50 imaginative learning activities to use in history at Key
Stage 2
1.Advising the film director V,K
Steven Spielberg has been criticised for making his films too American-centred.
He is producing a new film and wants historical advisers to ensure total accuracy.
Pupils research with a keen eye on being able to verify what they say, not just
‘find information’. See Outstanding Lesson on VE day street parties for an
excellent example of this activity in action.
2. Asking questions V
It is often difficult for pupils to raise genuine historical questions. Often teachers
go into role to help pupils to relate to a person to whom posing questions might
seem more natural. Sometimes a strong visual image helps, such as a painting,
a photograph or a graph. See Outstanding Lesson on Evacuation where pupils
have to raise questions based on a graph of the ups and downs of evacuation.
Why did the number suddenly rise at this point and go down then?
3. Audio guide A
The modern vogue for museums to provide commentaries on headsets or MP3
players gives real purpose for pupils to script and then record their own
commentary on an assortment of images.
4. Beat the textbook L
Pupils are shown a weak example of a description or explanation perhaps written
by you, perhaps from a book. They are challenged to make a better job of it and
have fun seeing how the original could be improved, even by a Year 5 class.
5. Big point little point. L
Pupils are given a series of pieces of information which they have to classify,
according to their significance into 2 piles: big points and little points. This then
establishes the idea of paragraphs which deal with big points, and include detail
to support the idea (little points).
6. Call my bluff V, A, SL
This is an excellent activity for developing pupils’ creativity. They work in groups
of three or four for this. Each group is given a picture or an object which is intrinsically interesting and one with which other pupils will not be familiar. Each member of the team then has to work out their own description of what the object/image is. This is quite hard, but because the onus is not on getting the right answer, but on being able to dupe the opposing team then pupils feel more relaxed about having a go. When they have had enough time to generate an idea each, you come round with the right answer on a slip of paper. The group then has to decide which of their bluffs is going to be replaced by this true answer. Again this is a great way to get pupils to evaluate each others’ ideas. When they have finally agreed on who is giving the true description and who the bluffs, they play the game Call MyBluff against another team. You could open each team’s ideas to the whole class if you like. What is important here is that groups are no bigger than three or four as few children can be as ingenious as to come up with more than two or three really plausible options.
7. Creating a film poster V
A film producer has commissioned Key Stage 2 pupils to create an appealing but
authentic and historically accurate poster full of period detail. Pupils plan and
execute the design as a small team.
8. Creative tension V, L
This is a great activity (see Outstanding Lesson Dickens of a Town for a great
example). Pupils listen to a written description of a place, which they hear with
their eyes closed. They quickly discuss the images that they have stored in their
minds. They then are presented with a picture purporting to be of the same
scene. Immediately they talk about the differences. What did the text do that the
image could not, and vice versa?
9. Dear producer V
Often we want pupils to be given the Mantle of the Expert. Here they have been
asked to evaluate a made for schools TV programme. Using their contextual
knowledge of the topic pupils discuss how well the programme has tackled the
topic they have just studied. It is a good way of using TV and video at the end of
a topic rather than always at the start. It is used as a source to be evaluated
rather than always as a provider of information.
10. Design a museum display V, SL
This approach allows pupils to be really imaginative and creative as well as
selective. They are given the brief of designing a museum display on a given
topic. To add Additional challenge, different groups could be given slightly
different roles e.g. a Museum display on the Home Front that will appeal to
women/interest children. Many museum sites can be accessed and used as modelsfor discussion.
11. Diamond 4/9 K, TS
This classic prioritising task sees pupils using 9 (or just 4 for younger children)
diamond-shaped cards to create a large diamond shape. On each small card is
written key information relating to a topic, say causes of an event. Pupils have
to establish some sort of ranking or priority. Which is the most important reason? – this goes at the top. The least important goes at the bottom, giving each small
idea a place within the large diamond shape. Make sure each card is numbered
so that feedback is slicker.
12. Envoys K, SL, A
In this activity pupils start in groups of five/six and are given information on one
aspect of the topic. Each table has a different aspect. When they have all read
and discussed the information on their given topic, the group splits. One person
stays static at the table whilst the others have to visit other tables to find out
information. The person who stays at the table will be visited by others who want
to find out what information he or she has.
