Battle of Marathon. A history mystery

This lesson on the Battle of Marathon makes a major contribution to pupils’ thinking skills. They are presented with a paradox. How could the David of Athens beat the Goliath…

Ancient Greece – KQ3 Part 3 – comparing six contrasting interpretations of the original Marathon run

Interesting session comparing six contrasting interpretations of the original Marathon run, followed by analysis of which to believe and understanding of why we have so many versions. Introduce with slide…

Ancient Greece – KQ3 Part 3 – Additional Information – 10 Things Your Pupils Need To Know About Pheidippides ’Marathon’ Run

1. Herodotus makes no mention of the run from Marathon to Athens The principal source for the battle of Marathon is the Greek historian Herodotus. He makes no mention of…

Ancient Greece – KQ3 Part 4 – Consequences of the battle of Marathon: Bells and whistles – Smart task

Really fun lesson called bells and whistles in which team have to make the appropriate sound depending on whether the consequence mentioned on the PowerPoint referred to Athens or Persia….

Ancient Greece – KQ4 Part 1 – role play on building the Parthenon

This full lesson is a role-play activity looking at Greek democracy in the context of the rebuilding of the Parthenon. It starts with a link to the building of the…

Top Tips for teaching….Stone Age to Iron Age

Stone Age to Iron Age The British Isles has been populated by humans for 750.000 years but only became an island when the ice sheets melted about 8,000 years ago….

What have the Anglo-Saxons ever done for us? Some KS2 answers

If you asked Michael Wood what the Anglo-Saxons ever did for us he would give a very full and erudite answer, some of which would be beyond KS2 pupils. But…

Ancient Greece – KQ4 Part 2 – Making Greek democracy come to life – a ‘smashing’ lesson

This is a really fun, practical lesson involving smashed pottery, writing in Ancient Greek through black wax and deciphering each other’s writing . Pupils actually decipher the names of people…

Ancient Greece – KQ4 Part 3 – Would you have preferred to live in Athens or Sparta? Comparing life in Athens and Sparta: a short smart task

One way of bringing home to pupils what was so special about life in Ancient Athens is to compare it with life in Sparta. Also one of the strongest city-states,…

Ancient Greece – KQ4 Part 2 Additional information – Ancient Greek democracy. Or what links Red painted rope, an idiot ,and piloting the ship.

This article supports the fully resourced outstanding lesson on democracy that can be found here Democracy is made from two words: Demos means people, Kratos mean power Interesting fact The…

Ancient Greece – KQ5 Part 1 – What can we tell about the Ancient Greeks from a study of their Olympics?

We thought we would offer you a range of different cameos showing how the history of the Olympics could be imaginatively integrated into your current teaching. The teaching activities below…

Ancient Greece – KQ5 Part 2 – What can we tell about the Ancient Greeks from their interest in the theatre?

This key question is divided into two distinct parts, starting with Part 1 – the Olympics. This has its own outstanding fully-resourced series of tasks which can be found on…

Ancient Greece – KQ6 Part 1 – Under the Cloth: sorting the muddled collection. Is it all Greek to you?

Step 1 To introduce the notion of the Greeks having a major influence on our lives today use the activity called Under the cloth. Simply place copies of the pictures…

Keeping up-to-date with your teaching of Victorian Britain at KS2

We often talk to children about the benefits that brought so many people into industrial towns in the first half of the nineteenth century. But we probably need to stress…

Push or Pull? What were the real reasons why the Saxons invaded? SMART TASK KS2

A fun thinking skills activity in which pupils infer from visual clues before moving on to analyse a range of influence cards and evaluate a video before coming up with…

Expert advice on local history at KS1 and KS2 by OFSTED lead inspector

Ex-subject lead for history at OFSTED has recently written this very helpful booklet for English Heritage. A great place to start if you are looking for inspiration for your local history…

Ancient Greece – KQ6 Part 2 – Short KS2 task on the Ancient Greek legacy: language

This is a fun activity looking at the contribution the Ancient Greeks have made to our language. Great for literacy. Pupils are given two different stories of 10 year-old children…

Teaching Primary History: Life in Britain 1930-1945 at Key Stage 2

Inexplicably axed by Gove from the 2014 curriculum, my advice is to carry on teaching this highly successful unit focusing on the Home Front. You can shave time from other…

Ancient Greece – KQ6 Part 3 – How Great is your Greek?

Pupils have to select a team of 11 Great Greeks. They do this by preparing and then evaluating 14 different presentations about 14 Ancient Greeks as explained on slide 2…

Ancient Greece – KQ6 Part 4 – What did the Greeks do for us? Evaluating the video

This task puts pupils in the position as evaluators of a BBC film: BBC Bitesize – Watch: What did the ancient Greeks do for us? Instead of taking everything the…

Using a Victorian census to discover what life was like 100 years ago SMART TASK

There are 4 separate ways of approaching this topic, each becoming increasingly more ambitious. Stage 1 only is featured below. Stages 2 and 4 are suggestions using your own local…

Are we fair to the Vikings? A question of interpretation. SMART TASK KS2

Pupils are shown a range of stereotypical images of Vikings, using slides 2 and 3. This should be used to build up a set of adjectives that are normally associated…

Using Fiction: teaching Stone Age to Bronze Age in history at KS2

Using Boy with the Bronze Axe by Kathleen Fidler to help you teach Stone Age to Bronze Age and Skara Brae to KS2 Although this book is now nearly 50…

Why did the Romans spend so much time building roads? KS2 short task

From Diamond 4 to ‘Roving Mike’ and kids’ wiki. This simple short task gives groups of pupils, 3 per group, a cut-up set of the 6 diamond-shaped cause cards, provided…

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…

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…

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…

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….

Outstanding History Lessons and smart tasks at KS2

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Written by Neil Thompson