Introduction
At Eastfield we aim for our children to develop passion and curiosity for finding out about the past. We use Collins Connected History scheme to ensure children receive a structured but ambitious curriculum. Vocabulary and talk play a central role within history teaching and learning so our pupils' can talk like historians.
Introduction
In this unit children described and explained how archaeologists believe the way of life of Ancient Britons changed from the Old Stone Age to theNew Stone Age.
Keywords we used:
Anachronism artefacts archaeologist excavation reconstruction hunter-gather geothermal nomadic flint domestic ceremony
Children started the topic by exploring people's misconceptions about the Stone Age. We also learnt about the word anachronism which we now know is when something does not belong to a particular place or time in the past.
Children then learnt about the famous Happisburgh footprints. We now know that these footprints, excavated by archeologists, belonged to Stone Age people who were possibly gathering food and were the oldest footprints found in Europe!
We then became archeologists ourselves and explored artefacts from the Old Stone Age and New Stone Age. We found many differences in the way of life from both of these times.
We learnt about Summer and Winter camps which is where the Stone Age people stayed during different times of the year and reasons for this. Children then had the opportunity to draw both the outside and inside of a winter dwelling, labelling the main features such as a fire so light and warmth.
Lastly children learnt about the Red Lady of Paviland (the oldest known ceremonial burial in Western Europe) and we explored who the person might've been. We know they must've been very important! We then finished off our learning by completing a piece of writing to answer the question 'How did the lives of ancient Britons change during the Stone Age?'.
Introduction
During the enquiry pupils will have opportunities through the application and analysis of a wide range of historical skills and resources to understand the lives of people during the Iron Age.
Keywords we used:
How can we recognise Iron Age forts today?
We started our Iron Age topic by looking to see where it would fit on a timeline. We discovered that the Iron Age came after the Stone Age which we explored earlier on in the year. The Iron Age period was between 2500 BC - 500 BC. That was over 2000 years ago!
We started by looking at a variety of hill forts across Britain. We were amazed to discover that these hill forts were still present more than 2000 years later! We also learnt some new vocabulary...
Objects made by a human or grous of humans in the past.
Steep walls of earth built around the top of the hill, with ditches in between.
Forts made out of mounds of earth and constructed on the top of hills.
What might hill forts have looked like when they were first built?
In this lesson, we found out that, even though we can still see the landscape of a hill fort, it would have looked very different during the Iron Age period.
We had to use evidence given to reconstruct our own impression of what a hill fort may have looked like during the Iron Age. We found this activity so much fun!
We discovered that at the top of the hill fort a whole tribe would live in huts!
Different animals were kept there like, chickens and cows. This would have provided different foods for the tribes people.
The hill fort would have been surrounded by fences. Some fencing would have been sharpened at the top to offer more protection to the tribe.
How do we know that life wasn't always peaceful during the Iron Age?
Today, we had to work out why life during the Iron Age wasn't as peaceful as life during the Stone Age. We used different artefacts that included, a map from the Iron Age, a chart showing the rising number of people and different images. We found out that a lot of Britain was becoming over populated and a lot of the land was already occupied. For this reason, different tribes would fight for ownership of weapons and land. It was vital for their tribes survival.
Children's work 1
Children's work 2
Children's work 3
What were staters and how did Iron Age people use them?
Today we discovered that staters (pronounced: stay-ters) were coins made of gold and silver smelted by different Iron Age tribes across southern Britain. They were based on Ancient Greek designs and were the first coins to appear in the history of Britain.
Some of the staters have inscriptions (marked with letters and symbols) and represent the oldest evidence of writing ever found in Britain!
Example of our own Iron Age staters!
Then, we had to imagine that we found our very own hoard of staters buried underneath the Eastfield playground! We then got to design our very own staters thinking about the tribe that would have been closet to us! Finally, we wrote our own newsreports about our imaginary hoard! Take a look below...
Why have so many wonderful Iron Age artefacts been found underwater?
Many Iron Age artefacts were discovered underwater... these included...
The main purpose of these items was to offer them to their gods by placing many of them in rivers, lakes and even wells.
This is called making a votive offering.
Why water?
Water in general, and particularly moving water, was seen as a pathway to the gods and the route to the Otherworld, to which, they believed, everyone would move to when they died.
We then looked at one of the most famous Iron Age artefacts discovered so far in Britain - the Bronze Witham Shield.
It is at least 2,300 years old.
It was discovered by workmen in the River Witham, near Lincoln in 1826.
We don't know exactly why is was found in a river but, using the evidence we had explored, we had to write our own conclusions! Check them out below!
Introduction
During this enquiry children will investigate some important changes that occurred when Britain formed part of the Roman Empire. Children will reflect on Roman life and how this may have impacted British Society.
Keywords we used:
natural resource occupied pacify uprising
plebian ianista Romans
Empire Empress Emperor invasion motive
Why did Emperor Claudius invade Britain?
Today, we started our exciting new unit on the Romans. First, we found out who the Romans were and how long ago they lived.
We also looked at where they lived and explored some of the countries that they invaded...
The Romans originally came from the city of Rome.
By the time the Romans invaded Britain, they ruled lands from one end of Europe to the other.
We started our new unit by looking at two maps and naming all of the countries that, in history, were ruled by the Romans. We were astonished to see how many there were!
Here is some to name a few:
Germany
France
Austria
Croatia
Spain
Albania
Italy
Greece
Tunisa and the list continues!
There were many Emperor's of Rome. The Emperor was the ruler of the Romans.
We explored the rule of Emperor Claudius. He was the Emperor in AD 43.
Emperor Claudius wanted to invade Britain! He wanted to be the first Emperor to succeed in doing this.
Emperor Julius Caesar (who formed the Roman Empire) had tried to invade Britain twice but had failed.
Emperor Claudius wanted to do something that no one had done before!