How to make history lessons fun for primary school students

History helps pupils understand the context of the times in which they live while enriching their understanding of the future. For primary school teachers, history lessons present the challenge of making the past captivating and relatable for young learners. That's why it’s important to structure your history lesson plans so that the content comes alive in your classroom, encouraging students to effectively connect to what they are learning.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, teachers were forced to adapt their lessons and find ways to make virtual lessons more engaging. As a primary teacher, you can use your remote learning takeaways and more to design a history lesson that can be more enjoyable and interactive. Here’s how you can engage your students so that they understand the lesson accurately and contribute enthusiastically.

History is a collection of true stories that are ready to be told – so tell them in a story-like fashion. Round up your students and make a circle. Use props or actions to stir their imaginations and take them back in time to a real world that they can construct out of make-believe.

Storytelling is a proven means of extending and deepening children’s learning, and the great thing about history is that the stories are real and significant!

Stories can also be told in the form of historical fiction. By incorporating a range of historical fiction text into your lessons, students can engage each with the story and help them extend their classroom learning. They might be a bit young for Hilary Mantel, but Jeremy Strong’s Roman books could be just the thing to get them loving the past.

What could be better than a school trip to inspire primary school pupils’ love of history? When you allow them to see, touch, and experience some version of the events of the past, you make it more likely that they’ll find some aspect of history that they’re really drawn to.

Trips to museums, battle sites, historical buildings – all these things have the potential to ignite pupils’ interest and understanding.

Use multimedia videos in your history lesson to provide your students with a deeper depiction of the information you are trying to share.

Videos are a naturally relatable medium for modern-day pupils, so why not combine them with events of the past to stimulate curiosity? Set up a “visual day” for your learners and allow them to watch age-appropriate documentaries and historic movies on your current subject matter. Your students will enjoy this break from books and worksheets.

Stimulate your students’ minds with thought-provoking questions. Provide them with opportunities to debate a topic or ask them if they have opinions about the subject matter. This interactive group activity encourages students to focus on the discussion as their peers share their input and understanding.

Like how chemistry needs to be engaging for students to grasp the science behind each experiment, history needs to be made relevant so that students can find a connection between then and now.

To do this, you can create a project where learners are prompted to ask older family members how they were affected by WWII, or which inventions suddenly made their lives easier.

By helping your students understand how historical events impacted their families and, indirectly, themselves, you help to create a new and much more personal level to why history is so important.

Teaching Personnel is looking to recruit history teachers who are passionate about education. We want to hear from anyone who’s excited about applying their primary teacher skills to help pupils thrive at school.

Rooted in a passion for learning, our team is eager to make a positive impact on education by connecting the best teachers to teaching roles. Our refined recruitment process and dedication to the field ensure that we find the right careers for the right candidates.

Browse through our available primary teacher jobs and complete your application – we look forward to assisting you!