World War 2

We have a fabulous history afternoon with the help of Mrs Riddick, we’ve been learning about rationing and why it was needed during the war.  We’ve also been finding out about the ‘Dig for Victory’ Government initiative to encourage communities to grown as much of their own food as they could.  Mrs Riddick has helped us plant some vegetables in school.  We also had a chance to look at our wartime artifact that we have borrowed from Tullie House.

The Vikings  

We had the pleasure of joining Crummock for their Viking Day, we were able to improve our Viking knowledge.  We learnt so much about their lives, what their struggles were, what was important them and how they lived.  We also improved our history skills when we looked at Viking artefacts and deduced who and what they were used by and what they tell us about how the Vikings lived. A fabulous day enjoyed by all.  

Autumn Term History Day

Ancient Greece

This half term Derwentwater have been studying The Ancient Greeks, so when it was our history day this term we took the opportunity to try and dress like some of The Ancient Greeks might have, we also had a go at making some of the food that they may have eaten.  Surprisingly, some of us didn’t really enjoy the food we made however some did. We reflected on the fact that the real Ancient Greeks wouldn’t have had the same kitchen equipment we were able to use and how much more difficult that would have been, we also discussed the fact that their pallets would have been very different to ours since they wouldn’t have eaten any sugar as they could only sweeten their food with honey which not everyone would have been able to afford.

We also took the opportunity to investigate how we know about the past and how historians are able to make deductions about life in Ancient times from the evidence that has survivied.  We looked at some of the Ancient Greek pottery that has survived with paintings on celebrating The Olympics and made deductions about what the Olympics were like back then.

It was a brilliant day and we all really enjoyed it, so much so I totally forgot to take any whole class pictures or pictures of us trying the food that we made, so I apologise for the limited images of our fabulous day but hope you enjoy the pictures I did mange to take of the food preparation. 

Remembrance Day Workshop

Tim came in to school to give us an insight into what life may have been like for the soldiers we will be remembering this year on Remembrance Sunday.  He showed us the equipment they may have fought with and the clothing they would have worn and even the vehicles they would have driven. It was a fabulous way to bring the history of our war hero’s to life.

Black History Month

This year we linked our work during Black History month to our book ‘The Windrush Child’.  The children were able to research and find out about the different ways that the Windrush Generation have influence British Culture - The Notting Hill Carnival, British Laws  - due to the Bristol Bus Boycott and the additional hardships they suffered through The Windrush Scandal. 

The Ancient Egyptians at the World Museum - Liverpool

Derwentwater invited the Y4’s to join them on their residential to Chester and Liverpool, our first stop on the second day was The World Museum in Liverpool, to explore and join their Ancient Egyptian Workshop.  This was an amazing opportunity as the Y4’s are currently studying this topic and it was an opportunity for the Y5 and 6’s to revise and revisit their knowledge about The Egyptians.
The workshop really brought to life some of the beliefs we’ve studied that the Egyptians held.  We dramatised the rituals of preparing the dead for the afterlife and how they mummified their bodies and their reasons for doing this using replicas. Afterwards, we were then able to explore the museum to see the real artefacts which help us understand how we know and find out about The Egyptians and other eras from the past.  
 

The Slavery Museum at Liverpool

We headed off to The Slavery Museum which the children were looking forward to as this links to a few of our topics this year.  Earlier this year we have studied the mountains and different terrain in The Caribbean which makes it great for growing coffee and sugar cane. The early sugar cane industry was reliant on the slave trade, something which is difficult to imagine with our 21st century perspective and the hardships these people endured. It also linked with our topic on Windrush and how the people from the The Caribbean, who were part of the British Empire, helped us with our efforts during WW II.

We enjoyed using our history skills to look at the artifacts and try and figure out what they told us about what life for the Anglo-Saxons and compared it to our lives now.