Social Science 3rd Grade CEIP Daniel Martin: HISTORY

WHAT IS HISTORY?

As time passes there are lots of events. History is the record of all these events. History tells people in the present about how people in the past lived and about the important events that happened. We can learn a lot from History!

The past, the present and the future

Events are things which happen. They can be in the past, in the present or in the future.

· Things that have already happened are events from the past.

· Things that are happening at the moment are events from the present.

· Things that haven‘t hapened yet are events from the future.

Measuring time

To indicate when an event happened in the past, we use the time, the day, the month, the year and other longer units to measure time such as:

· A decade, which is a period of ten years.

· A century, which is a period of a hundred years.

· A millennium, which is a period of a thousand years.

History and different eras

History is all the events that happened in the past which we can remember. Historians are the people who study history.

To make it easier to study history, historians divide time into different parts, called eras.

A historical era is a very long period of time between important historical events.

There are five historical eras which, from the oldest to the most recent, are:

· Prehistory

· The ancient era

· The medieval era

· The modern era

· The contemporary era, which is the era we live in now.

Our personal history

Each os us has our personal history. This begins the day we are born. In the history of our lives there are many events, but we only remember the most importan ones.

Our family history

Our history is part of the larger history of our families: the history of our brothers and sisters, parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts and cousins.

In our family history there are many events, but some are forgotten because the happened in the lives of our ancestors. Our ancestors are people like the grandparents of our grandparents. The lived a long time ago.

Objects have a history too

There are objects we use every day, like the mobile telephone or a watch. Years ago these objects didn‘t exist or were very different.

How do we know what happened in the past?

Written documents help us to know about the past. The tell us what life was like a long time ago. They also tell us about events.

Traditions

Traditions are the customs of our ancestors which we still follow today. Some examples are: local festivals, typical dishes and regional costumes. Traditions are passed from parents and grandparents to children.

Historic building and objects

Historic buildings, like churches, castles and places, and historic objects, like coins, cups and jewellery, also help us to understand what life was like in the past.