Key Stage 3 and 4 History Resources
Engaging and challenging History resources for Key Stages 3, 4 and 5. Striving to produce well-balanced, well-paced, challenging and differentiated resources that cater to a variety of ages and ability levels.
Featured resources
Second World War - Dropping the Atomic Bombs
KS3/KS4 History resources: 50 mins-1 hour PP, worksheets, well differentiated.
These resources have been designed to be engaging, detailed and easy to follow. All resources are editable (so easy to adapt for your classes) and are designed to last between fifty minutes and one hour each.
***SALE*** - this resource is on sale at a reduced price.
An ‘outstanding’ rated lesson. Contains:
presentation with starter activity on Oppenheimer quote
evidence collecting activity (two options - either walk around the room sources or a single source sheet that can be shared at desks between two students)
two differentiated tables for collecting the evidence (or that gives more time for slower students by being partially filled in)
opportunity for students to write a speech either justifying or opposing the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
two options for either self- and peer-assessment or just peer-assessment
Learning Objectives:
Gold: Assess the extent to which Britain and France were also responsible for the outbreak of the Second World War.
Silver: Explain why he wanted to revise the Treaty of Versailles.
Bronze: Describe Hitler’s foreign policy aims.
Leave me a review and choose any other resource for free - just contact me via the Conversations tab.
League of Nations - The Manchuria Crisis
KS3/KS4 History resources: 50 mins-1 hour PP, worksheets, well differentiated.
These resources have been designed to be engaging, detailed and easy to follow. All resources are editable (so easy to adapt for your classes) and are designed to last between fifty minutes and one hour each.
***SALE*** - this resource is on sale at a reduced price.
A complete lesson on the Manchuria Crisis of the 1930s. Contains three worksheets (a flow chart for noting down key information, an inference square for detailed source work, and a peer assessment sheet for assessing mock exam question), as well as a PowerPoint presentation with animations to scaffold the learning. The starter activity recaps the League of Nations and events in the 1920s.
Leave me a review and choose any other resource for free - just contact me via the Conversations tab.
Industrial Revolution - Inventors and Inventions
KS3 History resources: 50 mins-1 hour PP, worksheets, well differentiated.
These resources have been designed to be engaging, detailed and easy to follow. All resources are editable (so easy to adapt for your classes) and are designed to last between fifty minutes and one hour each.
***SALE*** - this resource is on sale at a reduced price.
A Key Stage 3, Year 8 observation lesson designed to test students’ understanding of the historical concept of significance by deciding which Industrial Revolution inventor’s face should be on the next banknote.
Differentiated learning objectives:
Gold: Argue why one inventor is more significant than another, justifying your choice.
Silver: Assess how significant an inventor was using Partington’s model of historical significance.
Bronze: Describe the key inventors of the Industrial age, explaining their impact on Victorian Britain.
A ‘hook’ starter designed to get students engaged with the topic, asking about the most important inventions in their lives.
An information gathering activity using five sources giving information about five key Industrial Revolution inventors.
A speech writing activity on the most significant inventor, with differentiated learning objectives.
A plenary for student-led sharing of ideas and a class vote.
Leave me a review and choose any other resource for free - just contact me via the Conversations tab.
League of Nations - The Manchuria Crisis
KS3/KS4 History resources: 50 mins-1 hour PP, worksheets, well differentiated.
These resources have been designed to be engaging, detailed and easy to follow. All resources are editable (so easy to adapt for your classes) and are designed to last between fifty minutes and one hour each.
***SALE*** - this resource is on sale at a reduced price.
A complete lesson on the Manchuria Crisis of the 1930s. Contains three worksheets (a flow chart for noting down key information, an inference square for detailed source work, and a peer assessment sheet for assessing mock exam question), as well as a PowerPoint presentation with animations to scaffold the learning. The starter activity recaps the League of Nations and events in the 1920s.
Leave me a review and choose any other resource for free - just contact me via the Conversations tab.
Second World War - Dropping the Atomic Bombs
KS3/KS4 History resources: 50 mins-1 hour PP, worksheets, well differentiated.
These resources have been designed to be engaging, detailed and easy to follow. All resources are editable (so easy to adapt for your classes) and are designed to last between fifty minutes and one hour each.
