It worked for me: key stage 1 cameos

Contents | Who needs Florence Nightingale?

History that’s out of this world

The teachers at Oakley Infant School in Hampshire were suffering from burnout after years of teaching the Great Fire of London at key stage 1. Sarah Duck decided to introduce a new topic on the first moon landing using a wide range of interesting and inspiring teaching ideas. It was a great success.

Character bags

Character bags are useful in history role play, making the subject less abstract and bringing it into the ‘here and now’. The children were told that a handbag had been found in the classroom and that they had to discover who owned it using the contents to solve the mystery. The items were taken out one at a time leaving the more specific and helpful items until the end. The bag contained sunglasses, pens, keys, a mobile phone, a magazine, baby wipes, a shopping list, a hair clip and a scarf. The items led the class to deduce the owner was a lady with a child. Finally in a pocket at the side of the bag they found a ‘photograph’ (a picture from a magazine) of the owner.

The work was developed with the discovery of a suitcase belonging to Neil Armstrong. The children repeated the earlier task, piecing together clues about the first man on the moon. Character bags provide an interesting introduction to the use of source materials when finding out about historical events and famous people from the past.

Role play

Oakley Infant School has an interesting use for the ‘home corner’ usually found in reception classrooms and making good use of the role play skills developed there. Children are initially given character badges and encouraged to play with the objects and clothing suitable for their character. As the children move into year 1 the role play area is set up as a Victorian school room with ink wells, slates, aprons and caps. When year 2 studied the first man on the moon, the area was designed as the inside of a space rocket and the children used the pictures and questions displayed around them to re-tell and re-enact the story of Neil Armstrong.

Conscience alley

Conscience alley is a strategy that helps children to appreciate the choices that people in the past had to make. A dilemma is presented to the children who decide which side of the idea they support. They then have to work together to devise an argument to persuade the teacher to support their group.

In this instance the children were asked to think about what they would do if they had the opportunity to go to the moon. Sarah asked them that if she had a class ticket for such a trip how many of them would want to go? After a brief discussion they divided themselves up into the two camps. Those who wanted to take the trip had to try to persuade the others it was a good idea and the ‘doubters’ had to convince their classmates to stay on earth. Each team had a secretary and a spokesperson and after 10 minutes of group discussion the arguments were presented. This led to a surprising number of children reviewing their opinions and changing their minds. The children were left discussing the very issues that must have troubled the first astronauts.

Reconstruction relay

This superb group activity encouraged children to work together, to use pictures for information, communicate their ideas in a non-written form and ask and answer questions.

The children worked in groups of four (with each child given a number 1–4) and had limited access to a new invention. They took it in turns to see the invention: person 1 had 10 seconds to observe it and then went back to the group and drew what they had seen. Person 2 then repeated the process focusing on what person 1 told them they needed to look at, the process was repeated until all team members has seen the invention and drawn what they had seen. At the end the team had 20 seconds to work together to complete the picture. Finally they were shown the original picture and encouraged to identify what they got right and wrong.

The success of this task was how it was set up – in terms of the context and physical nature of the task. A year 2 class revelled in taking on the role of Russian astronauts desperate to beat the Americans to become the first men to walk on the moon. They had to peer between two panels of the building housing Apollo 11 gathering as much information as they could before they were caught. A corner of the classroom was boxed off with sheets of cardboard painted with white gloss paint and a small gap left between them where an enlarged and well-lit picture of the Apollo 11 was displayed.

Chairs and tables were positioned so that six children – one from each group – could have access to the image for the same (limited) time. The secrecy and unusual nature of the task motivated the children who worked well in teams, prompting each other to look for specific features, also developing their confidence in the topic vocabulary (‘You need to look at the command module next’). A year 1 class also carried out the activity looking at the Wright Flyer through a wood knot in its hangar.

On both occasions the children made connections between the activity and the significance of the event. They realised how important such events must have been if people were prepared to take risks to spy on their designs and also began to explore the motivation behind such innovators.

Contents | Who needs Florence Nightingale?