History Craft Learning Activities For Kids

History can be a difficult subject to teach from home if it's not something that you know much about. One thing we can be sure of is that kids love to get messy - so history craft activities should be a great place to start!

So, if you're looking to spruce up your learning to keep the kids entertained and enjoying lessons, why not try some hands-on learning activities?

Whether your child is a kinaesthetic learner or not, we think that it's always a great idea to involve a craft activity in learning - as it is a fun and memorable way of exploring the subject matter.

Preschoolers History Ideas

1) Try the Famous Artist Crafts for Kids from The Crafty Classroom, for kids to recreate the works of famous artists with these fun tutorials! They will learn about art history in the process of creating their own artworks - everything from Monet to Pollock. All you'll need is some paper, and pens or paint.

2) Fancy teaching your children about the Ancient Egyptians? Young kids will have a great time practising or learning their alphabet letters, numbers, and more during this activity with a fun history twist with the free printable preschool worksheets for toddlers and preschoolers from 123homeschool4me.com - just search 'FREE Ancient Egypt Worksheets'.

KS1 History Ideas

1) Let's start by pointing out one of our favourite (and most obvious) resources - BBC Bitesize. They do also do History lessons for other ages, but the KS1 History section is particularly playful and fun!

There are tonnes of activities and history games for kids to take part in online and this could easily inspire some craft ideas too.

2) Learn how to draw Tutankhamun, the 'Boy King of Ancient Egypt'. He’s a great figure to study and draw for the upper side of KS1, with the simple shape and bold golds and blues of his figurine tomb.

Help the kids understand as much as they can about his role in Ancient Egypt and how his tomb was discovered in 1922 as you draw; it's a great way to set children up for their history lessons going into KS2.

KS2 History Ideas

1) Try making some beautiful poppies to engage your KS2 child with Remembrance Sunday - Twinkl have some great activities that include a print out of key instructions for kids to follow to ensure they have the perfect poppy.

All you will need is red and black tissue paper, a cotton bud, green paint, scissors and tape in order to make the poppy.

Poppies can be worn whenever, although traditionally people start to wear poppies eleven days before Remembrance Day, which occurs on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.

2) Do your kids know about the history of Stonehenge? Why not try making a model of the world-renowned site!

To make the Stonehenge stones (building blocks), you can either collect real rocks that are relatively flat or you can mould your own stones from air dry clay or homemade salt dough - firstpalette.com have a super simple recipe.

Have a look at some online images or videos of the amazing space and recreate its formation using the building blocks that you have found or made.

Then, arrange the stones onto a solid base of some sort (this could be cardboard or similar) and glue them together using a glue gun (being very careful) or PVA. To make it really realistic, try decorating the base to make it look like grass and add little visitors!

3) Build your own Tudor-style townhouses from boxes! Teach the kids about the design of the traditional houses, which were often made from timber beams with an overhanging upper storey bigger than the ground level.

This project will help kids better understand the old Tudor world, as well as building their teamwork skills. After making their Tudor houses, why not take a trip to see some real-life Tudor houses once lockdown is over?

Kids will love to compare the authenticity of theirs and to see them in real life. You'll find free instructions and images of the craft idea on bakerross.co.uk.

KS3 History Ideas

1) With the recent VE Day 75th anniversary, many of you will be looking for a way to teach the kids more about the war or solidify what they learnt in Year 6. So, how about making some World War 2 top trumps?

Each card represents a country, and they can be ranked however the kids see fit - they could use 'army size', 'country size', 'number of battle wins', etc.

Encourage them to do their own research to find out about each country, and then make the top trumps out of small rectangular pieces of card.

Draw an image to represent each country at the top and then show their stats underneath. During this fun activity, they will hopefully be able to expand their knowledge of World War 2, particularly if they're older.

2) The Bayeux Tapestry was a large embroidered piece created to tell the story of the Norman invasion through images. Think of it as a timeline of a picture-based story - this will help to inspire your craft!

During lockdown, a lot will have changed for your kids and they're bound to have their own unique and fun stories to tell. So why not encourage them to tell their own tales this way?

Using a long strip of paper (old wallpaper is ideal) and pens and paints to decorate, they can create their own Bayeaux Tapestry about their lockdown journeys.

Whilst referring back to the tapestry itself for inspiration, kids will find out about the processes involved, the stories behind it and why it's still taught in schools today. BBC Teach has a six-part animated series of the Norman Invasion as another way to teach your kids.