***SALE*** - this resource is on sale at a reduced price.
An ‘outstanding’ rated lesson. Contains:
presentation with starter activity on Oppenheimer quote
evidence collecting activity (two options - either walk around the room sources or a single source sheet that can be shared at desks between two students)
two differentiated tables for collecting the evidence (or that gives more time for slower students by being partially filled in)
opportunity for students to write a speech either justifying or opposing the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
two options for either self- and peer-assessment or just peer-assessment
Learning Objectives:
Gold: Assess the extent to which Britain and France were also responsible for the outbreak of the Second World War.
Silver: Explain why he wanted to revise the Treaty of Versailles.
Bronze: Describe Hitler’s foreign policy aims.
Leave me a review and choose any other resource for free - just contact me via the Conversations tab.
Slavery - The Abolition of Slavery (two lessons)
KS3 History resources: 50 mins-1 hour PP, worksheets, well differentiated.
These resources have been designed to be engaging, detailed and easy to follow. All resources are editable (so easy to adapt for your classes) and are designed to last between fifty minutes and one hour each.
***SALE*** - this resource is on sale at a reduced price.
A lesson that forms part of a scheme of work on slavery.
Contains:
presentation with starter activity and plenary discussion
high quality images and resources, ready to print from Microsoft PowerPoint
Learning Objectives:
define ‘abolish’ and describe the laws that abolished slavery
identify the arguments in favour of and against slavery
categorise the arguments into factors
categorise the arguments for and against slavery into factors
assess the reasons for the abolition of slavery, arriving at a judgement
**Leave me a review and choose any other resource for free - just contact me via the Conversations tab.
**
Industrial Revolution - Inventors and Inventions
KS3 History resources: 50 mins-1 hour PP, worksheets, well differentiated.
These resources have been designed to be engaging, detailed and easy to follow. All resources are editable (so easy to adapt for your classes) and are designed to last between fifty minutes and one hour each.
***SALE*** - this resource is on sale at a reduced price.
A Key Stage 3, Year 8 observation lesson designed to test students’ understanding of the historical concept of significance by deciding which Industrial Revolution inventor’s face should be on the next banknote.
Differentiated learning objectives:
Gold: Argue why one inventor is more significant than another, justifying your choice.
Silver: Assess how significant an inventor was using Partington’s model of historical significance.
Bronze: Describe the key inventors of the Industrial age, explaining their impact on Victorian Britain.
A ‘hook’ starter designed to get students engaged with the topic, asking about the most important inventions in their lives.
An information gathering activity using five sources giving information about five key Industrial Revolution inventors.
A speech writing activity on the most significant inventor, with differentiated learning objectives.
A plenary for student-led sharing of ideas and a class vote.
Leave me a review and choose any other resource for free - just contact me via the Conversations tab.
The Tudors - Queen Elizabeth I's Image
***SALE*** - this resource is on sale at a reduced price.
This lesson focuses on the way in which Queen Elizabeth's image was controlled throughout her reign. It involves an analysis of several paintings from her reign, and an assessment of whether the reality of her appearance matched the image portrayed, particularly during her latter years.
Learning outcomes:
describe how Elizabeth’s image was controlled
explain why Elizabeth controlled her royal portraits so carefully
assess whether Elizabeth’s portraits matched the reality of her image
Slavery - Slave Auctions
***SALE*** - this resource is on sale at a reduced price.
A lesson that forms part of a scheme of work on slavery.
Contains:
presentation with starter activity and plenary discussion
high quality images and resources, ready to print from Microsoft PowerPoint
Learning Objectives:
describe the ways in which slaves were sold
understand why some slaves were sold for higher prices than others
explain how traders prepared slaves to maximise their profits
Industrial Revolution - Causes of the Industrial Revolution
KS3 History resources: 50 mins-1 hour PP, worksheets, well differentiated.
These resources have been designed to be engaging, detailed and easy to follow. All resources are editable (so easy to adapt for your classes) and are designed to last between fifty minutes and one hour each.
***SALE*** - this resource is on sale at a reduced price.
A lesson that forms part of a scheme of work on the Industrial Revolution.
Contains:
presentation with starter activity and plenary discussion
high quality images and resources, ready to print from Microsoft PowerPoint
Learning Objectives:
describe the factors that led to the Industrial Revolution
explain how they led to the Industrial Revolution
analyse and prioritise these factors, making links between them
**Leave me a review and choose any other resource for free - just contact me via the Conversations tab.
**
The Tudors - Wars of the Roses
KS3 History resources: 50 mins-1 hour PP, worksheets, well differentiated.
