History in Key Stage 1 

In Duckpuddle Class, we learn about the following history topics:

• Historical Heroines – Florence Nightingale
• Fire! Fire! – The Great Fire of London
• Journeys – Neil Armstrong and Christopher Columbus
• Toys Past and Present – Changes in living memory
• Our Village - Significant historical events, people, and places in their own locality
• Kings and Queens – Significant individuals in the past

History topics are bought to life through many different styles of learning. An example of this is during our Fire! Fire! topic when our children used their senses to taste cheese, bake bread and watch/smell/hear Pudding Lane burn to the ground during The Great Burn event! We are very lucky to have support from our local museum, who regularly deliver workshops where the children get to dress up and partake in a range of re-enactments, i.e. Florence Nightingale and Samuel Pepys.  History lessons are highly participative, involving role-play and other practical activities to enable pupils to time travel to the past!  History-led topics, usually have a history-inspired BIG BANG to launch the half term's learning.  

Toys Past and Present 

We begin our Topic Toys Past and Present by looking at our own toys and sharing them. We move on to learn about our Grandparents toys. The children thoroughly enjoy asking their family members about their favourite toys as children. We share them with each other, finding out about china dolls, Cindy dolls, wooden trains and clacker balls.   

Throughout our History unit, we learn about toys today, our grandparents toys, toys in the Early 20^th Century, and Victorian toys. We look at how toys have change over time, looking at the dresses dolls wear now compared to in the past and how Crayola Crayons have changed a little bit but not as much as other toys. The children make links to materials, thinking about how the availability to materials, tools and technology also influenced toys.

Our Village 

When learning about Therfield Village, we look at the history of the village. We interview locals, including the Pub Landlord, Parish Councillors and a long serving member of the village. The children learn about interesting facts and use them in their cross curricular subjects. 

The History of Castles

In our History lessons, we learn about the history of castles. We begin by finding out that castles used to be lived in as homes, and the materials they were made of. Next, we spend some time researching castles using different sources. We learn about motte and bailey castles, concentric castles and why some of their features were important. Finally, we compare castles as homes, and our modern houses as homes. We think about differences in heating, lighting and everyday security.