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Who lives in a house like this?
Who lives in a house like this?
Through the Keyhole
Through the Keyhole
For our hook, children were introduced to the 1980's t.v. programme, 'Through The Keyhole', they tried to pick out clues from the programme to work out who may live in the houses shown. We talked about the clues given and what this might tell us about the person or family who lived inside. This was linked to historians and archaeologists, who use clues they find to build a picture of the past.
Pupils were then given a variety of pictures of houses and people who live there. In groups they had to decide who lived in each type of house. Lots of discussion around the size, layout and location of the homes.
A timeline of houses through the years.
A timeline of houses through the years.
The children were next given a timeline with the main periods throughout British history, from Stone Age through to the 21st Century. The pupils were given the challenge to match the homes to a period in British History: STONE AGE, BRONZE AGE, IRON AGE, ROMANS, ANGLO SAXONS, VIKINGS, MEDIEVAL , TUDORS, VICTORIAN, 20TH CENTURY, 21ST CENTURY AND FUTURISTIC. This proved challenging for the children, but lots of discussion was had around the type of material used for the homes to give clues to the time they were built. No one group placed them all correctly on the timeline but they will be given a second opportunity to place the homes on the time line at the end of the topic, where they should be more informed about the houses from each era. They learned new key vocabulary around the chronology of the time line. A.D. or Anno Domini, which is Latin for in the year of the Lord. It's a way of counting years based on the estimated birth of Jesus Christ. B.C .stands for Before Christ, and it's a way of counting years before the estimated birth of Jesus Christ. We also learned that some people referred to A.D. and B.C. as Common Era, (C.E.) and Before the Common Era, (B.C.E.). As a year group we decided to stick to B.C. and A.D. as it made more sense to us.
The Stone Age (3500-2500 B.C.)
The Stone Age (3500-2500 B.C.)
Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic Eras
The Croods!
The Croods!
To grab the children's attention on the stone age they were introduced to The Croods. They used this to start the discussions about life over 3000 years ago.
From here pupils were placed in groups to become experts about the type of homes found during the different periods. The pupils worked in different and produced facts and drawings explaining the different types of houses through each period.
Paleolithic (Early Stone Age)
Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age)
Neolithic
The children designed and created homes using 'Draw' in Adobe Create, from the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic era.
Stone Age Drawings
Stone Age Drawings
Archaeologists looked for clues from the past to know where there was civilisation. The earliest indicator of human life was the stone age with the evidence of cave drawings. Pupils were asked to recreate their cave drawings by experimenting with earthy pastel colours. Some of our examples are below. We also looked carefully at original stone age cave paintings and described the symbols they drew. We tried to explain what they were and the importance of each symbol to stone age people.
Stone Age Rap!
Stone Age Rap!
IMG_2585.MOVTo help us retain the names of the three different periods during the stone age we learned the Stone Age Rap. You can see how much fun we had from the video, and it really helped us remember the difficult words: Palaeolithic; mesolithic and neolithic. It also gave us new facts about life during this time. We loved this activity.
The Iron Age (800 B.C. - A.D. 43)
The Iron Age (800 B.C. - A.D. 43)
Pupils studied the inside and outside of iron age homes. Lots of discussion about the materials used and how or why they were different to the Neolithic Stone Age houses. The children used links to historical sites to recreate the outside and inside of an Iron Age home and labelled the main features. Wattle and Daub was new terminology for the children and they watched videos explaining the method of building using this method.
They could see that many settlements were on hills to enable the Celtic tribes to see enemies approaching. The Iron Age Celts were very tribal. In Wales there were:
Ordovices in the north-west,
Deceangli in the north-east,
Demetae in the south-west,
Silures in the south-east
The children also looked at where the Iron Age Celts settled in Wales. They decided Wales was a good place to settle because it was an island surrounded by water and because the country had lots of raw materials, like wood, bronze and iron.
Weaving
Weaving
The children enjoyed weaving just like the Iron Age people would have done all those years ago to make the wattle walls and to weave wool to make clothes and blankets.
Minecraft Round Houses
Minecraft Round Houses
Using Minecraft we replicated the outside and inside of an Iron Age home. This was quite a challenge, but we all persevered and were pleased with our outcomes as our Minecraft homes looked like relics of Iron Age homes. Some even had a fire in the middle of the house with a kiln for cooking bread and a loom for weaving blankets. We were very creative!
The Romans (A.D.43-A.D.410)
The Romans (A.D.43-A.D.410)
Why Did the Romans Invade Britain?
There were lots of reasons why the Romans wanted to invade Britain. First of all, the Romans wanted to control as much of the world as they could. Their main goal was to make their empire as big and powerful as possible.
They were also seeking natural resources, such as precious metals, slaves, and farmland. Britain had lots of materials including iron, lead, copper, silver, and gold that the Romans needed to support their growing empire and army.
Although the Celtic tribes fought fiercely, with revolts being led by leaders like Boudicca in 60 AD, they were no match for the Roman army. However, it wasn’t all bad, as the Romans did a lot of good things for Britain such as building new towns and good roads to connect them.
We researched Roman Villas and labelled the main parts of a villa in English and Latin. Then we gave information about what the Romans did in each of the rooms of the house.
We also collaborated and produced Google Slides about the different types of Roman houses found in Britain: Insulae, Domus and Villas. Which one would you like to live in?
Self & Peer Assessment
Self & Peer Assessment
We used the following criteria to assess the quality of our presentations.
WMTG?
