The World at War Y5/6 Topic - Lesson 10: History | The causes of World War Two

This World War Two KS2 pack provides 18 carefully researched and well-resourced lessons across a range of curriculum subjects. Each lesson contains a detailed lesson plan, slideshow presentation and plenty of practical, differentiated activities and resources designed to build your children's knowledge, oracy, critical thinking and practical skills.

Download this World War Two KS2 topic now to transform your class into knowledgeable historians and competent geographers as well as innovative war artists, codebreakers and composers.

A Knowledge Organiser is available to support the learning for the History lessons in this scheme. It is included in the Complete Topic download and the 'ALL History lessons in Topic' download, or it can be purchased individually.

Deepen children's understanding by downloading our FREE War Poetry Pack, or extend your children's understanding of the long arc of history by following up with our Rebuilding Britain Lesson Pack.

In these WW2 Art lessons, your class will come to understand how the war permeated the arts. They will analyse a range of artworks including propaganda posters, film and paintings. In particular, children will learn about the work and contributions of the great war artist, Paul Nash. What's more, they will have the opportunity to experiment and develop their mastery of oil pastel techniques within their own compositions.

Each of these downloadable KS2 WW2 Art lessons comes complete with a detailed lesson plan featuring differentiated activities, an interactive slideshow and printable resources to support children in their learning.

In this pair of WW2 DT lessons, your class will reflect on why we commemorate events such as WW2 and the contributions of people and groups who lived and fought during the war. They will be carefully guided through the design process to create a design brief and criteria for their own commemorative space or item before testing out their ideas and developing their construction skills by creating a product prototype.

Each of these ready-to-teach KS2 WW2 DT lessons comes complete with a detailed lesson plan and slideshow as well as printable recipes and resources to support differentiated, practical activities.

This thoughtfully planned series of seven lessons will transport your children back to the time of WW2. Children will form a chronologically secure understanding of the WW2 timeline, including the events leading up to the start of the war, key turning points and factors that contributed to the end of war across the globe. Throughout the unit, children will practise and sharpen their historical skills and critical thinking by learning how to: create accurate timelines, analyse a range of historical sources, assess the relationships between cause and effect, summarise and synthesise historical evidence and draw well-informed conclusions.

Each ready-to-teach KS2 WW2 History lesson contains a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities, an engaging slideshow and printable resources to support the children's learning.

A Knowledge Organiser is available to support the learning for the History lessons in this scheme. It is included in the Complete Topic download and the 'ALL History lessons in Topic' download, or it can be purchased individually.

Help your class understand the global significance of the war with our WW2 geography lessons. In these lessons, children will learn how to use atlases and geographical information systems to identify the Allied and Axis powers of WW2 and how to interpret thematic maps to understand the shifts in alliances and territories throughout the war. They will also investigate the physical and human geography of the different battlefields of WW2 to deepen their understanding of how the experiences of living and fighting in WW2 varied across the globe.

Each ready-to-teach WW2 KS2 Geography lesson contains a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities, an engaging slideshow with modelled examples and printable resources to support the children's learning.

Transform your class into expert code makers and code breakers with this pair of computing lessons. In these lessons, children will learn about the significance of coded messages, the enigma machine and the work of the men and women of Bletchley Park. They will learn how to create and use ciphers to encode and decode messages and how to create more complex ciphers using spreadsheet formulae.

Each ready-to-teach WW2 KS2 Music lesson contains a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities, an engaging slideshow with modelled examples and printable resources to support children in developing their musical appreciation, analysis and composition skills.

This WW2 Music KS2 planning pack contains two WW2 Music lessons that will help your children understand the importance of music to the morale of the British people during WW2. Using this lesson pack, you and your class can explore some of the most famous songs from the Second World War, including the songs of Vera Lynn, before composing and scoring your own Blitz soundscapes.

Each ready-to-teach WW2 KS2 Music lesson contains a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities, an engaging slideshow with modelled examples and printable resources to support children in developing their musical appreciation, analysis and composition skills.

