KS2 History Teacher Book

In particular, these teacher notes consider the history timeline and making links between topics, to meet the difficulty for children in understanding how the different units of history fit. For example, when studying the Shang and its use of bronze weapons and artefacts, it might be helpful to start the discussion by revisiting Bronze-Age Britain.

This teaching resource reflects on ’What makes good history in the Key Stage 2 classroom?’ whilst also providing an explanation of ‘The steps of a good history enquiry’. There is also a section on ‘History Skills and Concepts’ and some suggested resources to inform and bring history to life in the KS2 classroom.

When teaching history, the National Curriculum suggests splitting the content into two – British and non-British units. Our teacher notes follow this guideline with British units that include the Stone Age to Iron Age, Celts, Anglo Saxons and Vikings and Roman Britain plus Crime and Punishment (which extends beyond 1066). Whereas the non-British units focus on, the Sumerian Civilisation, plus a study of two non-European societies - the Mayans and Shan Dynasty.

The Badger Learning KS2 History Teacher Book effectively addresses many of the challenges posed by the History National Curriculum. The curriculum, while being prescriptive in stating which units to teach, also gives teachers a free hand in deciding on content to meet the needs of their students. Badger history resources steer teachers through the National Curriculum, providing effective sign-posting and answering the question ‘What do I have to teach?’

Each reader is supported by teacher notes with a brief overview of the period, examples and suggestions for how to teach the unit, plus photocopy masters where appropriate to support learning. The unit contains a variety of questions and activities that can be used in the classroom to get young minds thinking about History and starting to use evidence to support their theories.