Sources

Primary and Secondary Sources

What is a primary source?

A primary source is something created by a person who participated in or saw an event in the past. Artifacts are primary sources. They are objects made in the past by people who used them. 

Do you have a primary source at your home?

What is a secondary source?

We can also use secondary sources to learn about life in the past. Secondary sources are materials prepared by people who did not participate in or see events for themselves. These people can study a primary source to help them find out information to create their secondary source. 

What is a secondary source that you know of? 

How do they compare?

Historians use primary sources like artifacts to build a picture of life in the past. When they create other documents or objects, like the teepee, totem, or painting in the museum, these become secondary sources. Primary and secondary sources shape our understanding of the past.

Multiple Choice

What kind of source was created by people who participated in or saw an event in the past?

• Primary source

• Secondary source

Multiple Choice

A secondary source is created by people who did NOT see or participate in a event in the past. True or False?

• TRUE

• FALSE

Open Ended

Why would a letter that was written by a Roman soldier about a war that he was in be a primary source?

Open Ended

What have you learnt today?