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Dan's History Highway

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(based on 54 reviews)

350+ ready to use and fully resourced History lessons. As a British history teacher with 25 years of experience, I understand the challenges you face in the classroom. That's why I created my store — to share high-quality lessons and to save you time. This store shares my love of History, inspires critical thinking, and get students connected with the past. I’m also an examiner and textbook author, so you can trust that my lessons align with current standards and best practices.

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350+ ready to use and fully resourced History lessons. As a British history teacher with 25 years of experience, I understand the challenges you face in the classroom. That's why I created my store — to share high-quality lessons and to save you time. This store shares my love of History, inspires critical thinking, and get students connected with the past. I’m also an examiner and textbook author, so you can trust that my lessons align with current standards and best practices.
6 Period Timetable Template (editable)
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6 Period Timetable Template (editable)

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If you teach a six period day like me I hope you enjoy this simple, editable resource. Just amend the timings, text, and colour code your lessons. Feel free to swing by my shop to have a look at hundreds of other resources.
Causes of WWI - 28 page character cards & evidence sort
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Causes of WWI - 28 page character cards & evidence sort

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Students are given one of the 26 different character cards ranging from Kaiser Wilhelm to Gavrilo Princip to lesser known players such as Leopold Lojka. Once students have got to know their character they then get into teams of fellow countrymen and attempt to find evidence to answer the question as to why the war began. There are 31 pieces of evidence for them to sift through, all greatly detailed and colour-coded for differentiation. This is one of the lessons I’m proudest of and it always leads to powerful debate (such as from those students pictured - they have placed the evidence around their tabards!) and empowers students with extremely high levels of subject knowledge from which to begin extended written responses to one of the biggest questions in History. I hope you enjoy it as much as my students do.
Korean War mix & match - activity
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Korean War mix & match - activity

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This activity works really well as a starter to introduce the topic or indeed as a plenary to test student knowledge and understanding. Its very simple. Just print out and laminate the cards and place them upside down. Students have to choose any two and read them aloud. Once they spot a colour-coordinated pair (a question and an answer) they score one point. My students really love the simple activity and it really boosts their precision in historical subject knowledge. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Why did Hitler rise to power in Germany by 1933? (Fully resourced lesson)
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Why did Hitler rise to power in Germany by 1933? (Fully resourced lesson)

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This lesson begins with a starter activity in which five factors are laid out on a pentagon for students to consider. These include the Wall Street Crash, Hitler’s personal appeal, propaganda, opponent’s mistakes, and fear of Communism. The class are then told they will revisit this in the plenary. The 19-slide PPT then talks through teacher expo on each of the factors. The class then attempt a 30-piece hexagonal card sort activity. This is colour-co-ordinated for purposes of differentiation. More able students will draw links between factors. The lesson concludes with a plenary in which they are invited to vote on the most significant factor. I hope your students get as much out of this lesson as I know mine do.
How successful was Boris Yeltsin's Russia, 1991-1999?
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How successful was Boris Yeltsin's Russia, 1991-1999?

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This fully resourced lesson begins with two starter activities designed to introduce the topic. First students watch a short video clip about the first McDonalds in Pushkin Square and are asked to guess the price of a Big Mac in four countries in the early 1990s. Russia is by far the most expensive and this leads to a question of why. They then watch a second video clip which shows some of Yeltsin’s eccentricities and they are invited to offer three adjectives. Students then divide a page into four and there is detailed information for the teacher to run through describing economic successes/failures and political successes/failures. An overall crib sheet to summarise is provided also. The lesson concludes with two plenaries designed to test subject knowledge. A fun dingbats game focusing on some of the key words (shock therapy, Chicago school, depression etc) and a fill in the blanks Have I Got News for You style exercise. It is a PowerPoint with 75 slides. I hope your students get as much from mine from this resource. If you have any questions please ask away and I wish you a wonderful day. This resource is written in English and is pitched at high achieving IB / A Level students.
Dice for Source Analysis in History Lessons
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Dice for Source Analysis in History Lessons

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Very simple but spices up source analysis skills. Students create their die from the template and throw - when the die lands they have to ask the person next to them the question which is face up. This is a featured resource on the T.E.S scaffolding for History teachers website. Have a wonderful day.
An introduction to the history of the Philippines
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An introduction to the history of the Philippines

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This lesson is a bit niche! But its great. If you teach the history of the Philippines this is my first lesson in a local history unit. The class are introduced to five inquiry units they will study and begin the lesson with an odd one out starter activity. The lesson aims and objectives are clearly laid out and graduated (all will, most will, some will) and there are slides explaining some of the terrific things about the island nation. Students are then invited to create a title page using this info and there own knowledge/research. The lesson concludes with a game of Last Historian Standing in which they are tested on some of the information that they have gone over during the main phase of the lesson. I hope your students enjoy this activity as much as mine do.
What was life like for the first inhabitants of the Philippines?
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What was life like for the first inhabitants of the Philippines?

