Teaching history at Key stage 1 Archives

Welcome to the teaching history at KS1 section where 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.

Columbus – KQ2 – How did Columbus become famous?

Pupils listen to an illustrated description of main episodes Columbus life which they then sequence from the jumbled images provided…

Columbus – KQ3 – What was Christopher Columbus’s motivation?

Driving at the heart of Columbus ‘ motivation, allows pupils to build on what they have already deduced about his…

Columbus – KQ4 – What was life like on board during such a long journey?

This question shifts the focus away from the actions of just one man and adds a colourful dimension to the…

Columbus – KQ5 – How have opinions of Columbus changed in the light of new evidence?

In this session the focus is squarely on helping pupils to grasp that people’s opinions of Columbus have changed in…

Columbus – KQ6 – How and why should we remember him?

Having seen the different ways in which Columbus achievements are still commemorated today, 500 years after his death, pupils have…

10 key messages about teaching significant people in KS1 history

The most important changes in the way we teach this aspect of the KS1 curriculum are: a. the need to link…

Common assessment tasks in history at KS1

It is often difficult knowing how to assess pupils’ historical thinking at KS1. Are we simply testing literacy and /or…

Judging pupils’ work in history at KS 1

This section of the site offers a few words of advice about assessing individual pieces of work and provides commentaries…

Principles of good assessment in history at Key Stage 1

Assessment in Foundation subjects is not well-developed, and is nearly always found wanting in successive OFSTED reports. When assessment in…

Progression in history at Key Stage 1 by Skill / Concept

The problem Trying to secure progression within your Key Stage 1 history curriculum is not always as easy as it…

What would your pupils say about getting better at history, when they leave your school?

Recently two university education departments carried out a broad-sweep survey of primary pupils’ experience of history at KS1 and 2…

It’s time to think about the teaching of time at KS1 and 2

Time is probably the concept most fundamental to understanding history. This presents problems, of course, particularly with the youngest children….

Scales of planning in primary history

Making sure you don’t leave out key things and don’t waste your time duplicating Planning can seem a real chore,…

10 top dos and don’ts of using knowledge organisers in primary history

Used well, knowledge organisers are a really powerful resource but it all depends on how they are used. However attractive…

I’m a new subject leader. How do I know if pupils are making the progress they should in history?

Getting a handle on progression is complicated. There are lots of superficially appealing lists of competencies that link to each…

Preparing for the new EYFS framework from September 2021

Teaching about the past in EYFS Although most schools and settings prefer not to refer to history as a discrete…

KS1 Medium Term Planner for Spreading the Word: Caxton to Bell

The ‘significant people’ element of the KS1 history curriculum now requires pupils to compare achievements of individuals within a linked…

Caxton and Bell – KQ1 – What did Caxton do that was so important to us today?

Following a mysterious PowerPoint slow reveal in which pupils look for clues to Caxton’s fame, pupils are given a brief…

Caxton and Bell – KQ2 – Quick the King and Queen are coming! How Caxton changed the way books were made

Having shown pupils how books were made before Caxton’s time, the main focus of the lesson is on how the…

Caxton and Bell – KQ3 – How and why should Caxton be remembered?

Having discussed the possible options for ways of commemorating his achievement, pupils have to create a new plaque on his…

Caxton and Bell – KQ4 – How did Alexander Graham Bell manage to make a telephone work so long ago? and why did he want to?

The focus here is on sequencing of events, looking for turning points in his life and for his personal motivation….

Caxton and Bell – KQ5 – Why was Bell’s invention so important, then and now? Bells and whistles!

Pupils write a plaque to go on the side of a new statue that has been built to commemorate Bell’s…

Teaching about the past in EYFS

Preparing for the new EYFS framework in September 2021 Although most schools and settings prefer not to refer to history…

Caxton and Bell – KQ6 – How has the telephone improved since the days of Bell?

