History
Today we continued our expeditionary learning and started to find out about the Blitz and the impact it had. We looked at the areas affected by the Blitz and how British civilians responded. One of the activities allowed us to explore different pictures thinking about what we could see, what we thought was happening and what we wondered about the pictures. We showed some great collaborative working during this activity and all shared our ideas during our whip around.
Our expeditionary learning continued this afternoon where we tasted the wartime food that we made yesterday! We then moved onto thinking about the features needed to write a set of instructions. Our do now allowed us to read our recipe from yesterday, we read out-loud with our partner practising our fluency and pace of reading. We then voiced the steps needed to make the cauliflower pie and ensured our steps were in chronological order. We then started to think about the method in more detail, creating anchor charts for time words, conjunctions and imperative verbs. We then took part in a shared write using the steps and putting them into sentences with the features we had just discussed. We have made a good start and will continue with our instructions tomorrow.
Today we discussed the need for making rations spread further and creating meals from the foods people had available. We explored a range of recipes, looking at the ingredients needed and the method involved. We discussed that ingredients were limited and recipes were simple. We worked in mini crews to make a wartime food- cauliflower pie, using a set of ingredients and a method. Once we had created our wartime food we discussed how the dishes in world war 2 were different to our favourite meals today.
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.