13. Fastest finger first V, K
When using detailed pictures (such as the Tudor one showing the life of Sir
Henry Unton (available from the National Gallery) or Victorian townscapes, pupils
take it in turns, working as a pair, to put their finger on a significant image in the
picture. The last one to find something new wins. This really helps pupils to look really closely at the peripheral detail they often miss. It also sharpens their historical vocabulary for they only win their point if they successfully name the period-specific item.
13. Finding patterns V, TS
This probably sounds a bit contrived for history, but it does work very well if you
use images. Pupils compare a number of pictures, for example of Victorian
schoolrooms, and then have to see what they have in common. Because the
pupils have worked it out for themselves it is much more likely that their learning
will go deeper. It works particularly well if you then compare what the children
have found out with a textbook description.
14. Gallery V
This is a very successful activity which encourages pupils to look closely at
detailed pictures to elicit important detail. It may, for example, be contrasting
images of the Victorian countryside?A number of pictures, perhaps as many as
eight, would be pinned to the classroom walls or corridor space, as if a picture
gallery. Pupils have to look in turn at each picture and list important detail on a
small whiteboard. There are two really important ways in which you can
differentiate this activity which make all the difference. Firstly, you could add two
images which buck the trend. Place them at one end of the line and ask the
more able to start at that end, while the lower-attainers start at the other end. In
this way, your more able brush up against conflicting evidence immediately, so
they have to think quickly about how to reconcile the two views. This really helps
level 5 thinking. On the other hand, the lower-attainers need not progress
beyond cross-referencing the first five or six images which consolidate their view.
15. Head to Head A, SL
This is a fun activity for groups of three that are sitting on opposite sides of the table. Each group represents one side of an argument. One of the pupils on one
side advances an argument which their opposite number has to counter with an
idea of their own. It then passes to the next person in the group who does the
same. You could use this for pros and cons of living in the Victorian countryside. The example shown in the Image allery is of Spanish and English views of why theArmada failed.
16 .History mystery A, SL, TS
This excellent thinking skills activity is used extensively in the Outstanding
Lessons section of this site. Pupils are given information cards which they have toprocess and shape to make their own meaning. Excitingly, they all make
slightly different meanings, which then encourages lots of discussion. A powerful
antidote to reading one explanation from one textbook.
See Outstanding Lesson Why did Wilf and his family leave the countryside to go toa dirty industrial city in Victorian times? Also Why did the small Athenian army
defeat the mighyt Persians at Marathon?
17. Horrible histories L
We all know that pupils love gore, toilets etc, so why not appeal to this interest
and ask pupils to record their ideas in the form of a horrible history. Clearly you
will need to analyse and model the genre with them first, but most will quickly get
the hang of it and the more able will enjoy the creative word play. The obvious
contexts for this approach are Victorian industrial towns, Tudor street scene, or
Viking raiders.
18. Human timeline K
A form of sequencing in which pupils physically become the cards they are
carrying and have to stage them in sequential order. See ‘Helping the hopeless
embalmer’ from the Ancient Egypt section for an idea of how this works.
19. Left luggage K
This artefact-based activity is a real winner. You bring in a case, or a trunk which
contains objects each of which gives a clue as to the owner. You open the trunk
and the mystery begins. Who could this possibly belong to? Shall we be history
detectives and try to piece the clues together? It is crucial that you start with the
more general clues and then work to the specific. Otherwise you kill the
suspense stone dead. I like to draw an identikit on the board in wipeable marker
pen so changes can be made. Around the silhouette of the figure I annotate
ideas with liberal use of question marks to express uncertainty. You are probably
going to try something Victorian or something to do with Britain since World War Two initially as thereare so many objects easily available. One excellent tip of the trade. Try toremember to place at the bottom of the box (possibly under a liner) a clinchingclue which you somehow discover when the box seems empty. I used a bookwhich is gift to the owner. It read some thing like “Given to Arthur on theoccasion of his 8th birthday, 1899”. That way the children can see if they were
right and can then go back over all the clues and work out what led them to their
conclusions. A good way to record this is to ask them to draw an identikit as you
did, and then ask them to write their own annotations around it. E.g. I think he
was a soldier because…”
20. Line of uncertainty L
As pupils move through Key Stage 2 they learn to develop the sort of provisional,
tentative language historians use. They need to practise this which they do by
placing statements on a line of certainty, ranging from ‘absolutely sure’ to ‘very
doubtful’. This really does make pupils think about what we can say for sure. If
you use sweeping statements such as ‘All X were Y’ pupils find it easier to realise
why this is rarely absolutely true.