This session really helps pupils to get a strong sense of change through time, linking the past of Bell’s time…

Fun activity on anachronism to help children develop a sense of period when learning about Caxton

Getting young children to develop a sense of period and an awareness of how different the distant past was to…

Mary Anning – KQ1 – Why do we remember Mary Anning?

This introductory session attempts to place Mary’s life in a broader context of time and place and to whet pupils’…

Mary Anning – KQ2 – What did Mary do in her life that was so special?

Pupils move from the sequencing of the major events of Mary’s life to a more sophisticated understanding of which of…

Mary Anning – KQ3 – What sort of person was Mary that helped her to succeed in a man’s world?

This a much shorter enquiry than the others, and comprises just three short activities Step 1 Having recapped the story…

Mary Anning – KQ4 – Which other people were important in Mary’s life and why?

This activity is an interesting way of getting pupils to think about Mary’s life but in a non-narrative way. Instead…

Mary Anning – KQ5 – How do we know about Mary’s actions which happened so long ago?

The main activity in this session is called Prove it! A number of pieces of evidence from Mary’s time are…

Mary Anning – KQ6 – How and why should Mary Anning be remembered? Have your say.

In Lyme Regis they are going to improve their museum dedicated to Mary Anning. It will cost a lot of…

The Great Fire – KQ1 – How can we work out why the Great Fire started?

This innovative session places pupils right from the start of the enquiry in the role of detectives to discover when,…

The Great Fire – KQ2 – What happened during the Great Fire and how do we know?

This lesson focuses on the idea of evidence and proof. Can pupils find evidence to back up statements made in…

Florence Nightingale – KQ1 – Why do we think Florence Nightingale is remembered?

Pupils make deductions from a range of visual clues to see if they can work out what job Florence Nightingale…

Florence Nightingale – KQ2 – Why did Florence place herself in such danger by going to the Crimea?

Who influenced her decision to go? Already introduced to the major events in Florence’s life, children now speculate on why…

The Great Fire – KQ3 – Why did the Great Fire burn down so many houses?

This Great Fire lesson focuses on developing children’s powers of explanations. They will already have looked at the sequence of…

Florence Nightingale – KQ3a – Fighting Fit. What did Florence do to improve the lives of the soldiers when she arrived in the Crimea?

In this lesson children compare the appalling conditions in the hospitals on Florence’s arrival at Scutari. With the help of…

Florence Nightingale – KQ3b – Smart task – What did people really think of Florence Nightingale?

Learning objectives children can respond in role showing awareness of differing attitudes to Florence they can judge whether each group…

The Great Fire – KQ4 – Could more have been done to slow the spread of the fire?

This session comprises three distinct phases. The first is mime-based, looking at the firefighting methods used and discussing their disadvantages….

The Great Fire – KQ5 – How did people manage to live through the Great Fire?

Miraculously for a city that was the third largest in the world, consumed by a fire that lasted for days,…

The Great Fire – KQ5 Additional Resource – Crowdfunding is nothing new

Extra information to support your teaching of Key Question 5 – Crowdfunding is nothing new As we stress in this…

The Great Fire – KQ6 – How shall we rebuild London after the Great Fire?

This lesson gives full rein to children’s creative flair, disciplined by evidence. The City of London is offering a prize…

Florence Nightingale – KQ4a – What was Florence Nightingale’s greatest achievement?

Pupils have been drafted in to help with the wording on a statue to Florence Nightingale which had badly worn…

Florence Nightingale – KQ4b – Florence Nightingale’s days are numbered. Brilliant cross-curricular History and Mathematics

Every so often you see an inspiring example of history and numeracy working together seamlessly. Such a lesson was taught…

Florence Nightingale – KQ5 – How do we know so much about Florence Nightingale when she lived so long ago?

This differentiated core activity is Prove it! Working in pairs as detectives with their own find the clue sheets and…

Florence Nightingale – KQ6 – Should Florence Nightingale rather than Mary Seacole have her statue at St.Thomas’ hospital?

NB This lesson overlaps, as you would expect, with a similar lesson on Mary Seacole. It is slightly different in…

Teaching history at Key stage 1

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