These resources have been designed to be engaging, detailed and easy to follow. All resources are editable (so easy to adapt for your classes) and are designed to last between fifty minutes and one hour each.
***SALE*** - this resource is on sale at a reduced price.
This lesson forms part of a scheme of work on The Tudors. Ideal for Year 7 / Year 8 students, depending on your school’s SoW.
Learning Objectives:
describe what the Wars of the Roses were
explain the events of the Wars of the Roses
explain how Henry Tudor gained power.
Starter - introduction to Wars of the Roses, with word bank
Main - movement activity to collect information about the Wars of the Roses
Main (option) - activity to produce a news report on Richard III, detailing the key events of the war.
Plenary - consider the impact of the Wars of the Roses on King Henry VIII.
Plenary (option) - memorising activity
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Cold War - End of the Cold War (Gorbachev, Reagan, Fall of the Berlin Wall, Eastern Europe)
***SALE*** - this resource is on sale at a reduced price.
This lesson - the final one in a scheme of work about the Cold War - introduces Year 9 students to the following issues.
- Ronald Reagan and his 'Tear Down This Wall' speech
- The problems facing the USSR and its allies
- Mikhail Gorbachev and his reforms
- Popular protest and uprisings in Eastern Europe.
It starts with an analysis of the Reagan speech (a short 4 minute video available on YouTube), before students categorise the problems facing the USSR and Gorbachev's potential solutions. These solutions are discussed, with students prioritising the problems and solutions, and identifying that the 'solution' for problems in Eastern Europe isn't really a solution at all! This leads nicely on to a brief discussion of popular protest in Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and East Germany, before students assess the relative importance of the above four factors in the fall of Communism.
This lesson is ideal as an overview of the topic, or as an introduction. It could easily be stretched over two lessons with a little improvisation and expansion of the section on popular protest in Eastern Europe.
Contains: Starter (Video discussion), Main (Card sort/Table activity), Main (Discussion), Plenary (Assessment), Plenary (Exit Questions for Students)
Cold War - The Nuclear Arms Race and the Space Race
KS3/KS4 History resources: 50 mins-1 hour PP, worksheets, well differentiated.
These resources have been designed to be engaging, detailed and easy to follow. All resources are editable (so easy to adapt for your classes) and are designed to last between fifty minutes and one hour each.
***SALE*** - this resource is on sale at a reduced price.
A lesson on the nuclear arms race and the space race. Forms part of a scheme of work on the Cold War, designed either for Year 9 or GCSE students.
Learning Objectives:
Bronze: describe what the nuclear arms race was and identify the key events as it developed
Silver: explain the consequences of the nuclear arms race on the Cold War
Gold: assess whether the nuclear arms race was ‘good’ thing
Contains:
recap of Hiroshima bombings and the reasons for them
evidence collecting activity, visiting several information stations
nuclear arms race worksheet which distils the notes, defining key terminology
opportunity for students to reflect on the impact of the nuclear arms race and space race
**Leave me a review and choose any other resource for free - just contact me via the Conversations tab.
**
War of the Roses Worksheet
***SALE*** - this resource is on sale at a reduced price.
A single worksheet from one of my lesson packs.
Cold War - Cuban Missile Crisis - Events and Consequences
KS3/KS4 History resources: 50 mins-1 hour PP, worksheets, well differentiated.
These resources have been designed to be engaging, detailed and easy to follow. All resources are editable (so easy to adapt for your classes) and are designed to last between fifty minutes and one hour each.
***SALE*** - this resource is on sale at a reduced price.
This ‘outstanding’ rated lesson doesn’t really need any handouts - it can be run from the presentation alone.
Two starters are included - a recap of the Berlin Blockade and Korean War, or a source analysis hook into the ‘arm wrestle’ between JFK and Khrushchev.
The main part of the lesson is a game that puts students in the shoes of John F Kennedy, responding to events in Cuba. This is followed by an assessment of the consequences of the Cuban Missile Crisis, with differentiated learning objectives.
An optional handout and gapfill are included, however it is better when students simply record their options for each decision without the handout, as having the handout gives the game away. However the handout could then be distributed to ensure that students have understood the events.
In order not to rush this lesson it could easily be expanded over two lessons.
