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 to see patterns in apparently random images is a crucial part of pupils’ developing historical understanding and a core feature of thinking skills across the curriculum.
The images come from:
- Mesopotamia/Sumer (Modern Iraq),
- the Indus Valley (Pakistan),
- and the Shang dynasty (China)
but it is more important that pupils see what they have in common than their differences, especially if you are teaching Y3.
Step 1
Start with the image of the find on slide 2- a 3,000 year old bronze sword found in China. Slides 3 and 4 offer background information about the find. This opens up the idea that Ancient Egypt
