KS1 Topic: Changes within Living Memory Block D: Keeping in Touch
Share and examine items of communication from previous eras, such as old letters, telegrams, old
telephones and old computers. Set up an informative and intriguing class museum using these objects.
Block: Keeping in touch
[6 sessions]
Main outcome: History
Other outcomes: English Writing, speaking
and listening, Science, D&T
By the end of this block you will
have achieved the following
outcomes:
Chn are introduced to the idea
that people communicate
differently nowadays from in
the past. They look at different
ways in which people stay in
touch or send messages now,
when their parents, grandparents, great-grandparents
and great-great-grandparents
were young. The block ends
with the setting up of a
‘Communications Museum’.
Session 1: History and English
What’s it all about?
An Introduction to
Communication
The history of communication
starts with people carrying oral
messages and then takes in
carrier pigeons, horse-riding
messengers, letters, Morse
code, telegrams, telephones,
mobiles, emails & the internet.
Session 2: History and D&T and
English
Chinese Whispers
After a recap of methods used
to communicate in the past chn
look at the use of carrier
pigeons. They create a model
carrier pigeon using boxes and
papier-mâché. They then
decorate these to make them
realistic.
Children will:
 Begin to develop an understanding of the chronology of how communication has
changed over the past 100 years.
 Understand how methods of communication have changed and how we
communicate with each other now
 Work as a team to create a ‘Communications Museum’ about communication
from the past to present day to demonstrate these changes to an audience.
 Create telegrams, letters to post and messages to send via a carrier bird.
 Role-play using the various communication methods to encourage active learning
and encourage speaking and listening skills.
 Make a simple string telephone and begin to understand how sound is
transmitted along the string.
 Use a range of modelling techniques to create artefacts to display in the
‘Communication Museum’.
Children will:
 Know where people and events fit within a chronological framework.
 Understand that there are a range of different ways we communicate now and in
the past and that they are different.
 Be able to name a range of ways we communicate both now and in the past.
 To work together to make a human timeline to demonstrate the order of
communication methods over the past 100 years.
Children will:
 Understand the role of messengers, both human and birds, in the past to send
messages to others.
 By playing various games, such as Chinese Whispers, understand how messages
can change and may be delivered incorrectly.
 Role-play writing messages to send via a carrier, thinking about how far the
carrier will travel and how.
 Select from and use a range of materials and components to create a product.
 Plan and create models of carrier birds using junk modelling to use in the
Museum.
 Evaluate their product against agreed criteria.
© Original resource copyright Hamilton Trust, who give permission for it to be adapted as wished by individual users.
The links to the websites and the contents of the web pages associated with such links specified on this list (hereafter collectively referred to as the ‘Links’)
have been checked by Hamilton Trust (being the operating name of the registered charity, William Rowan Hamilton Trust) and to the best of Hamilton
Trust’s knowledge, are correct and accurate at the time of publication. Notwithstanding the foregoing or any other terms and conditions on the Hamilton
Trust website, you acknowledge that Hamilton Trust has no control over such Links and indeed, the owners of such Links may have removed such Links,
changed such Links and/or contents associated with such Links. Therefore, it is your sole responsibility to verify any of the Links which you wish you use.
Hamilton Trust excludes all responsibility and liability for any loss or damage arising from the use of any Links.
KS1 Topic: Changes within Living Memory Block D: Keeping in Touch
Session 3: History and English
and D&T
A Telegram from the Queen!
Children look at how telegrams
were developed, including
exploring the use of Morse
Code. They write their names in
code and then create telegrams
using Tea-paper to create an
aged effect.
Session 4: History and English
Thank you Mr. Postman
Children understand how the
Royal Mail came to exist and
how letters were sent in the
past. They identify pillar-boxes
and then write a letter to an
older person for whom this was
an important form of
communication.
Session 5: History and Science
It’s Good to Talk!
The development of the
telephone from the late 19th
century to mobile phones in the
present day is charted. Chn
study pictures of phones of each
era, from their great-greatgreat-grandparents to now.
They create a string telephone
and then subject it to a series of
‘fair tests’.
Session 6: History and English
A Day at the Museum!
To round off the Block, chn set
up a class museum of the
history of communication. They
label artefacts and produce
records for all this that have
been lent or given. They discuss
and then help to produce a
catalogue before opening for
visitors!
Children will:
 Understand the history of telegrams and why they were used.
