Famous Explorers Timeline Sorting

Year 2 HistoryExplorers: Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong3 pages

About this worksheet

This Year 2 history sheet asks pupils to help a museum curator who has dropped a box of 15 explorer labels. They sort the labels into three expeditions in time order: Christopher Columbus crossing the Atlantic in 1492, Robert Falcon Scott's race to the South Pole in 1912, and Neil Armstrong's first walk on the Moon in 1969. Two Think Like a Historian questions follow. One asks for the trickiest label, and the other asks pupils to add a fact of their own to each period. The sheet covers the KS1 history content of the England National Curriculum on significant individuals, and the answer page gives the sorted table with notes on likely mix-ups.

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Curriculum objectives covered

Lives of significant individuals

โ€œThe lives of significant individuals in the past who have contributed to national and international achievements, some should be used to compare aspects of life in different periods [for example, Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria, Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong, William Caxton and Tim Berners-Lee, Pieter Bruegel the Elder and LS Lowry, Rosa Parks and Emily Davison, Mary Seacole and/or Florence Nightingale and Edith Cavell]โ€

Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong, a pair named in this statement, head columns 1 and 3. Scott fills column 2, and the sort asks pupils to compare how each journey was made.

What's inside this worksheet

Question 1: Sort the labels

Pupils write 15 labels, such as The Santa Maria, dog sledges and ponies, and Apollo 11 rocket, under three numbered columns for the oceans, the South Pole and the Moon.

Think Like a Historian

Pupils name the label they found hardest to place and say why. They then add one new item or fact to each explorer's period.

Answers

The completed three-column table, with a note that 1912 and 1969 both start with 19, so pupils must check the tens digit. Sample additions include the Pinta, Roald Amundsen and Buzz Aldrin.

How teachers use it

Dates on the floor

Lay 1492, 1912 and 1969 on cards along the classroom floor and space them to scale. Pupils stand at the right date holding a label, and the 420-year gap before Scott becomes obvious.

Pair talk on stars

Ask pairs whether 'Using stars to steer' could fit more than one column. The answer page accepts another column if pupils can give a reason.

Picture prompt

The picture on page 2 shows a compass, a map and a space helmet. Ask pupils which explorer each object belongs to before they add their own items.

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