Classroom activities: age 5 – 7

Our tried-and-tested classroom activities are designed for teachers to help bring the past to life and connect it to children's lives today.

Each one is linked to our Revolutionary collection of objects and artworks  from museums and galleries across the UK.

Use these activities with your children, adapt them, or delve into the collection and create your own. For more in-depth classroom ideas, try our Guides, Enquiries and Creative and digital making projects

All of our learning resources are authored by education specialists and historians.

  • A wooden anamatronic tiger crouches on top of a wooden body of a man dressed in European dress, the tiger is mauling his neck.

    Image of the day

    Stimulate students’ curiosity and hone their skills of deduction.

  • A painting of a well-dressed man in a top hat and tails, riding an early model of a bike in a park. A large tree can be seen in the foreground and towards the back you can see another man riding a similar bike.

    Jigsaws

    Cut up a revolutionary object or image and mix it up. Can you put it back together?

  • A model of a tall-ship with the side pannels removed so you can see the inner workings of the ship and the different levels.

    Transport pairs

    Getting to know how trains, boats, bikes and planes have changed since the Age of Revolution.

  • A black and white print showing a textile factory with a large loom. Child workers can be seen in the foreground in tattered clothing.

    Looking closely at images

    How many details can students see – and remember? What do they tell us about the past?

  • A colour print of a large hot air balloon, the balloon is blue and decorated with gold faces, cherubs, lions and eagles.

    Objects personified!

    Using historical objects to fire imaginations…what if it could hear, smell, talk? What might it get up to in its spare time? What secrets might it tell us?

  • A portrait of a young woman dressed in a plain white dress and a dark black hat. She is gazing to the left of the frame with a still look on her face.

    Talking about a revolution

    Use a simple app to make an object or artwork speak - what might they have to say about their owner or maker, where they’ve been, what they’ve seen…?

  • Image of Waterloo Teeth

    If only they could talk

    What might the Waterloo teeth have to say? What questions might they ask the students..?

  • A small model of a steam ship used on the Clyde and Forth Canal

    Who am I?

    A historical twist on the popular game.

  • A painting of a Kangaroo standing on a rock with a landscape scene in the background.

    Reliable evidence?

    How reliable are primary sources? Does their meaning change if we know why they were made? What if an artist never even saw the subject they painted..?

  • A long dark blue naval coat decorated with gold trim, buttons and medals.

    Fascinating facts

    Did you know the first known flight to carry people took place nearly 250 years ago, in Paris, in a balloon? Discovering and presenting fascinating facts about the Age of Revolution.

A portrait of a tall-ship being tugged into a harbour by a small steam ship at sunset.

A Revolutionary Collection

Our Revolutionary collection brings together objects, artworks, literature, archive materials and songs from museums and galleries across the UK. Each one is supported by information and fascinating facts to help you explore the different themes, people, events and ideas of the Age of Revolution.

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A square wooden base supports a early engine. The brass cogs and wheels are numbered.

Economic and technological revolution

Life-changing discoveries and innovations in scientific thinking, technology and medicine in the Age of Revolution, their impacts on work and society, and relationships with trade and the economy.

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A print showing the cramped conditions of a slave ship. The ship is shown divided into layers which shows the density of slaves on the ship.

Social and cultural revolution

The movements for better working conditions, rights and representation for ordinary people, the campaign against transatlantic slavery, the migration of people within and beyond Britain, and the wave of artists, musicians and authors who reflected the period’s upheavals in works that still resonate and delight today.

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A portrait of a young woman dressed in a plain white dress and a dark black hat. She is gazing to the left of the frame with a still look on her face.

Political revolution

From Mary Wollstonecraft, Thomas Paine and American Independence, to revolutionary France and Marx and Engels, enduring ideas about equality, rights and freedoms during the Age of Revolution, and some of their key proponents.

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A long dark blue naval coat decorated with gold trim, buttons and medals.

War and the international order

The wars precipitated by the struggles for independence and attempts at empire building that characterise the Age of Revolution, and their impact on the changing world map.

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