Ancient Egypt: 8 Enquiry-Led Lessons (Lower KS2)

Can pupils work out what the things the Egyptians left behind tell us? This complete unit has children thinking, questioning and working like real historians, using real sources in every lesson.

What’s included:

8 ready-to-teach lessons (PowerPoint and PDF)
A 61-page Historical Investigations Journal, with bigger text and clear instructions for Lower KS2
Unit planner and lesson plans
Teacher subject knowledge notes
Knowledge organiser
End-of-unit assessment, plus a supported version, with mark schemes
Journal answer sheet
Historian competency tracker
Historian’s Workshop: optional making tasks, each tied to the evidence

The lessons:

The Gift of the Nile: a harvest painting from a tomb
The Pharaohs: a statue of Hatshepsut
The Pyramids: the pyramids at Giza
Hieroglyphs: the Rosetta Stone
Everyday Life: a painting of a family day out
Gods and Goddesses: a bronze cat
Mummies: a painted coffin
What Did They Leave Behind?: Howard Carter opening Tutankhamun’s shrine

Every lesson follows the same six steps:
Time Travellers, Big Question, Evidence Detectives, Discover, Prove It! and History Check.

Pupils place each source on a to-scale timeline, investigate it with a partner in three simple steps, then read a second source on their own in the journal. Colourful partner tasks bring the learning to life, from putting a year by the Nile in order to striking a pharaoh pose. Each lesson ends with a creative finishing task, such as designing a cartouche or a shabti.

Why teachers like it:

Built on real, credited sources, not just activities
Clear, consistent lesson structure that pupils quickly learn
Written at a Lower KS2 reading level
Builds the skills of a historian: evidence, chronology, and what a source can and cannot tell us
Minimal preparation: print the journal and teach

Try Lesson 1 for free to see how it works in your classroom.

Little Historians: Explore the past. Inspire the future.