If you’re looking for a truly engaging, collaborative lesson that gets every student involved, this beautifully illustrated marketplace activity is perfect. Designed to help students evaluate which weapon was the most deadly during the First World War, this lesson combines movement, discussion, and critical thinking in a way that keeps learners talking long after the lesson ends.

As shown in the preview slides, the activities have been carefully designed to engage the full range of abilities. The core of the lesson is a marketplace activity: key information slides are printed and either displayed around the classroom or set out on tables. Students move around, gather evidence, and record findings on their summary sheet before coming together to discuss and compare results. This proactive format encourages collaboration, communication, and peer learning — perfect for developing higher-order thinking skills.

When you purchase this resource, you will receive a 36-slide PowerPoint presentation that includes everything you need for a complete lesson. It features two lively starters (‘Snowballing’ and ‘Buzz and Go’), information slides and activities exploring the causes of stalemate, the full marketplace task,and a thinking skills review triangle, to consolidate learning. The lesson can then be extended with either a mind map or extended writing activity, allowing you to assess students’ understanding and stretch their reasoning skills. Additional templates and support materials are also included to help you adapt the lesson to your own classroom context.

This flexible and fully editable resource can be easily adapted to different teaching sequences or schemes of work. To deepen engagement, you might also choose to supplement the activity with short video clips or film extracts from All Quiet on the Western Front, War Horse, or Gallipoli.

For more information about what’s included, please take a look at the preview slides. The aims and objectives for these resources are as follows:

Know: What weapons and tactics were used during the First World War?
Understand: Why was there a ‘stalemate’ on the Western Front?
Evaluate: Which was the deadliest weapon of the FWW?
Skills: Source Analysis, Cause, Consequence & Collaboration

WILF – What Am I Looking For?
Can You Describe: The weapons and tactics were used during the FWW?
Can You Explain: Why was there a ‘stalemate’ on the Western Front?
Can You Analyse: Which was the deadliest weapon of the First World War?