History Cross-Curricular KS2

This unit contains lesson plans, activity sheets, resources sheets and PowerPoint presentation packs that discuss:

• The Aztecs: introducing children to Mexico. Activities: Chocolate
• Tenochtitlan: introducing children to the Aztec civilisation and the city of Tenochtitlan
• What can we learn about the Aztecs from objects?: investigating artefacts in detail that have survived from the Aztec civilisation
• Aztec replicas: creating an Aztec object. Resources: creating masks, making pots
• What did the Aztecs believe about the world?: exploring aspects of the Aztec belief system. Activities: Aztec poetry. Resources: Aztec gods
• Everyday life in Tenochtitlan: learning about everyday life in Aztec times
• Life in Aztec times: researching other aspects of life in Aztec times
• What happened to the Aztec civilisation?: discovering how the Aztec civilization ended.

This unit contains lesson plans, activity sheets, resources sheets and PowerPoint presentation packs that discuss:

• Why do people move away from where they were born?: ideas of settlement and understanding the reasons why people move
• Celts and Romans: learning about the Roman invasion of Britain
• Roman research: learning research techniques to find out about life in Roman Britain
• Where are we going?: preparing for a visit to a Roman site
• Roman site visit: learning about Roman settlement in your area, drawing mosaics, Roman writing
• Ghostly Romans: using a visit to a Roman site as inspiration for writing a ghost story
• How did the Romans change our area?: learning about the changes that the Romans made in your area.

This unit contains lesson plans, activity sheets, resources sheets and PowerPoint presentation packs that discuss:

• My place: deciding what should be remembered about us and how it should be
  recorded
• 1985 to 1986: finding out what your locality was like in 1985-1986
• Locality research: visiting and recording your locality, using sources to extract information
• Domesday and all that: investigating the importance of The Domesday Book
• Domesday drama: creating a dramatic interpretation of the tax assessors’ visit in 1085 to 1086
• Drama performance: performing a Domesday drama based on the assessors’ visit to your local
  area
• Time tapestry: comparing and recording the area over time
• Whose history?: consolidating children’s understanding of how we decide what should be
  recorded.

This unit contains lesson plans, activity sheets, resources sheets and PowerPoint presentation packs that discuss:

• Heroes and heroines: investigating the concept of heroes and introducing children to The Iliad. Activities: Ancient Greek fact file
• The story: familiarising children with the story of the Trojan War. Resources: Causes of the  Trojan War, Paris and the golden apple, The story of Helen, Achilles
• War: children write an episode from the story of the Trojan War. Activities: Story scroll plan
• The Trojan horse: making a Trojan horse model
• Horse play: devising and performing the wooden horse scene from the story of the Trojan
  War
• The wooden horse: performing a scripted scene from the story of the Trojan War.

This unit contains lesson plans, activity sheets, resources sheets and PowerPoint presentation packs that discuss:

• Where in the world is Greece?: introducing the children to Greece
• Olympic challenge: comparing the Olympic Games today and in the past
• The Olympics: investigating different sources for creating a sculpture
• Sculpture: creating a maquette for the Olympic challenge
• Olympic exhibition: creating a whole-class Olympic exhibition and vote on the sculpture challenge
  winner.

This unit contains lesson plans, activity sheets, resources sheets and PowerPoint presentation packs that discuss:

• What can we remember about the Victorians?: recalling aspects of life in Victorian Britain. Activities: Victorian neighbours, biography of Ford Maddox Brown
• Our local Victorian community: investigating aspects of our locality in Victorian times. Activities: trade directories, canals, railways, factories and mills, sewers.
• Searching the past: investigating census returns and maps for your locality in Victorian times
• Victorian buildings: learning about Victorian architecture in your local area
• A Victorian melodrama: writing a Victorian melodrama
• Let’s get our act together: preparing to perform a Victorian melodrama, writing cues, punctuating scripts and using ICT to present texts
• Victorian neighbours: presenting the Victorian melodrama. Melodrama portfolios: census data 1871, 1891, making a Victorian soap opera, costumes, props, sound effects/music.

This unit contains lesson plans, activity sheets, resources sheets and PowerPoint presentation packs that discuss:

• Time line the past: introducing children to archaeology. Resources: Making time line stickers
• What a load of rubbish!: learning about the past from what has survived
• What do archaeologists find?: introducing children to the concept of stratigraphy and how materials change over time
• Prehistoric research: finding out about aspects of life in prehistoric Britain. Activities: prehistoric food
• Roundhouses: constructing a model of a Bronze Age/Iron Age house
• Where are we going?: preparinf for a visit to a prehistoric site
• Our site visit: investigating a prehistoric site. Activities: sketching
• A great day out!: creating a guide for a prehistoric site
• World Heritage Sites?: investigating World Heritage Sites in the UK and worldwide.

This unit contains lesson plans, medium-term plans, activity sheets, resources sheets and PowerPoint presentation packs that discuss:

• Where in the world is China?: introducing children to China. Activity: Journey to China
• China today: investigating modern China
• Chinese objects: exploring Chinese objects from the past and the present
• The Terracotta Army: investigating the Terracotta Army
• Ying Zheng the First Emperor: understanding the life and legacy of the First Emperor Ying Zheng
• Chinese inventions: investigating Chinese inventions. Resources: materials and preparation, making paper, printing blocks
• Chinese numbers: introducing the Chinese number system. Activities: Chinese hand counting, Chinese hand sums, Tangrams
• Modern China: investigating modern China. Activities: China today, dragon dance
• Chinese celebration: preparing for a Chinese assembly