Today is rung 5 of 5 on this topic
Local history and primary sources
Can do: Uses a photo, object or interview as evidence about the past, and knows the difference between a source and a story about the past.
Why it matters
History as evidence rather than as received narrative is the whole discipline. Eight is not too early to ask "how do we know that?"
What it looks like when it's wobbly
Treats everything in a book as simply true, with no notion that someone wrote it from something.
⏱️ Two-minute check
Show an old family photo. "What can we know for certain from this? What are we guessing?"
Solid looks like: A clear split between what's visible and what's inferred.
The full activity for this topic · 20 minutes
Then and Now, Same Street
- 1Find a historic photo of a street near you.
- 2Go and stand in roughly the same spot and take a photo now.
- 3List five things that changed and two that didn't.
- 4Ask what the photo can't tell you — smells, sounds, who was poor, who was happy.
- 5Interview the oldest person you can reach about that street and write down three facts.
If it's too hard
Just compare two photos and list differences.
If it's too easy
Find two sources that disagree and work out how that's possible.
Say this
"How do we actually know that? What's the evidence — and what is the evidence missing?"