In history today they were looking at the process on how to make chocolate from a cacao bean and then sequencing them in order.
History
Category : History
History
Mayan Hierarchy
As with our society, the Mayans had a hierarchy that consisted of The King or High Priest followed by the council (priesthood). Next there were the nobles who were the wealthiest and most powerful. This was followed by the merchants and Artisans who were known as commoners but they didn’t have as hard a life and had better jobs. Finally there were the commoners who were the lowest class and had no rights. They were also referred to as slaves.
We compared this with the hierarchy that we have in the country, our homes and even in school.
As with our previous lesson, we were able to do some additional reading because we had to get our information to help us understand each social class.
What were the Mayans known for?
This week we have been exploring the Mayans and learning about what they were known for. This was a perfect opportunity to do some additional reading as we had lots of information to read so we could highlight the key information.
Once we had collected our information, we started to create posters that shared these facts.
We were surprised to learn that the Mayans had an 18 month calendar and they had various gods who were responsible for a range of things such as war, sun and rain.
The Mayans
In our first History lesson, we quickly recapped ordering the Mayan timeline. When we completed it during hook week, there was a misconception about how to order BC dates. Therefore, we had another check in to ensure we’d remembered how to accurately order BC and AD events.
Next time we worked together in small groups to match some vocabulary and their definitions.
Then we learned some facts about the Mayan so we could start to understand this ancient civilisation.
Exploring seasides in the past
This week in expedition, we have been looking at what seasides used to be like in the past. We’ve explored lots of photographs and pictures and talked about what we could see in each one that tells us about the past. Then we looked at a mix of photographs and pictures and tried to work out which were old and which were new using the clues in the pictures and our own experiences. We found out that not all black and white photographs are old! Next week, when we have been on our trip, we will begin to compare seasides in the past and seasides now after we have all experienced the beach!
What were the Mayas known for?
To continue our history case study, Crew Hamill worked in mini crews to gather as much information about Ancient Maya as we possibly could. We started by listening to a song and working as a crew to chot down the important facts and information. Did you know they were experts in maths, pottery, agriculture and astronomy? Following this, we worked in mini crews to look through some information from a non-fiction book on the Ancient Maya and wrote down as many interesting facts as we could. We are going to use this to create a poster in our next expedition lesson.
Mayan timeline
Today, we looked at when the Mayan civilisation existed. First, we looked at what vocabulary would come up in todays lesson. We matched the vocab to the correct definition. This really got us thinking but we were able to use our knowledge from the Romans and make the links. For example, we remembered that Julius Caeser and Emperor Claudius were rulers of the Roman empire. We then consolidated our learning by sequencing the events. Then we placed the events on the timeline. We had a great discussion about BC and AD and how the numbers descend and then ascend.
Ancient Egyptian BBK
On Monday afternoon, we used the Children’s University of Manchester to develop our knowledge of the Ancient Egyptians whilst improving our digital literacy. This was really interesting and we learnt loads of new things (some of us even wanted to read up more about what we’d looked at on Myon)!
A Trip Back to Ancient Egypt
On Tuesday, we took a trip back in time to build background knowledge about the ancient Egyptians. This was an amazing experience that taught us loads that we never thought was possible! We started by watching (and helping) a mummification, which was really gruesome! We then moved on to some Egyptian games: mancala and senet. These were a little confusing at first but we really enjoyed them! Senet was really like snakes and ladders! After that, we got a chance to ask questions with our expert who taught us lots of things about the ancient Egyptians. Then we had the chance to investigate artefacts and find out a little more about what being a historian is like. We answered questions to learn more but actually think they weren’t all that different to us today. After a much-needed lunch, we got to use reed pens, ink and papyrus to try our hand writing hieroglyphs – it was much harder than we thought and took a lot longer too! To finish off, we played a game where we had to think about building a city and which buildings would make our city great. It was an action-packed day and we really enjoyed it!
Guiding question
So the end of the week as come for hook week. The children have really enjoyed learning about Maya People and what they ate and drank in their time. The children then had ago at predicting what the guiding question will be . They didn’t get it right
How ever the guiding question is: What is the cost of a bar of chocolate?
Title : From bean to bar