Contents page
hyperlinks to each individual page
home button on each page to take me back to the contents page
images to support understanding
Easy to read information
Font size 24+
Becoming Archaeologists
Becoming Archaeologists
We were given a variety of Roman artefacts that were found in 1970 by archaeologists. We had to try to guess what the items were, what they were made from and what the Romans may have used the items for during ancient times. We all thought the Roman brooch was a door handle and that the blue bead was made from copper but it was actually made from glass! Mrs Scott thought the mirror was a shield! We were all surprised to find out the mirror was copper and not glass!
No wonder the Romans thought they were beautiful!!
Ethan was good at sharing his ideas with us and had some really interesting facts to share.
Olivia and Mya told us that the last artefact was part of a mosaic which they thought had come from the floor of the atrium!
Maizy thought the ring was a bracelet but we had to point out that it was only 2cm wide so it would not fit a wrist. This was how we guessed that it would be a ring. This was also made out of glass, but it looked black in colour.
We worked well as a group recording our findings and all had a turn at being the scribe. Everyone felt valued.
Mosaics
Mosaics
Colourful mosaics were used to decorate the floors or walls of a Roman home. Mosaics were a popular style of decoration throughout the Roman world. We used Google to search for images of Roman Mosaics and produced some of our own. We tried to duplicate our image like the Romans used to. We loved our bright and colourful designs.
The Anglo-Saxons (410-1066AD)
The Anglo-Saxons (410-1066AD)
Working collaboratively across the year group, we split each class in half. Half of Mrs Scott's class worked with half of our partner class and researched Angle Saxons with Miss Jones. We gathered our research and worked with a partner to create a Google slides to share with our peers and teach them about Anglo Saxon houses.
The Vikings (AD700 to 1100)
The Vikings (AD700 to 1100)
Half of Miss Jones' class worked with half of our partner class and researched Viking houses with Mrs Scott.
We loved working in this way as we taught each other. We did half the work but learned twice as much!
We really wanted to learn more about the way of life during this time so we swapped groups and looked at daily life of either the Anglo Saxons or Vikings carrying out our own research. we recorded our findings on Google draw. Pairing up we used the information we had gathered and created an iMovie to teach others about daily life of Anglo Saxons and Romans. Watch our videos below and see what you can learn from year 4's keen historians!
Copy of Daily life of Anglo Saxons and Vikings .movCopy of Daily Life of Anglo Saxons and Vikings .movMedieval Britain (1066 - 1204)
Medieval Britain (1066 - 1204)
To introduce and engage the pupils in Medieval Britain we shared this clip of a day in the life of a 10 year old in Medieval Times. We also shared a video of life in a castle and asked the children before and after the clip if they would like to live in a castle during these times.
Before looking at the different types of homes Medieval people lived in we explored the Feudal system. Children chose how to present information explaining the system to others. Some children drew in their books, whilst others used Google Draw or Adobe Create to produce their drawings and explanations.
How Do We Know? Where is our Evidence?
How Do We Know? Where is our Evidence?
The children became more curious asking more and more questions. The largest artefacts are the actual remains of the homes built and lived in during this time. Although not in the same condition, we can learn lots from the remains and piece together the relics, (fragments of our past). We really enjoyed watching Vee and Adam, classic archaeologists from Oxford University, explain how they use evidence from the past to teach us about life during this period.
Tudor Times
Tudor Times
The best part of researching homes in Tudor Times was living history. we got the chance to visit Llancaiach Fawr, a Tudor Manor house in Nelson, Caerphilly. We had the best time here and experienced first hand what life during this period was like. Whilst at the Manor House we learnt so much from the people who dressed in Tudor Clothes and spoke in olde English from the Tudor Times. We held artefacts and explored the house from top to bottom. We learnt so many fascinating things from this visit and really enjoyed ourselves.
We enjoyed the three workshop where we learnt to make our own ink and write with feather quills. We compared life between rich and poor Tudors and then our favourite activity where we made sniff bags to keep the deadly plague away.
We could not believe it when we realised we would be one of the last school groups to visit Llancaiach Fawr as Caerphilly CBC were going to mothball the manor house as they could not afford to keep it open. We read several news articles about the closure and discussed the impact this would have on the community. We used our skills of persuasive writing and created posters to persuade people to visit the Manor House but unfortunately they closed their doors at the end of December 2024.
Read the news articles included below, which inspired us to produce our persuasive posters.
Read the news articles included below, which inspired us to produce our persuasive posters.
Comparing Victorian homes to our homes today.
Comparing Victorian homes to our homes today.
add in census and questions
Do we have any Victorian Houses in Tonyrefail: Where are they?
Do we have any Victorian Houses in Tonyrefail: Where are they?
The children used the website above to research homes in Tonyrefail during the Victorian period. They were able to choose how to present their work on Victorian Tonyrefail and collaborated with each other to present their work. Many of the children found this fascinating!
Miss Jones shared the school log book with the children who were able to look at the names, addresses and occupations of the families who came to our school over 110 years ago.
We also compared a rich house and a poor house and compared the census date for each house. We could not believe how many people lived in one house. The rich houses still had servants who looked after the family.
victorian-homes-rg-12-284-transcript.pdfvictorian-homes-rg-12-200-transcript.pdf
20th Century Homes
20th Century Homes
Ble rwyt ti'n byw?
Ble rwyt ti'n byw?
Pupils explored their own homes through our Welsh lessons and shared key features with others, learning new vocabulary. They also considered how they had changed over the years.
Futuristic Homes
Futuristic Homes
What will your home look like in the future? What will it be made form? Where will it be located? What features will it have that will reduce the negative impact on the earth? What special features will it have? The children loved this activity and came up with so many different ideas. Look at their ideas below!
Science
Science
To create a fact file after learning about animal categories.
Food Chains
Food Chains
Creating an Animal Database
Creating an Animal Database
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