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This lesson includes clear and graduated aims and objectives (all will, most will, some will) and begins with a starter activity in which students have to identify which major groups came to the islands first (the order is Negritos or indigenous peoples, Austronesians, Spanish, Americans) in a Play Your Cards Right Activity. They are then given background information as well as cards and pictures. Using these students create a day in the life of a Negrito by adding the cards to an emotional rollercoaster (discerning between positive and negative aspects of life). They then conclude with a voting plenary. During this lesson they learn about the lifestyle of the nomadic and semi-nomadic Negritos (a word coined by the Spanish colonisers later) and explore such things as the Angono petrogylphs, the Tabon Man, and lots more. I hope your students enjoy this lesson as much as mine.
Sellotape/scotch tape castle challenge - activity
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Sellotape/scotch tape castle challenge - activity

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This is a great little starter activity when teaching castle design. Students divide themselves into three teams - research, design, and construction. Then using only scotch tape, scissors, and a tablet/computer or textbook, they need to design their own castle using the labels provided. Works especially well when accompanied by Mission Impossible music! I hope you enjoy using this resource as my students do. And if you like this free resource why not check out my shop for more goodies?
What was the international response to the Abyssinian Crisis and why was it so weak?
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What was the international response to the Abyssinian Crisis and why was it so weak?

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This fully resourced lesson begins with a Starter Activity in which students are invited to play a game of Play Your Cards Right in order to test chronological understanding of some of the key reasons for the invasion. The title is then introduced along with graduated criteria (all will/most will/some will). There then follows some slides of teacher exposition on what actually happened as well as the international response/consequences and students are given a template (a newspaper template with headings which match the eight points discussed) on which to jot down key names, dates, people, places, events, quotations, and statistics. When they have achieved this, they then write up their own newspaper (you can give them the editable PPT template or just print it off). A completed example is given, and students are brought back to the criteria to show progress made. Areas/subheadings which will have been covered include: What was the Wal Wal Incident Full on invasion and weapons on both sides Nature of the fighting The Emperor of Abyssinia Facts and figures Speech at the League of Nations The international response Consequences There is then a charades plenary for students to recap the knowledge of key vocabulary covered (this also words as a game of Pictionary.) I hope your students get as much out of this lesson as mine always do.
Learning Journey - Ancient China
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Learning Journey - Ancient China

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In this 1-slide PPT you will find a student learning journey about Ancient China. The template is easily editable and provides you with an outline of a scheme of work which can be delivered. I like to ask students to glue these into their exercise books so they know exactly where on their own learning journey they are. This learning journey is broken down into inquiry units and individual lesson titles within these.
What really happened to Andres Bonifacio? History Mystery
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What really happened to Andres Bonifacio? History Mystery

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This is a fully-resourced History Mystery and is part of my unit on the History of the Philippines. The lesson begins with an Odd One Out Starter Activity which is about people who have died for their countries, and this invites conversation about who Andres Bonifacio was. There is then some background information and links to two short videos which portray very different deaths. The lesson title is introduced and clear aims and graduated objectives (all will/most will/some will) are given. The main activity is then a drip-fed History Mystery activity. Students are issued 12 different information cards one at a time which give key pieces of information about the life and death of Bonifacio. Using these they complete a History Mystery evidence grid which asks them to infer from each piece of evidence. After this is complete suggested inferences are provided on the PPT. The class are asked to refer back to the lesson objectives and the final plenary task is a voting task in which they are asked to stand on one side of the room to show if they believe Bonifacio was killed because he broke the rule of war or whether they think his death was unfair and a political assassination by his rival Aguinaldo. A homework task (newspaper activity) is set also.
Learning Journey - Medieval Realms
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Learning Journey - Medieval Realms

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In this 1-slide PPT you will find a student learning journey about Medieval Realms. The template is easily editable and provides you with an outline of a scheme of work which can be delivered. I like to ask students to glue these into their exercise books so they know exactly where on their own learning journey they are. This learning journey is broken down into inquiry units and individual lesson titles within these.
Learning Journey - Imperial Russia
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Learning Journey - Imperial Russia

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In this 1-slide PPT you will find a student learning journey about Imperial Russia. The template is easily editable and provides you with an outline of a scheme of work which can be delivered. I like to ask students to glue these into their exercise books so they know exactly where on their own learning journey they are. This learning journey is broken down into inquiry units and individual lesson titles within these.
What impact did Spanish colonisation have on the Philippines? (61-slide PPT, fully resourced lesson)
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What impact did Spanish colonisation have on the Philippines? (61-slide PPT, fully resourced lesson)

