The History of Transport - The Complete Series (5 lessons)

These lessons come fully planned and ready to deliver to your class. Each one has a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activity ideas, a PDF slideshow for the teaching input, and a range of printable resources, including worksheets, challenges, picture cards, games and more! All you need to do is download, teach and enjoy learning about the history of transport with your KS1 class!

This scheme of work can also be found in our cross-curricular Travel and Transport Topic for KS1.

In this first lesson, children begin by identifying different types of transport, and talking about which they have used. They will discover that boats were the first type of transport to be invented thousands of years ago. The invention of the wheel then led to animal-drawn carts and carriages.

Children will learn that it is only in the last few hundred years that many of the types of transport we have today were invented. In their independent activities, they will sort types of transport according to whether they were invented within or beyond living memory.

This ready-to-teach lesson pack includes a plan, a PDF slide show and a range of engaging activity ideas and resources.

Children will learn about the invention of the first locomotive and what they were used for. They discuss the differences that trains and railways made to people’s lives, the towns they lived in and the kind of holidays they might take.

In their independent activities, children will compare train travel in the Victorian era with modern-day train travel using photographs as sources.

An easy-to-follow plan, a set of PDF slides for the teaching input, and printable resources are all included within this lesson pack.

In this lesson, your class discover the process that led up to the invention of motor cars and the people who used them.

Children will be encouraged to think about the reasons people owned cars, and how the invention changed people’s lives. They also compare the ways cars have changed from the early 1900s to more modern cars.

This ready-to-teach lesson pack includes a plan, a PDF slide show and a range of engaging activity ideas and resources.

In this lesson, children are introduced to the Wright brothers and their fascination with flying. They will learn about their inventions and how this led to many different uses for planes, including the World Wars and passenger flights.

In their independent activities, they will demonstrate their knowledge by completing or writing a newspaper article about the first engine-powered flight.

An easy-to-follow plan, a set of PDF slides for the teaching input, and printable resources are all included within this lesson pack.

In this final lesson, children will learn that space travel has been achieved in living memory. They will focus on the events of the first moon landing.

In their independent activities, children will demonstrate their understanding by putting events in chronological order. In the alternative activity, children work as a class to ask and answer questions using the Teach Me, Tell Me game.

This ready-to-teach lesson pack includes a plan, a PDF slide show and a range of engaging activity ideas and resources.

This Year 1/2 History Knowledge Organiser has been created to complement our History Events Beyond Living Memory strand. It is designed to support your children’s understanding of key vocabulary linked to this scheme of work. Historial enquiry questions have been included to encourage your children to think deeply about this topic.