History · Year 1

Active learning ideas

Local Landmarks: Then and Now

Active learning immerses children in their immediate environment, making history tangible and relevant. By stepping outside the classroom to observe and compare local landmarks, pupils connect abstract concepts like change over time to concrete experiences they can see and touch.

• National Curriculum Attainment Targets
• KS1: History - Local history
• KS1: History - Changes within living memory

• 25–45 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 4 activities

Activity 01

• Inside-Outside Circle
• 45 min · Whole Class

Field Trip: Landmark Spotting Walk

Plan a safe walk around school and nearby areas to identify 3-4 landmarks. Provide clipboards for pupils to sketch or note features. Back in class, discuss observations and match to prepared modern photos.

What important places can you spot in our local area?

Facilitation Tip

During the Landmark Spotting Walk, give each pair a simple checklist with pictures of landmarks to locate, ensuring all children have a role in spotting key features.

What to look for

Provide each student with two pictures of a local landmark, one old and one new. Ask them to draw one thing that looks the same and one thing that looks different between the two pictures.

• Remember
• Understand
• Apply
• Relationship Skills
• Self-Management

Activity 02

• Inside-Outside Circle
• 30 min · Pairs

Pairs: Then and Now Photo Match

Print pairs of old and new images of local landmarks. Pupils in pairs describe similarities and differences using sentence stems like 'Before, it was... Now, it is...' Share findings with the class.

What do you notice when you compare an old picture of a local landmark with what it looks like today?

Facilitation Tip

For the Then and Now Photo Match activity, provide magnifying glasses to help pupils closely examine details in the photographs before pairing them with current views.

What to look for

Show the class an old photograph of a well-known local building. Ask: 'What do you notice about this building compared to how it looks now? What might have caused these changes?'

• Remember
• Understand
• Apply
• Relationship Skills
• Self-Management

Activity 03

• Inside-Outside Circle
• 40 min · Small Groups

Small Groups: Future Landmark Designs

Show current landmark photos. Groups discuss and draw how it might look in 50 years, adding features like new shops or trees. Present drawings and explain reasons for changes.

How do you think this local place might look different in the future?

Facilitation Tip

In the Future Landmark Designs task, give small groups a set of blank cards to record ideas before sketching, so all voices contribute to the final design.

What to look for

During a walk around the school grounds or local area, ask students to point to and name one significant feature. Then, ask them to describe one thing they remember about it from a previous lesson or discussion.

• Remember
• Understand
• Apply
• Relationship Skills
• Self-Management

Activity 04

• Inside-Outside Circle
• 25 min · Whole Class

Whole Class: Timeline Sorting

Prepare cards with images and labels for a landmark's past, present, and predicted future. Class sorts them into order on a large timeline, discussing evidence for positions.

What important places can you spot in our local area?

Facilitation Tip

During Timeline Sorting, use large, durable cards that pupils can physically move and rearrange to reinforce chronological thinking.

What to look for

Provide each student with two pictures of a local landmark, one old and one new. Ask them to draw one thing that looks the same and one thing that looks different between the two pictures.

• Remember
• Understand
• Apply
• Relationship Skills
• Self-Management

A few notes on teaching this unit

Teachers should model close observation by narrating what they notice in old and new photographs, then guide pupils to do the same. Avoid assuming pupils will automatically see differences—explicitly teach comparison strategies like side-by-side analysis. Research suggests young children grasp chronological concepts better through concrete, visual timelines than abstract explanations, so prioritize hands-on sorting over verbal explanations of dates.

Successful learning looks like pupils confidently identifying landmarks, describing differences between past and present views, and explaining simple reasons for these changes. They should use vocabulary like 'then,' 'now,' 'before,' and 'after' accurately during discussions and activities.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During the Then and Now Photo Match activity, pupils may assume landmarks always looked identical.

  Guide paired discussions by asking pupils to highlight three differences and three similarities between the old and new photographs. Use questioning like, 'What do you see in the background that wasn’t there before?' to direct attention to changes such as added roads or new buildings.

• During the Then and Now Photo Match activity, children think past life lacked colour.

  Provide a mix of black-and-white and coloured photographs or drawings. Ask groups to sort them into 'old' and 'new,' then discuss why some old images are black-and-white. Compare a black-and-white photo with a coloured version of the same landmark to clarify the difference.

• During the Landmark Spotting Walk, pupils overlook local relevance of history.

  Before the walk, ask pupils to interview family members about local landmarks they remember. During the walk, invite them to share these stories and connect them to what they observe, linking personal experiences to community changes.

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Methods used in this brief

• Inside-Outside Circle