History
This week we have continued to delve into our history case study, exploring WW2. We started by looking at the different organisations involved in the wartime effort. We discovered there were 4 organisations that people belonged to: the Armed Forces, the government, special operations and the home front. We explored different people within the organisations – we recorded key facts, roles and responsibilities. This was an opportunity to practice our reading within our expedition lesson.
Over our last 2 expedition lessons, we have focused on rationing and why thus became an essential part of the war effort. Children learned that due to the Germans bombing ships, this resulted in a shortage of food. Once we had required ipthe information we needed, children then had the opportunity to become shop keepers and customers, they all came with their ration books and used their coupons. Children realised that due to the restrictions they couldn’t buy what they want but what was needed to feed the family.
Today we became shop keepers and customers to experience what the rationing process was like during WW2. First of all we looked at what basic rations looked like and the amounts people would get on a weekly basis. We then looked at some of restricted items. We then took on the role as shop keeper and customer, using our rationing book and coupons inside. We had to make sure we queued then the shop keeper stamped our rationing books when we had purchased our weekly and monthly items. We soon realised that shops sold out of things very quickly and we had to barter with our peers in order to get some of the items we really wanted!
This week we continued our history case study by starting to learn about the organisation of wartime. We learned there were 4 organisations that people belonged to which were: Armed Forces, the government, special operations and the home front. We discussed that regardless of which group people were part of that everyone played a vital role in the war effort. Children then took on the role of someone from the war and interviewed each other asking questions about when they weee born, where they were stationed and their role. This was an opportunity to practice our reading within our expedition lesson and support each other.
Today we learnt about the different organisations and people who contributed to the war effort. Our main activity allowed us to take part in an interview where we asked each other questions about the role card we had read about. Some children then performed their interview in front of the whole crew! We then shared the different role cards as a whole crew, learning about each person individually.
As part of our history hook week, we’ve spent some time looking at the music of War time and the importance of this to boost morale. One of these songs was We’ll Meet Again by Vera Lynn. Then we used instruments to create a soundscape of sounds from the war.
On Tuesday, we were fortunate to have Time Travel Education come into school to learn about different aspects of World War 2. First, we were introduced to the beginning of the war and the key people: Adolf Hitler, Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill. We learnt about the air raids and the role of the wardens. Then we had to opportunity to help get rid of the fire bombs that had been dropped. This required teamwork to keep everyone safe.
Evacuation was our next area to learn about. The children got to learn about the upheaved to family life to ensure the safety of the children. They packed their bags and were given an insight into rationing. We had a shop keeper and some customers who came to spend their vouchers. We’ll build on this later in the case study.
In the last session, we learned about how the Wardens would deliver first aid and met Ernie (dummy) who had become trapped in a building that had been blown up. Once we seen how to treat a broken femur, we had the opportunity to treat our partner for the same condition.
In between the sessions in the hall, we had access to boxes of artefacts which came with reading materials to help us learn about each one.
Our favourite one was as craft that had a map printed on it. Aircrew would wear this so that if their plane went down they’d have a map on them to help navigate their way to safety.
Today we used the knowledge we have gained so far on The Blitz to begin to compose a composition of music using different instruments. We explored sound clips taken during WW2, including aircraft, the Blitz and air raid sirens. We thought about the pitch and tone, selecting instruments which best demonstrated the effects. We then looked at how we can show different beats and started to layer the different parts of our composition. We have begun to put our piece of music together, demonstrating how well we can work together as a crew to produce our final piece of music.
Today we used the knowledge we have gained so far on The Blitz to compose a composition of music with different instruments. We then looked at how we can show different beats and started to layer the different parts of our composition. We worked so well in mini crews, encouraging each other and ensuring everyone was involved. Then we all performed our composition to the whole crew 🙂 A great afternoon in MI 🙂
Today we explored the time frames of WW2, we looked at key moments in history and developed our own timelines to record the key facts of WW2. This further developed our understanding of the time frame of WW2 challenging our thinking around our perceptions of a World War. It was surprising to discover that Hitler had died before the war was declared to be over. Declan then deceived to deepen his understanding of some key events by researching, independently.