Introduce your children to the propaganda posters released by the government during World War Two.

In this lesson, children will discuss the impact and effectiveness of the different propaganda techniques and design features used in propaganda posters of the time. Children will apply their understanding by creating their own propaganda-style poster, drawing on the techniques and features studied.

This complete lesson comes with everything you need to support your class's learning about propaganda posters, including a detailed lesson plan, PDF lesson slides and printable resources.

In this lesson, your class will find out about the role of war artists and learn about Paul Nash and his work.

Together, your class will analyse a range of Nash’s paintings, examining their composition, colour palette, texture and mood. Then, children will be given an opportunity to apply their skills independently by analysing a painting of their choice in more depth. Alternatively, children can create a Biography for Paul Nash which includes their response to his work.

This complete lesson comes with everything you need to support your class's learning about Paul Nash and his artwork, including a detailed lesson plan, PDF lesson slides and printable resources.

In this final World War Two Art lesson, children will recreate a painting by Paul Nash.

Your children will be given an opportunity to experiment with a range of oil pastel techniques to create different tones and textures - including blending, layering, scumbling and hatching. Then, children will apply these techniques independently to recreate their chosen Paul Nash painting.

This World War Two Art lesson pack includes everything you need to support your children to recreate the artwork of war artist, Paul Nash, including a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities, an interactive slideshow and printable resources.

In this World War Two Computing KS2 lesson, children are introduced to the importance of ciphers, secret messages and code-breaking during World War Two.

Children will learn about the context of code-breaking during World War Two, including Bletchley Park, Alan Turing and the Engima Machines. Children will recap how to enter, organise and manipulate data in a spreadsheet before using their knowledge to create their own ciphers. Children then use their ciphers to decrypt coded words and messages.

This World War Two Computing lesson pack includes everything you need to teach your class about code breaking and ciphers during World War Two. The lesson pack includes a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities, an engaging slideshow with modelled examples and printable resources to support your class with their independent activities.

This World War Two Computing lesson builds on children's understanding of spreadsheets and teaches children how to use formulae to create more complex ciphers.

In this lesson, children learn how to input basic formulae into a spreadsheet in order to create sets of random numbers and letters. They then use this to send and decrypt coded World War Two-themed words to one another. Alternatively, children play a fun game similar to ‘battleships’ in which they use a spreadsheet to generate a randomised set of coordinates.

This complete lesson comes with everything you need to teach your class how to use formulae to create ciphers, including a detailed lesson plan, PDF lesson slides and printable resources.

In this lesson, children will learn about the different ways we can commemorate the past before researching and designing a space or product that commemorates an individual, group or event associated with World War Two.

Children first learn how to develop a design brief and to set their own design criteria before creating an annotated sketch to communicate the ideas for their design.

This lesson comes with everything you need to guide your class through the research and design process, including a detailed lesson plan, PDF lesson slides and printable resources.

In this lesson, children will learn that ingredients differ in nutritional composition, flavour, texture and appearance. Children taste test a range of typical West Asian ingredients before combining ingredients with different flavour profiles to create a delicious labneh - a strained and seasoned yoghurt.

Children learn about the importance of creating a plan of work to guide the making process and have an opportunity to create their own before they begin to construct their prototype. Alternatively, children can use CAD software to create a digital prototype of a commemorative space for their local area.

This lesson pack has everything you need to make and evaluate prototypes with your class, including: a detailed lesson plan, PDF lesson slides with modelled examples and printable resources to support children in their independent work.

Help children appreciate the diverse nature of the battlegrounds and warfare during World War Two and consolidate their understanding of physical and human geography.

Children will learn how to use atlases and geographical information systems to locate countries. They will also learn how to interpret the thematic maps provided to identify changes in alliances and territorial shifts over the course of the war.

This lesson pack comes with all of the resources you need to model the use of atlases and geographical information systems with your class, including PDF lesson slides, a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities, printable recipes and resources.

