The popular Year 7 / 8 History Game, “Build you own Medieval Castle”, now has a leaderboard which displays the class scores “live” on the whiteboard as the game progresses for added interest.

Now improved with hyperlinks to keywords and an on-screen record of the conversation.

This Worst Jobs in History simulation can be used as a stand-alone lesson, homework assignment or as part of a broader unit on “Was life Good or Bad during this particular period?”. The worksheet has basic activities for a 30 minute lesson, and extension tasks that could be followed up later.

This four-hour unit helps students to understand why religion was so important in the Middle Ages. This leads neatly into a study of the Cathars and the Reformation. Students study why the Church was so powerful in the Middle Ages. They conduct a card-sort exercise, have a game of charades, then work in pairs and groups to start design their boardgame (detailed advice is provided on the different types of boardgames that exist).

Students rate Henry VIII according to various criteria and “join the dots” in this diagram to produce a “Wheel of Life”. Space is provided for students to explain their reasoning.

This roleplay exercise divides the class into three teams – prosecution, defence, and judges. The prosecution and the defence gather evidence and prepare their case whilst the judges select some surprise exhibits to use in the trial. The trial itself should be a lively lesson which encourages students to make deductions and question the reliability of their “witnesses”.