Classroom Resources

These resources can take many forms but will be aimed at helping younger children explore historical concepts through their senses and developing their language and communication. For example, artefacts, visual images of various kinds, stories and people themselves all help younger children to explore ideas and work out problems for themselves and with support from informed adults.

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  • Case Study: Historical information and the local community

    Article

    The ICT revolution A paper register, a pink-lined A4 mark book and a written school log book are surely historical artefacts? The transition from paper to digital technology continues, changing the world of the classroom teacher whose working life like mine, began in the print age when digital-based education was...

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  • English Heritage's Heritage Explorer

    Article

    Diogenes - Waving not drowning: English Heritage's Heritage Explorer [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...

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  • Constructivist chronology and Horrible Histories

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. I chose Horrible Histories for this exploration of children's understanding of chronology because I thought it would be fun - and I approve of the Horrible Histories. They use sources, question sources, provide alternative interpretations and...

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  • From Champion to Hero: Engaging Pupils in a study of significant Olympians

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. Allocated the task of researching and presenting ideas for teaching about significant Olympians, I thought: ‘Brilliant, this is the easy one'. How wrong can one be! I expected to be able to access a plethora of...

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  • Primary History and planning for teaching the Olympics - four curricular models

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. Three curricular editions of Primary History, PH 50, Autumn 2008 , PH 53, Autumn 2009 and PH 57, Spring 2011 are directly relevant to teaching the Olympics. PH 50, Autumn 2008 History Education in the 21st...

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  • Story, myth and legend: The Story of Atalanta

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. Time and change in stories Everyone loves a story and stories have always been at the heart of early years education. Children can relate their own experiences of time to stories in picture books about other...

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  • An Olympic Great? Dorando Pietri

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. The Italian confectioner Dorando Pietri is one of the most famous figures from the 1908 Olympics - famous for not winning. His story raises issues of sportsmanship suitable for class discussion. There are detailed accounts readily...

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  • William Brookes and the Olympic Games

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. History flows like a river, sometimes quiet and unobtrusive, sometimes a raging torrent with wide-ranging effects on the world around us. It is punctuated by momentous events and significant individuals, who impact on its direction and...

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  • 'Doing Local History' through maps and drama

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. Editorial note: John Fines produced two case studies of Local History for the Nuffield Primary History Project. One on them is published here for the first time.

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  • Planning for local history

    Article

    Editorial comment: Barbara writes from the viewpoint of a classroom teacher facing the challenge of ‘Doing local history' for the first time.

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  • Local railway history: using visual resources

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. Before the 1960s British Rail's spider-web network of railway lines reached every town and thousands of villages. Where you live would have been within a thirty minute journey from a station; scroll down to look at...

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  • A Local History Toolkit

    Article

    IntroductionIn this short paper you will discover some of the tools for ‘doing' local history. They are based on where I live: you can get similar types of sources from where you live, work or teach. Your main source will be a local library or record office, but there is...

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  • Sutton Hoo - Classroom archaeology in the digital age

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content and links may be outdated. The class had composed its Anglo-Saxon funeral poem for Raedwald, an Anglo-Saxon king, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A6dwald_of_East_Anglia, the high king or Bretwalda of all seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the early seventh century as well as being King...

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  • Artefacts handling at Brunel's SS Great Britain

    Article

    Editorial note: This article introduces teachers to ss Great Britain as an artefactual teaching resource. It links closely to Teachers TV programmes, see page 30, and should be read in conjunction with them.

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  • Artefacts and art facts: images of Sir Francis Drake

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content and links may be outdated. Editorial note: This article reveals the power of the Internet in helping us all, adults and children, to bring portraits like Drake's to life. So, as you read, follow the links.

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  • History, artefacts and storytelling in the 2011 primary curriculum

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. This article will argue that although history can seem a ‘hard' discipline for young children, it can be made accessible and exciting through telling stories about objects. The article does not contain advice about obtaining objects:...

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  • A view from the KS1 classroom - investigating an artefact

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. In the autumn of 2009 I saw some of the Anglo-Saxon Staffordshire Hoard on display at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, and stood in awe at the skills of the craftsmen. Reminded so vividly of the...

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  • Extending Primary Children's thinking through artefacts

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. A research project was carried out with Maltese primary school children at San Andrea Infant and Middle school to see if learning strategies could accelerate pupils' cognitive development. The research involved a range of historical sources:...

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  • Doing History with Objects

    Article

    IntroductionI was talking about ‘Doing History' with historical artefacts and objects with a young teacher when she closed the discussion with the statement ‘It's alright for you, you're old, your house is full of old things - how do I get them?' Alas - I had to agree with her,...

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  • Pride in place: What does historical geographical and social understanding look like?

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. ‘Some primary schools are like the High Street in many of our towns. I can predict what I will see before I go through the door. What I want to see is something that gives me...

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