Study Hub

Study Guides

This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.

Back to Study HubBrowse Year 1 History Guides

Year 1 - History

Early explorers and their boats

John Cabot and John Franklin

Unit Summary

This unit on explorers and seafaring gives students a clear sense of change over time, highlighting technological, economic, and cultural shifts. It covers the sea's role in trade and exploration and explores material culture, craftsmanship, and the influence of seafaring on language and art.

Lesson Summary

You will learn to explain what an explorer is and how early explorers travelled.

Key Notes

  • Explorers often travel to places that are unknown to them.
  • Humans have always moved around and explored new places.
  • Humans explored to find new places to live, new survival essentials, or to escape danger.
  • Some early explorers used very early types of boats like the hollowed out Pesse Canoe.

Vocabulary To Learn

  • explorer: an explorer is a person who travels to a place they have never been before
  • hollow: early boats were hollow because they had an empty space inside them
  • canoe: a canoe is a narrow boat that is used with a paddle

Common Mistakes To Avoid

  • Pupils may think that explorers always use a map.

3 Quick Questions (With Answers)

1. Summarise this historical learning in two key ideas.

Explorers often travel to places that are unknown to them. Humans have always moved around and explored new places.

2. Define this history term and explain why it matters in this topic. 'explorer'

an explorer is a person who travels to a place they have never been before.

3. Correct this common history misconception using evidence language.

Mistake: Pupils may think that explorers always use a map. Correction: Early explorers did not have maps. They often used natural features to navigate by such as rivers.

More Lessons In This Unit

Browse all guides in the Year 1 History guide library.