In this lesson, children will look in depth at the geography of the battleground in Imphal, northern India, where Allied and Axis forces clashed during World War Two. Then, children will research other key battlegrounds before applying their understanding by creating their own news reports.

This instantly downloadable lesson pack comes with everything you need to support your children's learning: a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities, PDF slideshow, and printable resources.

This initial session looks at when and where World War Two took place, who was involved and why war broke out.

Children will explore the difference between historical events and causes before using a diamond nine grid to rank the causes of the Second World War from most to least important.

This lesson pack includes all you need to teach children about the events leading up to the start of World War Two, including: a detailed and differentiated lesson plan, engaging lesson slides and printable resources.

In this lesson, children will learn about the different organisations and people involved in Britain’s war effort from across the British Empire and Commonwealth.

Children will analyse the biographies of a range of people who contributed to the war effort and explore the similarities and differences of their backgrounds, roles and experiences.

Everything you need to teach this lesson is included in the pack. There is an engaging slideshow, a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activity ideas and all the printable resources required.

In this session, children move their attention to look at Britain’s home front and start by discussing what rationing was and why it was necessary.

They will investigate different historical sources to discover what was rationed and how the rationing system worked before bringing the process to life with an engaging rationing role play activity.

This ready-to-teach lesson pack comes with an engaging slideshow, detailed lesson plan with differentiated activity ideas and printable resources.

During this lesson, children will learn about the significance of the Blitz, including why Britain was targeted by the German Luftwaffe.

Children will analyse photographs from the time to apply their learning and generate historically valid inferences and questions about the impact of the Blitz. Alternatively, children can create poems to express their understanding.

Everything you need to teach this lesson is included in the pack. There is an engaging slideshow, a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activity ideas and all the printable resources required.

During this session, children will learn about evacuation and explore why the government felt that Operation Pied Piper was necessary.

Through the use of carefully chosen and modelled examples, children will learn how to analyse oral testimonies. Once confident, children will analyse a range of oral testimonies from evacuees, parents and host families to investigate people’s different experiences of evacuation.

Inspiring children to learn has never been so easy with this instantly downloadable lesson pack. All you need is right here, including an informative slideshow, detailed lesson plan and engaging, printable resources.

This age-appropriate yet thought-provoking lesson explores how Hitler’s beliefs about race led to the persecution of the Jews across Nazi Europe, culminating in the Holocaust.

Children learn the story of Anne Frank and use extracts from her diary to understand the impact of the Holocaust on the Jewish people.

This lesson pack includes a detailed lesson plan with differentiated learning activities, a visual-filled slideshow, and well-researched, printable resources.

In this final lesson, children will apply the vocabulary, knowledge and skills they have developed during the unit to plan and carry out their own historical research and to draw their own conclusion as to whether the Allies would have won the war without the contribution of the British Empire.

Alternatively, children undertake self-led research about the events leading up to the end of the war.

If you want your class to develop their independent historical enquiry skills then this is the lesson for you. This lesson pack comes with everything you need: a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities, an informative slideshow and printable resources to support children's learning.

In this lesson, children will reflect on how music was used during the war to keep up morale for the soldiers and for the people at home.

They will be introduced to Vera Lynn and how her songs inspired hope for people during the war. The children have the opportunity to listen and appraise the songs and recreate them in the classroom.

This lesson pack comes with everything you need to develop your children's map skills, including: a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities, informative slideshow and engaging, printable resources.

In this second session, children will use audio clips from the Imperial War Museum Sound Archive and photographs as inspiration to compose their own Blitz soundscape.

Children will experiment with altering the pitch, tempo, rhythm and dynamics of sounds using different instruments before bringing their sound layers together into a soundscape to perform. Children are encouraged to record their composition as a graphic score, marking the beats for each instrument with symbols.

This ready-to-teach lesson pack has everything you need to support your children's learning, including: a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities, an informative slideshow and printable resources.