Benin City
I can describe what Benin City was like.
Benin City
I can describe what Benin City was like.
These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.
Lesson details
Key learning points
- The Benin bronzes were produced in a place called Benin City, which was the heart of the Benin Kingdom.
- The Edo people built this city on a plain, which was known for the high mud walls and great ditches that enclosed it.
- Beyond the city walls roughly 500 separate villages were separated by further walls making up the suburbs of the city.
- The city was well planned with straight roads and square houses and there were even metal palm oil burning street lamps.
- Merchants and artisans worked and lived in the city, while farmers lived and worked in the surrounding rainforests.
Keywords
Edo - the Edo were the indigenous inhabitants of the Kingdom of Benin
Indigenous - indigenous refers to people living in a land from the earliest times
Plain - a plain is a large area of flat land with few trees
Suburbs - suburbs are areas on the outskirts of a city or town where people live
Common misconception
Benin City was a primitive or undeveloped society.
Benin City was a thriving metropolis with well-planned streets, organised urban spaces, and impressive architecture.
To help you plan your year 6 history lesson on: Benin City, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 6 history lesson on: Benin City, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 2 history lessons from the Benin: Why have people argued about the Benin Bronzes? unit, dive into the full secondary history curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
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