The British Museum: Teaching History with 100 Objects
(www.teachinghistory100.org/browse/keystage/all/date/all/from/3/theme/all/curriculum/all/)
Grades 1-9, with parental supervision
Using 100 objects from museums in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales and from the British Museum, this website strives to help teachers to teach “the new national history curriculum in England.” But nonresidents of England can reap the benefits of this website as well as it provides a wonderfully unique way to explore British history.
On the home page, there are several ways to begin exploring the objects. Items can be sorted and displayed by:
- Key Stages – in the U.S. these are like grade levels (approximate equivalents are: KS1 = Grades 1-2, KS2 = Grades 3-6, KS3 = Grades 7-9)
- History curriculum topic – Events, people, time periods
- Date – specific time frames
- Places – include Africa, Americas, Asia, Britain, Europe, Oceania
- Theme – Beliefs and ideas, Conflict, Empires, Rules and rulers, Social and personal life, Technology and arts, and Trade and contact
You can use a combination of these search methods to narrow the selections down. Once you have input your desired search selections, images of all available objects meeting that criteria will populate on the page. Select the object image and the page will open. On the object page, there will be a larger image of the item, a brief description and much more information about the object including where it was from, what period, culture, what material it was made from, its dimensions and more. Use the right-hand sidebar menu to dig deeper by selecting:
- About the object – more in-depth details about the item
- A bigger picture – explanation of the objects purpose and similar items
- Teaching ideas – ways to use the item to explore history
- For the classroom – Download the image and related images and find links to activities.
All the items have downloadable PDFs of all the information and images for the objects.
Add this website to your “go-to” list for British history.
