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Pyramid building
Lesson Plan
How did the ancient Egyptians build the pyramids?
This lesson on pyramid-building includes visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learning activities catering for a range of learning styles and abilities.
There are links with Science, Maths, and DT.
For background information see Building the Great Pyramid on the BBC website.
(These resources...
Pyramid building
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Roman market (KS1 or KS2)
Lesson Plan
Please note: this lesson was produced as part of the Nuffield Primary History project (1991-2009) and pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum. It is part of a full sequence of lessons available here.
Shopping in a Roman townPart of 'The way of life of people who lived in the more distant past in Britain'....
Roman market (KS1 or KS2)
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What can you do with a Victorian Trade Directory…?
Primary History article
What is a trade directory?
Trade directories are the equivalent of the telephone directory and the Yellow Pages. They were published on a county or city basis every year and contain detailed descriptions of every village and town in the county. They also contain pages and pages of advertisements, for...
What can you do with a Victorian Trade Directory…?
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Scheme of Work: Significant Individuals at Key Stage 1: Ibn Battuta
Primary Scheme of Work, Key Stage 1 History (unresourced)
The history programme of study for Key Stage 1 requires pupils to be taught about: 'The lives of significant individuals in the past who have contributed to national and international achievements, some of whom should be used to compare aspects of life in different periods.'
In this unit, children are...
Scheme of Work: Significant Individuals at Key Stage 1: Ibn Battuta
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Diogenes: Creativity and the Primary Curriculum
Primary History article
Diogenes: WHITHER CREATIVITY?! A consideration of the article Creativity and the Primary Curriculum
In June 2010 the journal Primary Headship included an article entitled Creativity and the Primary Curriculum which endeavoured to pull together a range of positions as to where the curriculum might be going in the immediate future. These...
Diogenes: Creativity and the Primary Curriculum
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Saxons, Normans and Victorians
Classic Pamphlet
When Queen Victoria died in 1901, the Annual Register remarked that the feeling of forlorn-ness which swept the country had no parallel since the death of King Alfred. The men of the new century were driven to seek a Saxon parallel. So too were men at the beginning of the...
Saxons, Normans and Victorians
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Edward the Confessor and the Norman Conquest
Classic Pamphlet
Nine hundred years have elapsed since the death of Edward the Confessor, the last English king descended directly from Cerdic, king of Wessex in the sixth century - and so from the pagan gods. Nine hundred years are a long time; and if Edward had been succeeded by a son,...
Edward the Confessor and the Norman Conquest
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What made Cleopatra so special?
Article
Ancient Egyptian civilisation is rich and mysterious with distinctive visual imagery and strange animal-headed gods. The exotic differences of the society have always intrigued the western imagination and so they continue to ensure that this is a popular unit with both teachers and children. There are plentiful resources with new...
What made Cleopatra so special?
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Whatever did the Greeks do for us?
Primary History article
The National Curriculum asks us to help our children to study ‘Greek life and achievements and their influence on the western world’ [DfE 2013]. Lots of books explore the ancient Greeks [see, for example, Ancient Greece by Alf Wilkinson, Collins Primary Histories, published in 2019]. It is a familiar topic....
Whatever did the Greeks do for us?
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The British Museum: Creative ICT for Kids
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
With school budgets as they are it is amazing that any primary schools can fund history trips to the British Museum [BM]. The education department of the British Museum [BM] is well aware of these constraints and tries to meet the...
The British Museum: Creative ICT for Kids
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English Heritage's Heritage Explorer
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
[THINK BUBBLE, has burst, r.i.p... Diogenes, a curmudgeonly Ancient Greek cynic, has taken its place. The original Grumpy Old Man Diogenes typically looks back to a mythical golden age]
Introduction
Unfortunately I'm old enough to remember a time when primary school...
English Heritage's Heritage Explorer
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The Battle of Britain
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
David Field gives a descriptive account of a History Club's project on the Battle of Britain.
