Introduction
Suitable for: Key stage 2
Time period: Early 20th Century 1901-1918, Empire and Industry 1750-1850
Curriculum topics: Events beyond living memory KS1
Suggested inquiry questions: What is The National Archives? How do we learn about the past from a document?
Potential activities: Follow along with the activities in the videos. Compose your own important message of no more than ten words. Design your own weird and wonderful invention. Make your own ‘mini archive’ or treasure chest using an old shoe box.
Hello and welcome to Time Travel TV! In our first episode we will discover what The National Archives does and some of the treasures it holds.
You can find all of the videos on this page along with images of the photographs and documents used in each activity. You may want to print these out to circle details and write notes, or you can load each image on your device and talk about what you see.
Tasks
Part One
Take a look at this photograph of The National Archives.
- What do you notice about the building?
- Why do you think the building has been designed and built in this way?
- What do you think we keep here?
- Can you think of any examples of document about your life that you keep at home or at school?
Chat with your helper about this, or maybe even write down or draw your ideas!
Part Two
Did you think of lots of different examples of documents that you keep at home or at school?
Look carefully at the photograph taken inside one of the many corridors in our repositories. Can you see how the documents are kept carefully in boxes on the shelves?
Part Three
Look very carefully at the document and think about what you can see. You might have printed the image out so you can circle things that you spot. Or you can write or draw your ideas.
How about the way in which the document has been written?
What about the length of the document?
Historians (people who study history) investigate documents a bit like we have– they collect the evidence from the document and then start making suggestions about what this evidence can tell us. We too can work like historians! Have a go at using the evidence we’ve collected to suggest what this document is and what it tells us about a particular event in the past.
Part Four
What do you think this is an image of?
Why do we keep it preserved here at The National Archives?
Additional documents to investigate:
Take a look at the documents and use the questions to investigate them.
- Which document do you like best? Why?
Follow-up activities
- Compose your own important message. It can be no longer than ten words! Can you communicate the key information?
- Design your own weird and wonderful invention!
- Make your own ‘mini archive’ or treasure chest using an old shoe box or similar. You can decorate this and then place some things that are important to you inside.
Share your creations with us on Twitter @UKNatArcEdu using #TimeTravelTV or email us at education@nationalarchives.gov.uk
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Suitable for: Key stage 2
Time period: Early 20th Century 1901-1918, Empire and Industry 1750-1850
Curriculum topics: Events beyond living memory KS1
Suggested inquiry questions: What is The National Archives? How do we learn about the past from a document?
Potential activities: Follow along with the activities in the videos. Compose your own important message of no more than ten words. Design your own weird and wonderful invention. Make your own ‘mini archive’ or treasure chest using an old shoe box.
Significant People
Who is who?
Significant Events
What happened then?
Significant Places
What's in a place?
Life aboard the Titanic
Who travelled on the fateful maiden voyage?