What is History? Intro activity

Two short starter or ending activities useful for introducing students to History.
I created and used these resources when teaching Year 7 (NSW) the unit “Investigating the Ancient Past”. For many students, this unit is their first experience of History in a high school setting. The two worksheets would be good to use at the end of an introductory lesson (eg. I used them after creating a background knowledge mind map with students, and going through a powerpoint that helped to explain key terms/what sources are etc)

Includes:

• Defintion list (key terms and their meaning). You may want to blank out the defintions and allow students to independently fill in table, or allow students to glue into front or back of book to work as a glossary for the unit.
• What is History? Introductory worksheet. Simple 5 minute activity that involves matching terms to their definitions, identifying whether a source is primary or secondary, as well as a short creative writing activity (this will help students understand what a primary source is, and offers them an opportunity to create their own example of a primary source in order to build on this knowledge).