The Battle of Britain
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Exploring chronology in a museum
Case Study
Introduction
This article explores how working in partnership with museums can help to build the concept of chronology. In 2009 the Education team at the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds, worked with the Gifted and Talent Advisor at Education Leeds to provide a series of CPD days for teachers, and pupil...
Exploring chronology in a museum
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Differentiation: Gifted and Talented
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Gifted and talented (G&T) education has a major focus upon differentiation: the identification and support of pupils who have the abilities to perform at the highest levels. The Autumn 2007 edition of Primary History 47 focused upon...
Differentiation: Gifted and Talented
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Folk tales: Universal values, individual differences
Paper
This paper is about using folktales to introduce young children to the past. It examines the ways in which folk tales reflect the different types of people found in the past and now, in all societies and how folk tales reflect universal values as well as differences between societies. It...
Folk tales: Universal values, individual differences
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Egyptians, Embalming and Experiences
Primary History article
I am a third year student currently studying on a 4 year degree course at Leeds Trinity University College training to be a primary school teacher. Last year, as part of our History module, we visited the Leeds City Museum and met Esther Amis-Hughes who was then its Learning and...
Egyptians, Embalming and Experiences
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Creating a school museum
Primary History case study
Using an artefacts loans service Within the UK there is a wealth of museums and heritage sites across the country, offering children, young people and teachers the chance to experience a hands on approach to history and telling the story of our past. However if you are unable to visit...
Creating a school museum
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Ideas for Assemblies: Refugee stories
Primary History feature
Please note: this piece was written before Sir Mo Farah’s 2022 disclosure that he was trafficked to the UK as a child, so some of its content is no longer accurate.
An assembly could focus on the achievements of their lives, experiences as child refugees and migrants, and how they overcame...
Ideas for Assemblies: Refugee stories
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Ideas for Assemblies: The life stories of refugees - Judith Kerr
Primary History feature
Judith Kerr, author of The Tiger Who Came to Tea and the Mog stories, came to Britain in 1936 with her brother Michael and their parents, Alfred and Julia Kerr. Her father was Jewish, an anti-Nazi, and famous theatre critic who fled Berlin as Hitler came to power in 1933,...
Ideas for Assemblies: The life stories of refugees - Judith Kerr
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Teaching the Maya in upper Key Stage 2
Primary History article
In this article, Jo identifies a rationale for learning about this civilisation and addresses some of the ways it can be taught, especially with older primary children. It includes a comparative enquiry with Anglo-Saxons. She also highlights how recent research has developed a greater understanding of the Maya and, at...
Teaching the Maya in upper Key Stage 2
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Addressing the issues of knowledge, skills and understanding
Article
This section explores some of the key ideas and activities for time, causation, interpretations, enquiry and significance. There are also some ideas on how history can be linked with literacy.
Addressing the issues of knowledge, skills and understanding
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Keeping the content manageable in Key Stage 2
Article
This section offers guidance on how Key Stage 2 history can be organised through the use of a number of key investigative questions for the most commonly taught areas of study.
Keeping the content manageable in Key Stage 2
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Britain on pause: remembering the 1926 General Strike
Primary History article
In this article, Kate Rigby looks back at the 1926 General Strike and considers how this could be used to explore significance, cause and consequence in Key Stage 2...
Britain on pause: remembering the 1926 General Strike
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What is characteristic of the Indus Valley Civilisation?
Primary History article
In this article, Karin Doull examines some characteristic features of the Indus Valley Civilisation and considers what these might tell us about this fascinating, less well-known empire...
What is characteristic of the Indus Valley Civilisation?
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Animals who help us: teaching past and present in EYFS
Primary History article
Remembrance Day is a useful time to explore with EYFS pupils the people who help us. But of course animals also play a part in human conflicts. This article explores animals who have helped us in wartime now and in the past. The article includes useful teaching ideas and picture...
Animals who help us: teaching past and present in EYFS
