History in Early Years Foundation Stage

In September 2021, Woodchester Endowed CE Primary School adopted the new Early years Currciulum (2020).  The EYFS framework is organised across seven areas of learning and the skills taught in Reception can then feed into the national curriculum subjects.  The most relevant statements for history are taking from the following area of learning:

  • Understanding the World (Past and Present)

  • Three- and Four-Year-Olds

    Understanding the World
    • Use all their senses in hands-on exploration of natural materials
    • Know that there are different countries in the work and talk about the differences they have experiences or seen in photos
    • Talk about what they see using a wide vocabulary
    • Begin to make sense of their own life-story and family's history
    • Continue developing positive attitudes about the differences between people
    • Know that there are different countries in the world and talk about the differences they have experienced or seen in photos

    Reception

    Understanding the World
    • Talk about members of their immediate family and community
    • Comment on images of familiar situation in the past
    • Compare and contrast characters from stories, including figures from the past
    • Draw information from a simple map

    Early Learning Goal (at the end of Reception)

    Understanding the World

     

     
    • Talk about the lives of the people around them and their roles in society
    • Know some similarities and differences between things in the past and now, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class
    • Understand the past through settings, characters and events encountered in books read in class and storytelling

Learning

Foundation Stage History is part of the National Curriculum’s learning objectives for developing children's understanding of the world, so they will learn through experiences that introduce the concept of time and change. By encouraging them to discuss important personal events, they will discuss what, and when, enriching their vocabulary and developing into learners who know how to talk about things. This engages the children and shows them how to connect the past and the present. It will also encourage children to learn about interpretations of the past.

Examples of Topics

Toys from the past, Circus, Neil Armstrong and Moon Landings, Homes from the past, Fire of London,

Mary Seacole, Titanic, Brunel, Washdays from the past

Helping your Historian at home!

  • Encourage your child's awareness of features in the area you live. Point out how some buildings look older than others. Take your child to museums and history-themed events.
     
  • Discuss events that occur regularly within your child's experience, for example seasonal patterns, daily routines and celebrations. Read stories that introduce a sense of time and people from the past.
     
  • Help your child to develop a sense of change over time and help them to differentiate between past and present by growing plants or looking at photographs of their life. Talk about past and present events in their own lives and in those of other members of the family or friends.
     
  • Encourage investigation and raise questions such as, ‘What do you think?', ‘Tell me more about?', 'What will happen if..?', ‘What else could we try?', ‘What could it be used for?' and ‘How might it work?'
     
  • Use language relating to time in conversations, for example, ‘yesterday', ‘old', ‘past', ‘now' and ‘then'.