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In this 61-page PowerPoint students address the Key Question ‘What impact did the Spanish conquest have on the Philippines?’ The lesson begins with a starter activity in which an image of the fiesta of the Black Nazarene is revealed. It is a ‘What’s Behind the Squares’ Activity and students are invited to say what they see as each square is revealed. This leads to a discussion about the impact Roman Catholicism has had (positive and negative) on the country. Students are then provided with aims and objectives which are graduated (all will/most will/some will). There are then some detailed slides on a range of ways in which Spanish colonisation impacted on the Philippines and these are discussed via teacher exposition. These include changes to place names (not least the country name), people names, religion, holidays and fiestas, architecture, loss of land for the first settlers, food and drink, treasures plundered, disease, beauty, language, and education. Students have been asked in the objectives to explain 1, 3, or 7+ areas using their mind maps (these are broken down into neutral, positive, and negative aspects of Spanish colonisation) and are invited to attempt the main task which is to draw a street scene showing some of these changes. An example is given. Once the class have completed this there is then a plenary activity in which students are asked to vote with their feet by standing up and moving to one side of the class or the other. The question is ‘should Spain apologise/pay reparation to countries it colonised?’ (Spain to this day has refused to do so). A homework activity is also included which is intended to consolidate the lesson. I hope your students get as much from this lesson as mine do. It has been written in UK-English and is designed for high achieving high school students.
What were the causes of the Abyssinian Crisis? (Full lesson)
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What were the causes of the Abyssinian Crisis? (Full lesson)

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In this fully resourced lesson students explore the causes of Mussolini’s decision to invade Abyssinia in 1935. The lesson features graduated objectives (all will/most will/some will) and begins with a What’s Behind the Squares Starter Activity. Be aware the image is harrowing (it is the feet of an African burned by Italian mustard gas) and invites students to ask why this happened. There is then some background information / teacher exposition and students are asked to add notes to a mind map with 9 nodes. Once this has been added to the class plenary is to add to a 9-sided shape (a nonagram). The class are asked to place four post-it notes which answer the question and to place these notes more centrally in the shape if they consider a particular factor to be of greater importance. If it is of lesser importance, they will place it towards the perimeter. I hope your students enjoy this lesson as much as mine do. It has been created for high school History students and has been written in UK-English.
Why did Spanish influence decline in the Philippines? Escape Room Activity
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Why did Spanish influence decline in the Philippines? Escape Room Activity

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The Key Question in this lesson is ‘why did Spanish decline in the Philippines?’ and it is fully resourced. The lesson begins with a Who Wants to be a Millionaire starter activity in which student are invited to place in order (fastest finger first) the duration of occupancy of the British, Japanese, Americans, and Spanish. They are then introduced to a six-pointed hexagon with the key reasons for the decline of the Spanish Empire in the Philippines (these include conditions under Spanish rule, maritime competition, the opening of the Suez Canal, the growth of Filipino resistance, Moro rebellions, and the Spanish-American War. After this starter activity the class are then introduced to their aims and objectives which are graduated (all will/some will/most will). The class then begin their main activity which is an Escape Room activity. There are six tasks which can be placed in a padlocked box. Students can use internet devices or own knowledge to figure out the clues. For example, the first clue is when did Magellan die? The answer is 1521 so a padlock can be coded for this. It is a lot of fun but if time is against you, you can of course just print the clues back-to-back and ask students to reveal their answers on paper/mini whiteboards. Once they have cracked the code, they then have an activity to answer which relates to the six key reasons on the hexagon and they complete these activities on the worksheet provided (works best when printed on A3). When students have cracked all six boxes there is a ‘boss level’ box in which they are invited to explain the reasons and offer a conclusion. The lesson concludes with a plenary in which they are required to vote on the main reason using a hexagon (six reasons, they place a post-it note to write their key explanation/factor down. The closer to the centre the more important they see it to be.) There is a written piece of homework set also. The emergence of the Philippines as an independent nation is of massive importance to the world and I take great pride in this lesson because it helps students understand some of the key reasons for this. It is written in UK-English and pitched at high achieving Year 7-9 high school students.
What was life like in the Philippines before the Spanish?
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What was life like in the Philippines before the Spanish?

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This is my third lesson in a unit on the history of the Philippines and as always includes graduated aims and objectives (all will, most will, some will). The lesson begins with a starter activity asking students to infer from the Boxer Codex, a manuscript of illustrations the Spanish created of Filipinos in the Sixteenth Century. Students are then given the main task which is to categorise information from 48 information cards into areas such as conflict, government, belief systems, trade, and education and skills. There is a colour-coordinated set and a blank set. You decide which to use based on the level of ability of your class. There is then information on the PPT for students to discuss what they have learned. The lesson concludes with a fill in the gaps (Have I Got News For You) activity designed to test their knowledge of information learned. Homework is included which is to create a piece of written work to answer the key question.