First World War primary resource

Explore events from the First World War at home and abroad

This primary resource explores the events of the First World War, both at home and abroad. Discover how the war started and how long it lasted. What made this war different from the conflicts that came before it? What is a trench? When did the war end?

Pupils will learn about the role of women during the war, and what life was like in Britain while soldiers were abroad in our National Geographic Kids’ History primary resource sheet.

The teaching resource can be used in study group tasks for an overview of World War I. It can be used as a printed handout for each pupil to read themselves, or for display on the interactive whiteboard, as part of a whole class reading exercise.

Activity: Ask the children to write a poem from a soldier’s point of view, or about life on the frontline. They could research and discuss existing poems (e.g. In Flanders Fields) to help them with their work. Extend more able pupils by asking them to imagine they are a war reporter from the time of the First World War. Where / how might reporters have found their stories? How would their stories have been shared? Write a short news story from Britain at the time, choosing one of the topics from the resource sheet. Pupils could use our First World War comic and War Horses: WWI primary resource to help them.

N.B. The following information for mapping the resource documents to the school curriculum is specifically tailored to the English National Curriculum and Scottish Curriculum for Excellence. We are currently working to bring specifically tailored curriculum resource links for our other territories; including South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. If you have any queries about our upcoming curriculum resource links, please email: schools@ngkids.co.uk

This History primary resource assists with teaching the following History objectives from the National Curriculum:

Know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative

Gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts, understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales.

National Curriculum Key Stage 1 History objective:

Pupils should be taught: significant historical events, people and places in their own locality

National Curriculum Key Stage 2 History objective:

Pupils should be taught a study of an aspect or theme in British history that extends pupils’ chronological knowledge beyond 1066

This History primary resource assists with teaching the following Social Studies First level objective from the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence:

I can compare aspects of people’s daily lives in the past with my own by using historical evidence or the experience of recreating an historical setting.

Scottish Curriculum for Excellence Third level Social Studies objective:

I can describe the factors contributing to a major social, political or economic change in the past and can assess the impact on people’s lives.

Scottish Curriculum for Excellence Fourth level Social Studies objective:

I can describe the main features of conflicting world belief systems in the past and can present informed views on the consequences of such conflict for societies then and since.