The First World War: Trenches

PowerPoint (with 6 slides) and two Word Documents that examines the development of trenches during the First World War, their structure, the conditions that characterised them and the development of stalemate as a result.

Activities include:

• Source analysis starter activity of a photo from the Battle of the Marne about the nature of fighting in the First World War.
• A reading and comprehension task on the establishment of trenches. Pupils to find evidence to support various statements.
• Labeling task on a diagram of a trench cross section.
• Source analysis task to identify key aspects of life in the trenches; trench foot, boredom, rats, lice, mud, shell shock, etc.
• Consolidation task in which pupils match key trench terminology to definitions.
• Plenary discussion with picture source stimulus about why trench warfare led to stalemate on the Western Front.

Designed for the teaching of Edexcel iGCSE History 4HI1 Paper 2 A1 The Origins and Course of the First World War, 1905-1918.
Lesson Length: 1hr depending on pace
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