Morton Schools Project – Social Sciences (ages 4–5)

The activities are inspired by several photographs of schools and schoolchildren from our historical collections. We’ve included a selection of these photographs here, but you can also view the full gallery. You’re welcome to use any of the photographs from the gallery as inspiration for these activities.

We suggest that these activities would be most suitable for children aged 4–5, but please feel free to explore all the articles in this series. You can find them by searching for Morton Schools Project.

The times suggested beside each activity are intended to be a guideline; you’re welcome to spend as much time on each activity as you like.

(5–20 minutes)
Children in the past dressed very differently to go to school than children today. Pick one of the children in the photograph, and write down all the differences you can spot. See if you can find three.

(20–30 minutes)
Imagine that you’re the boy in this photograph. Try to draw a picture of your day at school. You can use clues from the photograph, information from books and the internet, or even your own imagination.

(30–60 minutes)

Have a look again at the gallery of photographs, and pick one you’d like to think about a bit more. Imagine that you’re going on a school trip, but instead of visiting another place, you’re visiting another time! For one whole school day, you’ll be travelling into your chosen photograph. Who would you talk to? What would you learn about? What games would you play and who would you play them with? What would you eat at lunchtime? Think about these questions, and then choose one of the three activities below:

• Write a story or a poem about your day in a school in the past.
• Draw a comic strip, showing your day in a series of pictures.
• Design a postcard to send to a friend or family member from your day in the past. You can draw a picture of your day, and write a few sentences telling them about all the things you saw and did.

We’d love to see what you come up with! Feel free to send them to us at @NTSCollections on Twitter or @nationaltrustforscotland on Instagram.