Cold War Picture-Quote Match-Up (18 Key Events Revision Activity) – Edexcel GCSE

This Cold War revision activity challenges students to match 18 key Cold War images (labelled A–R) with 18 imagined quotes representing the perspectives, emotions or reflections of people involved in each event.

Students look at the images on the board while the teacher reads the quotes aloud. Students then decide which image each quote refers to and record the matching letter on their mini-whiteboards or in their books. This creates an engaging, fast-paced retrieval task that encourages inference and deeper understanding of Cold War events.

What’s Included

1 PowerPoint slide with 18 labelled Cold War images (A–R)

1 Word Document containing all 18 imagined quotes

Each quote is labelled with the correct image letter

This functions as the teacher answer sheet

Fully editable files

Covers major Cold War events from 1945–1991

Why Teachers Use This Activity

✔ Highly interactive whole-class revision
✔ Excellent for retrieval practice and low-stakes quizzing
✔ Encourages inference, interpretation and event recall
✔ Covers a wide sweep of Cold War content in one task
✔ Perfect for end-of-topic lessons or pre-exam refreshers
✔ Requires no printing for students — low prep, high impact

How to Deliver

Display the image slide (A–R) on the board.

Read each quote aloud from the Word Document (teacher only).

Students decide which image the quote refers to and show the letter.

Reveal the correct answers at the end (using the labelled Word Document).

Curriculum Links

KS4 History – The Cold War 1945–91
Edexcel GCSE (Superpower Relations and the Cold War)