Bringing the Past to Life: Introducing Three New EYFS History Units

Estimated read time: 4 minutes

Have you ever noticed that if you hand a Reception child a photo of themselves as a baby, they'll stare at it for ages? Most of them laugh. And nearly all of them ask the same thing: "Was that really me?"

It's a bigger question than it sounds. To ask it at all, a child has to have worked out that time passes, that people change, and that the baby in the picture is still, somehow, them. This is where an understanding of History begins.

We're delighted to launch three new EYFS History units - Growing Up, Explorers, and Kings and Queens - designed to build on exactly this kind of natural curiosity. Sitting within Understanding the World, all three units help young children develop an early sense of the past, present and future, begin to grasp the concept of time and chronology, and start making simple comparisons between how things are now and how they were then.

Where EYFS History Begins

History in the Early Years isn't about dates and facts. It's about noticing change, asking questions, and beginning to place yourself within a sequence of events. Understanding the World is one of the seven areas of learning, and these three History units give it a rich, structured home, helping children build the vocabulary and thinking they'll carry into Key Stage 1.

The units share more than a subject - they share a way of working. The characteristics of effective teaching and learning: playing and exploring, active learning, and creating and thinking critically, run underneath everything. Children aren't sat down and told about the past; they explore it, act it out, handle it and talk about it. Each unit is built to be fun, creative and genuinely engaging, inspiring the kind of curiosity that makes young children want to find out more.

A Closer Look at the Three EYFS History Units

Growing Up

The best place to begin a child’s understanding of the past is somewhere they already know inside out: themselves and their families. Growing Up introduces change over time through the most familiar context there is - a child’s own life.

Children explore how they’ve changed from being a baby to becoming a Reception child, recognising similarities and differences between past and present. Through photographs, timelines, stories, discussion and practical activities, they move on to compare different generations, looking at how toys, games and daily life have changed for children, parents and grandparents. They begin to use the simple language of chronology - past, present, older, younger - and finish by creating their own personal timeline of milestones. There’s a natural link, too, to the “people who help us” theme and the world of jobs, connecting history with the lives around them.

Explorers

Explorers is a ‘significant people’ unit that opens the world up beyond the classroom, discovering what it means to be curious about the world. Children meet Ernest Shackleton on his journey to Antarctica, Neil Armstrong stepping onto the Moon, Jane Goodall among the chimpanzees, Ibn Battuta crossing the desert, and Amelia Earhart taking to the skies.

Along the way, children identify the key features of different environments, compare exploration in the past and present, and begin to understand why these people are remembered today. It’s a unit that naturally reaches across the curriculum, into Science and Geography, with its habitats, animals and contrasting environments, while building a rich vocabulary linked to exploration and discovery. It’s also the perfect chance to use that lovely word children respond to so well: explore.

Kings and Queens

Kings and Queens invites children to discover what it means to be a royal leader, and acts as a gentle precursor to the Key Stage 1 world of castles and national events. Children learn about Kings and Queens of the past: how they lived, where they lived and what they did, before comparing all of that with the role of King Charles III today.

They explore royal residences, pastimes such as jousting and feasts, and the symbols linked to royalty, using stories, photographs, discussion and practical activities throughout. This unit connects well to national events within living memory: the sort of shared moments children have seen on the news or heard grown-ups in their lives talking about. It helps them see that history isn’t only “long ago,” it’s happening around them too.

Built for How Young Children Learn

Every unit is designed for the way Early Years classrooms actually work. Our platform lets teachers deliver the learning to the whole class, while a mix of teacher-led and child-led activities keeps the balance right. Each unit comes with a continuous provision map, so the learning flows off the carpet and into the areas where young children do their best thinking - through play, exploration and hands-on discovery.

You’ll also find the practical extras that make a unit easy to pick up and teach:

●       Suggested songs and books to weave into story time and support each theme.

●       Outdoor learning opportunities that take history beyond the four walls of the classroom.

●       Cross-curricular links that connect History with the wider areas of learning, so a single theme can enrich a whole week.

Everything is curriculum-aligned and easy to use, giving teachers the freedom to follow the interests and themes that spark their own children’s curiosity.

Readiness for Key Stage 1

Because the units link to every area of learning, they do more than teach history - they lay firm foundations. The learning is progressive and deliberately recaps prior knowledge, so children build confidence as they go.

The significant-people work in Explorers, for example, leads naturally into KS1 studies such as Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole, while Kings and Queens opens the door to Castles and national events. By the time children reach Key Stage 1, the concepts of time, change and comparison already feel familiar - the ideal running start.

Part of a Bigger Picture

These three History units join our growing EYFS offer alongside Geography and Science units - because in the Early Years, Science, Geography and History all sit within Understanding the World. Together they give teachers a broad, connected range of lessons to choose from, all designed to build on children’s own experiences and grow with them.

If you’re new to Developing Experts, you can explore everything - including our EYFS History, Geography and Science units, and our AI tools - with a free two-week trial. Simply visit www.developingexperts.com to sign up today. It’s quick, easy and free!

A Curious Start

Every historian starts somewhere, and for most children it’s a photograph, a family story or a question about the way things used to be. These three new EYFS History units take that natural curiosity and give it room to grow - helping young children explore the past, make sense of the present, and find their own place within a sequence of events.