Year 4

It has been an incredible learning journey in Year 4 this term! We kicked off the term being archaeologists, exploring ancient Maya ruins for our provocation. The children enjoyed examining ancient Maya artefacts which raised several questions in their curious minds about how these indigenous people lived and contributed to civilisation. Following our provocation, the children had an interactive workshop with the one and ONLY British Maya archaeologist, Dr. Dianne Davies who delivered an informative session for the children, answering the questions that they raised from their provocation.

Our central idea of ‘Conflicts may Occur Over Access to Resources’ was key in helping the children understand that the Spanish invasion of Maya was one of the reasons why their civilisation declined. This is linked to our transdisciplinary theme of: Where We Are in Place and Time. Their action of the term was to produce an information presentation to the UN to voice their opinions on different way to resolve conflicts.

In our geography inquiry, the children used Google Earth to locate where Maya civilization was located. They were very intrigued by the landscape, realising that it was very different to where they live.

After learning about the area and its features, the children became newspaper reporters to write newspaper articles about the discovery of ancient Maya ruins. It was incredible to read how informative their reports were, packed with factual information.

As the term progressed, the children delved deeper into the history of the Maya, learning about their art, food and religion. In their art inquiry, they researched about the masks the Maya wore.

They were enlightened by the fact that the masks they wore were for different purposes such as for deaths and special celebrations. With this information, they wrote some incredible non-chronological reports, showcasing their knowledge on the topic.