 Ask and answer questions using historical vocabulary.
 Recognise that there are a number of sources for historical information.
 Use ‘tea bag’ dying to create an aged effect.
 Create a realistic telegram using the tea-paper and appropriate language.
 Write a simple telegram to a chosen person.
Children will:
 Understand why we began writing letters as a form of communication and what
forms of communication we may use now as an alternative, e.g. email, text.
 Look at changes within living memory and use these to reveal aspects of change in
National life.
 To write a letter to someone who remembers how we used letters to
communicate before we had emails and texts.
Children will:
 Begin to understand how the telephone was developed and over what timespan.
 Learn about how the telephone has changed since being invented (from the first
telephone to today’s smart phones).
 Recognise the telephone as a key invention in relation to human communication.
 Place images of various telephones from the past 100 years in time order in the
Museum.
 Make string telephones to begin to understand how the sound travels along the
string to the other person.
 Perform a fair test to ascertain under what conditions the string telephone
functions best.
Children will:
 Demonstrate their understanding of communication methods over the past 100
years to an audience.
 Create a Museum and display their artefacts for an audience.
 Identify ways in which the past is represented.
 Write descriptive labels and write record sheets for objects.
 Plan and design effective labels for museum artefacts.
© Original resource copyright Hamilton Trust, who give permission for it to be adapted as wished by individual users.
The links to the websites and the contents of the web pages associated with such links specified on this list (hereafter collectively referred to as the ‘Links’)
have been checked by Hamilton Trust (being the operating name of the registered charity, William Rowan Hamilton Trust) and to the best of Hamilton
Trust’s knowledge, are correct and accurate at the time of publication. Notwithstanding the foregoing or any other terms and conditions on the Hamilton
Trust website, you acknowledge that Hamilton Trust has no control over such Links and indeed, the owners of such Links may have removed such Links,
changed such Links and/or contents associated with such Links. Therefore, it is your sole responsibility to verify any of the Links which you wish you use.
Hamilton Trust excludes all responsibility and liability for any loss or damage arising from the use of any Links.
KS1 Topic: Changes within Living Memory Block D: Keeping in Touch
Resources
Session 1
Provided: A5 Cards of Past and Present methods of Communication; PowerPoint presentation of methods of
communication; large printed photos of all methods of communication discussed with dates.
You will need: Blank Timeline and teacher version of timeline; scissors, pens, pencils and glue.
Session 2
Provided: Instructions for making model messenger pigeons.
You will need: Small pieces of lined paper for writing messages; range of small boxes; card; papier-mâché; tissue paper;
feathers; scissors; masking tape.
Session 3
Provided: History of the telegram; Morse Code sheet; communications from the Queen; telegram examples; telegrams to
write on, enough copies for every child.
You will need: Tea bags and bowls of warm water; Drying rack or line.
Session 4
Provided: Explanation of Rowland Hill’s postal system; post Box image; story of the post; examples of stamps; examples of
letters; letter template.
You will need: Pencils/writing pens; a letter addressed to the class in an envelope with a stamp. It needs to be from a
fantasy character (Buzz Lightyear or Batman or whatever character your children will recognise and like).
Session 5
Provided: Pictures from the resources to stick along the time line; history of telephone in pictures.
You will need: Paper cups; string (10m lengths); paper clips; scissors or sharp pencils; an old-fashioned dial telephone.
Session 6
Provided: Resources from previous sessions; writing a label template; writing an object recording sheet template.
You will need: Previously created resources; a scrapbook (for the catalogue); pens; card; crayons.
© Original resource copyright Hamilton Trust, who give permission for it to be adapted as wished by individual users.
The links to the websites and the contents of the web pages associated with such links specified on this list (hereafter collectively referred to as the ‘Links’)
have been checked by Hamilton Trust (being the operating name of the registered charity, William Rowan Hamilton Trust) and to the best of Hamilton
Trust’s knowledge, are correct and accurate at the time of publication. Notwithstanding the foregoing or any other terms and conditions on the Hamilton
Trust website, you acknowledge that Hamilton Trust has no control over such Links and indeed, the owners of such Links may have removed such Links,
changed such Links and/or contents associated with such Links. Therefore, it is your sole responsibility to verify any of the Links which you wish you use.
Hamilton Trust excludes all responsibility and liability for any loss or damage arising from the use of any Links.