Year 6 The Great War: how did the Great War affect local people and their communities? worksheet

“The Great War timeline” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 6 history unit “The Great War: how did the Great War affect local people and their communities?”, for children aged 10 to 11, and takes about 22 minutes.

Print it on A4. The child's pages come first; the answers, and what each wrong answer tells you, are on the grown-up page that follows. Weeks 1 to 6 of the year, 6 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

The Great War timeline

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 6 · History · about 22 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can work out how long the war lasted and put key dates in order.

A Look back3 min

A folded paper letter tied with string on a wooden table

1.
The Battle of Hastings was in 1066. Magna Carta was signed in 1215. Which came first?
2.
Which year is earlier in time? Circle it.
50 BC50 AD
3.
Which one is a source made at the time it happened?
a letter written home in 1916a museum guide written in 2020

B Watch me, then you4 min

The Great War began in 1914 and ended in 1918. How long did the fighting last?

Watch me

The war started in 1914 and ended in 1918.

1918 − 1914 = 4

So the war lasted 4 years.

Now you

1.
The Second World War started in 1939 and ended in 1945. How many years did it last?

C Your turn8 min

Work out the gap between years, or put the years in order. Look at the line first.

1.
The Battle of the Somme began in 1916. How many years after the start of the war in 1914 was that?
2.
Write these years in order, earliest first: 1939, 1914, 1918.
3.
Number these events 1, 2 and 3, starting with the first to happen.
1. Britain declares war on Germany, August 1914
2. Fighting ends in November 1918
3. Archduke Franz Ferdinand is shot in Sarajevo, June 1914
4.
The Great War ended in 1918. In 1939 another war began that spread across the world. Why do you think the Great War is now often called the First World War?

Say it out loud: Why do we take the earlier year away from the later year? Which war on this page lasted the longest?

D Spot the mistake3 min

A large globe of the world on a wooden table in a quiet room

Kit says: “The war was called Great because everyone thought it was a wonderful idea.”

1.
Write one sentence to tell Kit what Great means here.

E Think deeper4 min

One shooting led to a war across the world. Historians sort what records tell us, what is likely, and what nobody wrote down. Sort the cards into the three columns.

1.
Sort these cards into We know, Good guess or No way to know. Army records list Indian soldiers in France. A treaty shows Britain promised to defend Belgium. The soldier on the train wrote no letter or diary.
The war began in 1914.Indian soldiers fought in France.Britain had promised to defend Belgium.Many soldiers had never left home.A soldier felt brave on the train.
We know Good guess No way to know

How did it feel?

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

The Great War timeline · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. Look for: Says the Battle of Hastings came first.

2. 50 BC

3. a letter written home in 1916

B

1. 6 your child may have written 7 by counting both 1939 and 1945 as years, which is 1945 − 1939 + 1. Ask them to count the jumps along the line from 1939 to 1945, not the years.

C

1. 2 your child may have written 3 by adding 1 to the gap, which is 1916 − 1914 + 1. Ask them to put a finger on 1914 and count each jump to 1916.

2. 1914, 1918, 1939 your child may have copied the years in the order the question gives them, starting with 1939. Ask which year comes first on the line from left to right.

3. 1 Archduke Franz Ferdinand is shot in Sarajevo, June 1914 · 2 Britain declares war on Germany, August 1914 · 3 Fighting ends in November 1918

4. Look for: Says a second world war began, so the earlier war needed a name that tells the two wars apart, or that it was no longer the only war across the world. If your child says the first war stopped being great, ask: how many wars across the world had there been by 1939? What names would tell them apart?

D

1. Look for: Says Great describes how big or wide the war was, reaching countries across the world, not that people thought it was a good idea. your child may have repeated the idea that Great means good. Ask: did the war stay in one country, or did it pull in countries from across the world? Then ask what Great might mean here.

E

1. We know: The war began in 1914., Indian soldiers fought in France., Britain had promised to defend Belgium. · Good guess: Many soldiers had never left home. · No way to know: A soldier felt brave on the train.

Words to use

Say“Which year came first, and how far apart are they? How did you work that out?”

Instead of“Just tell them the answer, or say the Great War was called great because it was good.”

After the sheet

Lay a long strip of kitchen roll on the table and mark the year 1914 at one end and 1918 at the other. Count the gap together, then do the same from the year your child was born to this year.

Tick what your child got right in StudyDen. Anything missed comes back in a later Look back box, so there's no need to redo the sheet.

The rest of this unit

5 more sheets come with a StudyDen plan, in teaching order:

Life in the trenches(with a plan)
Who memorials remember(with a plan)
Medals for bravery(with a plan)
Life on the Home Front(with a plan)
Names that remember helpers(with a plan)

Every Year 6 history worksheet

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