21. Living graph K, TS
This is an excellent way of helping pupils to move their understanding from
descriptive to explanatory mode. See Outstanding Lesson on the highs and lows of Catherine of Aragon andBoudicca living graph for two excellent uses. See sample image in the Gallery tothe right.
22. Making artefacts K
Although some times this can seem like a dubious and very time-consuming
activity occasionally it works a treat. See Outstanding Lesson in the Ancient
Greece section called ‘Smashing lesson on Greek democracy’ for a brilliant
example of why making the artefact really does help the history.
23. Making documentaries K
This activity enables pupils to use multi media to present their findings. If they
had to make a documentary which lasted just two minutes what would they say andshow? They can use PowerPoint which might include music, voiceovers, still
pictures and movie film. This requires careful preparation but is really motivating
and brings a lot of skills, social and technical into play.
24. Making movies K, A
This is where pupils turn something they have seen in two dimensional form with
no sound into a piece of action. Take for example the Book of the Dead with
Ancient Egypt. Pupils could start with a still image of all the figures creating a
tableau but you could then introduce different techniques, such as panning
across the whole scene or close-ups. Using video camera is great fun, even if it
is only a small cheap Digital Blue which allows a least a few minutes. You would
certainly put a time limit on the final film of only a few minutes anyway.
25. Mantle of expert K
This activity is actually more a way of working than one activity. It was pioneered
to great effect by Dorothy Heathcote. Stripped down to its bare essentials, the
approach places children in a real life situation and gives them real authority.
They have to produce an important report for a museum, or a development
company or part of the heritage industry. Pupils work together with a clear grown-upbrief to advise on a real issue. They need to be not only experts in the history
but also expert in applying their historical knowledge to a particular purpose. For
local history, the pupils might write an illustrated proposal to explain why a
particular historic building should not be demolished.
26. Missing page L
Too often in primary history pupils are simply told what happened in the past. But
what would happen if the next page in the book was missing. We would have to
work things out for ourselves using evidence. Shall we try to do that? This works
best with a small episode so that the task is manageable. When they have done
their best with the sources available, you could then compare with the missing
page which you have miraculously discovered. How do they compare? This
helps learning go deeper.
27. Museum brochures V, SL
Pupils creating a museum brochure may seem like a recipe for copying and
colouring, creating a lovely-looking front page, and not much else. So it is crucial
to focus pupils on a particular audience or slant. Producing a brochure for a new
display on your local area would be good, as would a new exhibition rehabilitatingthe reputation of the Vikings. You can make the task really challenging byinsisting on careful selection of just five images (they decide on which and the sizeof each) and 200 words. By using a DTP package they can play around with thelayout without wasting too much time and the word count facility helps editing thetext down. Pupils will need to think about subheadings, use of bold text etc.
28. Newsroom A
This works really well when you are describing an event. The children have to
absorb new information as you release it, perhaps on PowerPoint. It works really
well with the opening of Tutankhamun’s tomb by Howard Carter.Instead of reading history backwards, pupils get the sense of not knowing what
will happen next and having to respond to events. What would Henry VIII do
now? Shall we see what happened?
29. Odd one out A, TS
Deceptively simple in appearance odd-one-out can actually be quite testing.
Pupils are given groups of 4 cards, but one is the odd-one-out. Can they spot it?
The choices should start fairly simple and then get complex. Which of these was
not part of the Roman legacy in Britain? Which of these was not a Roman villa?
Which of these is not a Roman numeral? Make it harder by not telling pupils what
the theme is. Then make it harder still by asking them to come up with their own
odd-one-outs. It is surprising how effective this can be in showing how well pupils
really do know a topic. Try it. It works! (See downloadable on Life in World War
Two)
30. Overheard conversations A,K
Take a picture, preferably an artist’s reconstruction, in which there are a lot of
people. Ask the children to create a tableau, each pupil being one of the figures
in the picture. Then ask the children to come alive by talking, in role, to the
person next to them. Some children will need help so you might want to give
them a prompt card to get them started. When they have talked to the person
next to them, ask them to talk to three or four others. The feedback focuses on
the question, What have you discovered from other people?
31 Plaque writing L