Anne Frank in MI

We have really enjoyed learning about Anne Frank in our expeditionary learning this week. We learnt about Nazi persecution on Jewish people and all about the Holocaust. We have all been so engaged in this subject area this week with so many questions raised. We were all very mature in our approach to this subject and really showcased our best selves.

Applying our knowledge of women’s roles

Today we built on the knowledge we had gained on women’s roles during WW2 and applied this to a short piece of writing. We thought about what life was like for women before the war and why the opportunities of women were different to men. We then wrote about how the experiences of women changed when WW2 broke out and why this changed happened. From he we thought about how women’s lives then changed after the war and peoples attitudes towards women. This was a great exit ticket helping us reflect on our learning.

WW2 Evacuation

Today we explored evacuation in our expeditionary learning, building on the knowledge we already had acquired during hook week. We imagined we were evacuees living in London and how we and our families would feel going on a journey we had no idea how it would end. We had to think carefully about the items we would be able to take and how to transport these. We concluded that our gas mask box and gas mask would be the most important items to ensure we were able to protect ourselves in case of a gas attack.

Our first task was to design a net for a gas mask box, we created miniature gas masks using clay. We thought about how we could make these attractive for younger children to wear, using bright colours. This will be our next task. Our designs are coming along lovely. Watch this space for the finished product.

Roles of women in WW2

Today we looked at the roles of women in WW2, a lesson we really enjoyed 🙂 First of all we started to think about the expectation of women before WW2. We realised that women were seen as ‘housewives’ and looked after the family. We explored a variety of pictures which showed this. The activate part of our lesson was watching a video clip, which we all enjoyed. There were a few shoulders bopping up and down as we watched! We thought about notices and wonders the first time we watched then the second time, we used our whiteboards to record some of the jobs women had before the war then during the war. We shared our ideas in mini crews and built a whole class anchor chart. We then took part in a collaborative task, a mini reading comprehension based on the clip! There was even some grammar in there on the subject! We then moved onto watching another two clips, again thinking about the roles of women but then thinking about how the war actually changed women’s lives. We demonstrated our learning through a venn diagram task, working in mini crews to sort the jobs of women before and during the war. Our exit ticket will come in tomorrows lesson where we will complete a piece of writing to explain how the experiences of women changed because of WW2. This will also help us to answer our guiding question.

Building on evacuation in MI

Yesterday we continued our expeditionary learning on evacuation where we built on the knowledge we already had. We imagined we were a parent of two small children living in London’s docklands. We had to decide whether or not to evacuate our children. We considered the factor cards in front of us, reading them aloud with our partner. If we thought the factor card was a reason for evacuation we moved our counter forward on our board. If we thought it was against evacuation we moved it backwards. After doing this, we reviewed the cards again, this time ranking the cards by how important they are to us. We then explained our decision using the sentence starter, “If I were a parent, I would/would not not evacuate my children because… We worked really well in mini-crews, discussing our thoughts and ideas together.

Becoming Gardners

Today we became Gardners for our fifth castle job. We learnt about how important Gardners were as they planted fruits and vegetables for the kings, queens, lords and ladies to eat at their banquets.

We planted our very own seeds and have taken them home to look after.

Blitz poetry in MI

Today we used all the knowledge we have gained over our last few expeditionary lessons to create poems on the Blitz. First of all we created an anchor chart together with lots of different language on the Blitz, some examples included damage, emotional, community and homes. We then looked at different nouns that linked to the Blitz. From here we added a verb to each of our nouns. Some of the crew then looked at prepositional phrases and added an example to further develop our sentence. We then went a step further adding some different similes to our poems. There were some fantastic ideas today, great work MI 🙂

Wartime Food – Cauliflower Pie

Last week, we made Cauliflower pie using basic ingredients. This was an opportunity for us to get a feel for what it was like during the war and the challenges there would have been due to rationing. Everyone pushed the self out if their comfort zone and tried it. There were mixed reviews. Some enjoyed the crunchy top while others preferred the soft inside. Some were pleasantly surprised to discover that they actually really enjoyed it and had seconds.

Biscuits fit for a banquet

Today we became bakers for our next castle job. We were given the task of designing and making biscuits for the King and Queens Friday Night Banquet.

We took time to design our biscuits and then made them. They looked so delicious that we decided to eat them, hopefully the queen wont be too upset!