History
Crew Hamill continued being historians by learning all about Ancient Maya Masks. We learned that masks had a central role in Maya culture and that they were made for a variety of reasons – events, death and even to decorate temples! We used the information we learned to then design and create our own Maya mask.
After starting to look at the Mayan timeline in History, we learned about the different masks that were worn by this civilisation. We learned that some masks were worn for celebrations, battle and even in death. Then we had an opportunity to design and create our own masks using known Maya masks as a template.
Crew MW have spent the morning hooking into their new expedition – ‘What happens where the sea meets the shore?’ The day started with us finding a basket in our classroom…
‘It’s a basket!’ – Hilaryanna
‘A picnic basket!’ – Harlow
Before we had a peep inside the basket, we thought about what you might find inside a picnic basket. These were our ideas: food, a blanket to sit on, sandwiches, bananas, healthy food like fruit and veg and a drink.
But it wasn’t picnic food that we found in the basket…It was items for the seaside! After exploring what we would take to the beach with us on our trip in a few weeks, we talked about what a beach was like. Some of us were a little unsure, so we decided to make a beach in the classroom! We had sand, water in the paddling pool, buckets, spades, shells, fish and nets…it was so much fun paddling in the water and catching the fish with our nets. We loved exploring the sand too and adding water to it to see what it would be like when the tide came in!
We have looked deeper into the Mayan civilisation and discovered that they used masks. They had event masks and death masks which were used for different purposes. Event masks were used for celebrations and special events and were vibrant and colourful. Death masks were made from Jade because it symbolises the soul. The people designed their own death masks and were buried with them. We designed our own Mayan mask and cut squares of card out to decorate it.
We have had a fantastic day today meeting an Egyptian and doing a range of fun activities which have helped us develop our understanding of the Ancient Egyptian Civilisation. First, we watched a demonstration on how to mummify a body. Next, we got to handle and learn about a range of interesting Egyptian artefacts. After that, we had a question and answer session where we got to have all of our burning questions answered. Our favourite session was next where we got to play a couple of Egyptian board games. After lunch, we even got to build and Egyptian city and use ink to draw hieroglyphs on papyrus. As you can tell, it was a jam-packed day but we really enjoyed it and learnt so much in preparation for our next expedition.
In hook week today we looked at the different kind of masks they wore in Maya times and then we had ago at making our own.
We became historians and looked at the timeline of the Mayan civilisation. We noticed that on a timeline the BC years descend and the AD years ascend. We discussed what it means to be a historian and what skills this includes.
We kicked off hook week by learning what is was to be a historian and the skills people need to research things from the past. We then began learning some information about Maya.
As part of this learning, we worked in mini crews to order key events into a timeline, with a reminder of BC and AD to ensure we ordered them correctly.
Did you know that when you order BC numbers go in descending order but when you order AD numbers they go in ascending order?
Our hook week started with us learning about the skills needed to be a historian and starting to learn some information about the Maya.
As part of this, we looked at the timeline and ordering key events. We had a reminder about the correct way to order based on BC and AD.
For BC, we order in descending order whereas for AD, we order in ascending order.
This afternoon, parents came in to support the children in building their background knowledge on the Egyptians. We explored the Ancient Egyptian civilisation through the Children’s University of Manchester’s resources.
