History

Humanities in the Early Years

 in Class One / Geography / History by

What does Geography and History look like in Nursery and Reception?  The Early Years Foundation Stage has seven areas of learning, rather than the individual subjects used within the National Curriculum. Communication and Language as well as Personal, Social and Emotional Development underpin all our learning in Class 1, but the key areas of learning related to geography and history are through the area, ‘Understanding the World’.

Throughout the autumn and spring terms, class 1 are busy (as usual) finding out about our world in a range of different contexts both in and outside the classroom. This has included: observing changes and recording data on weather in our work about the seasons of autumn and winter; learning about how animals like hedgehogs and birds adapt to the changing seasons; developing an understanding of significant national events such as Remembrance Day; retelling and sequencing events from different stories.

We enjoy adapting our curriculum in early years to follow the interests of the children too.  Our in-depth study on migration began with one pupil’s bird box that had made at home to put in our outdoor area.  This inspired further learning around why some birds migrate; what dangers they encounter; and even a trip to Leighton Moss where we spotted some examples of migrating birds.

Choosing where to locate our bird box in our outdoor area was another opportunity for some learning.  We discovered that it is best to position our bird box so that it faces North.  Deciding on the best location for our bird box involved lots of discussion, problem solving and team work.  We also learnt about how to use a compass to find North too! If you want to know anything about migration and how to look after birds in winter time – there are many experts who will be happy to help in Class 1!

Super Space in EYFS!

 in Art / Class One / Design and Technology / Geography / History / Science by

EYFS are coming to the end of their super space topic for this half term. We started with the famous story “Whatever Next!” and enjoyed role-playing a journey to space and having a picnic on the moon. Learning about some of the planets was top of Reception’s ‘What I want to learn’ list and after finding out some interesting facts, they then designed their own using a ‘wash’ effect with felt tips and paintbrushes dipped in water. We thought carefully about the colour of our planets and what they were made from – gas, rock or ice. Constellations were also a big hit; we found out that some constellations can only be seen in certain parts of the world and then recreated some famous ones on black card using chalk. We spent two weeks in total creating our own model of the solar system using papier mache and adding details to each planet; lots of sticky fun! We learnt about gravity and watched videos of astronauts on board the International Space Station, finding out that the further away from earth you get, the less gravity there is. We have enjoyed lots of child-led opportunities in provision including puffy moon painting, making craters in moon dough, designing aliens on the light panel and baking cake pops. We definitely have some budding astronauts in the making!

Liverpool World Museum

 in Class Four / History by

This week, Class 4 have had the pleasure of leaving school to spend their day learning in Liverpool World Museum! To support our Ancient Civilisations topic, we visited the museum to check out their fascinating (and often gruesome!) Ancient Egypt exhibit. We even got to “Meet the Mummy” as some lucky students were promoted to trainee priests for the day and taught how to mummify bodies.

Take a look at our image gallery below, but be warned, it’s not for the squeamish!

Levens Hall in the Sunshine!

 in Class Two / History by

Class 2 had a wonderful time exploring the grounds and the buildings of Levens Hall as part of their local history this half term. They certainly chose the very best day weather wise to walk through the fields, seeing Mrs Mason’s cows, and crossing the tall bridges to come out near the hall. They spent some time exploring the beautiful shaped topiary trees and saw the gardeners at work on their huge crane. By the pool, Mrs Mason led relaxing mindfulness moments and the guided tour of the hall included lots of interesting facts. Our visit ended with a wonderful run around the play area. Thank you to Mrs Brown, one of our amazing Governors, for stepping in to accompany us on our visit.

Temple Trouble!

 in History / Scafell / Whole School by

Over the Christmas break, Scafell class were set the challenge of researching and building their very own Greek temple from recycled materials. Not being able to bring them into school, we put the call out for pictures to be sent in. The response has been phenomenal! The Scafell class email has been groaning with the (virtual) weight of dozens of meticulously hand-crafted temples, complete with detailed friezes, smart column designs and intricate brickwork. We’ve been absolutely blown away by the time and dedication that is clear to see here, and no two temples are the same! Not only do they look beautiful, but it is clear that real skill has gone into their construction. Taking inspiration from Greek temples from history, the use of columns, walls and pitched roofs gives them a sense of strength and sturdiness.

A huge thank you to everyone who sent a picure (or several!) in to us. We’ve tried to showcase each and every one, so have a look through the gallery and see if you can spot yours!

Skara Brae and Stonehenge

 in History / Skiddaw by

We are learning about the New Stone Age or Neolithic this week in history. Here we are creating models of amazingly in tact Stone Age constructions that we can still see today, perhaps nearly 5000 years after they were built!

Year 3 and 2 were learning about the world famous Skara Brae on the Orkney Islands. It was only discovered in 1850 and is a small village of 8 houses linked together with covered tunnels. You didn’t need to put your coat on to visit your neighbours here!

Year 4 researched Stonehenge, another very famous Neolithic construction made up of circles of stones which took hundreds of years to construct. Like us adding extensions to our houses, Neolithic people kept changing things at Stonehenge so it developed over a long time with new stones being added or the existing ones being moved.

We had a great time this morning, creating models with construction kits. The colours aren’t quite right of course but by using our imagination we made furniture and stones that Neolithic people might have recognised!

Here we are…

 

Stone Age Cave Painting

 in History / Skiddaw by

Skiddaw class are learning all about the Stone Age in history. We have begun by finding out how we know what types of animals were around in the Stone Age. Lascaux Caves were discovered by some teenagers and possibly their dog in September 1940. Paintings of bulls, oxen, horses and stags are beautifully clear and are thought to be around 15,000 years old. Drawn by Stone Age people, they also show us early humans hunting as well as animals that were around then. We took an amazing virtual tour around the many passages and caves that are now not open to public in order to preserve them.

This has inspired us to create our own cave and rock art. Here we are preparing our rock by scrunching and painting on the paper to make it look more realistic. We are also making paper mache rocks to experiment with drawing smaller creatures on. It was lovely to work outside on a sunny afternoon on Wednesday. Next week we’ll be trying our hand at drawing stone age animals on these papers with chalk pastels and paint.