Leave me a review and choose any other resource for free - just contact me via the Conversations tab.
The Modern World - US Civil Rights (Martin Luther King, Malcolm X)
***SALE*** - this resource is on sale at a reduced price.
A one-off lesson designed to get students thinking about the different types of protest. Students read information about MLK and Malcolm X in order to script an imaginary conversation between the two.
Learning outcomes:
describe the childhood and events of the lives of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X
explain how and why Martin Luther King and Malcolm X campaigned against racism in America
assess the methods used by Malcolm X and Martin Luther King
Second World War - Were Britain and France responsible for the outbreak of war?
***SALE*** - this resource is on sale at a reduced price.
An 'outstanding' rated lesson asking the controversial question 'Were Britain and France responsible for the outbreak of war?' in order to get students thinking about appeasement, causation and the contributing factors to the outbreak of World War Two.
Contains:
Starter - what do you know about the causes of the Second World War
Main - why did Hitler hate the Treaty of Versailles?
Main - 'Path to War' chronological card sort
Main - evidence sort. Who was to blame?
Main - speech writing activity on the main question.
Main - peer assessment
Plenary - class vote and discussion
Gold:
Assess the extent to which Britain and France were also responsible for the outbreak of the Second World War.
Silver:
Explain why he wanted to revise the Treaty of Versailles.
Bronze:
Describe Hitler’s foreign policy aims.
Oliver Cromwell - Hero or Villain
***SALE*** - this resource is on sale at a reduced price.
A lesson that forms part of a scheme of work on Oliver Cromwell, the Commonwealth and the Restoration.
Contains:
presentation with starter activity and plenary discussion
high quality images and resources, ready to print from Microsoft PowerPoint
Learning Objectives:
discover why some people admired and respected Cromwell and others disliked him
analyse what he did to earn his good and bad reputations
judge whether you think Cromwell was a hero or a villain
Industrial Revolution - Working conditions in factories
***SALE*** - this resource is on sale at a reduced price.
A lesson that forms part of a scheme of work on the Industrial Revolution.
Contains:
presentation with starter activity and plenary discussion
high quality images and resources, ready to print from Microsoft PowerPoint
Learning Objectives:
describe conditions in factories by selecting information from sources
use this information to come up with a structured argument that is for or that opposes child labour in factories
Skills in History - The Tollund Man
KS3 History resources: 50 mins-1 hour PP, worksheets, well differentiated.
These resources have been designed to be engaging, detailed and easy to follow. All resources are editable (so easy to adapt for your classes) and are designed to last between fifty minutes and one hour each.
***SALE*** - this resource is on sale at a reduced price.
A two-part, Year 7 lesson on the mystery of the Bog Man aka the Tollund Man. Focus on evaluating historical evidence to reach a judgement. Contains two presentations, a worksheet on evidence and a newspaper article worksheet allowing students to express their opinions on the mystery.
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The Normans - What happened at Stamford Bridge?
***SALE*** - this resource is on sale at a reduced price.
Leading on from my '1066' lesson, this lesson recaps the main contenders to the throne and covers the events of the Battle of Stamford Bridge.
Learning objectives:
describe the events of the Battle of Stamford Bridge
explain the reasons why Harold Godwinson won
evaluate which is the most important reason and justify your opinion
Starter: Fun Contenders Quiz
Main: Comic Strip Activity
Plenary: Assessment of Why Harold Won.
Abolition of Slavery Worksheet
***SALE*** - this resource is on sale at a reduced price.
A single worksheet from one of my lesson packs.
The Tudors - How did King Edward VI change England?
***SALE*** - this resource is on sale at a reduced price.
Learning objectives:
identify some of the differences between Catholic and Protestant churches
explain how the changes affected the lives of ordinary people
evaluate the reign of King Edward VI
A lesson on the reign of King Edward VI, with particular attention paid to the changes he made to religion, and the implications of these changes for ordinary people.
Industrial Revolution - Living conditions in towns and cities
***SALE*** - this resource is on sale at a reduced price
A lesson that forms part of a scheme of work on the Industrial Revolution.
Contains:
presentation with starter activity and plenary discussion
high quality images and resources, ready to print from Microsoft PowerPoint
Learning Objectives:
identify living conditions in Victorian cities
explain what the consequences of these conditions might be
assess how these conditions would make people feel