History: Blog items
Date: 6th Jan 2023 @ 8:17am
Today we began our French unit - les Vikings. This involved listening to a song and translating the lyrics from French to English. We then worked through slides that introduced the Vikings and key information in French, which we translated again into English. We are now able to translate much larger sections of French because of the work we did during Autumn term.
Year 6 Introduction to Vikings
Date: 6th Jan 2023 @ 8:08am
Today we began our new History unit - The Vikings. We began with a flashback of all the history we have covered during our time here at Boundary. We discussed together where we thought each key event/period of time went on the timeline and researched dates so that we could accurately order them.
Then we had a quick recap on Anglo-Saxons, which we covered in Year 5. We talked about why we learn about Anglo-Saxons and Vikings together. We then looked at who the Vikings were, where they came from and why they came to Britain.
Date: 5th Jan 2023 @ 3:45pm
Before we started our new topic on the Stone age man, we discussed BC and AD for the timelines in history. We established that the Stone age was the only thing in our timeline that was BC and the rest of the pictures were all in the last 600 years. We put ourselves in the timeline too!
We went on the look at picture sources to answer the question "Was Stone Age Man just a simple Hunter Gatherer?"
Year 2 Stick Transformation Project
Date: 2nd Dec 2022 @ 4:37pm
Today, in Art Year 2 continued our Stick transformation project. Inspired by Chris Kenney and our knowledge of soldiers we began sculpting sticks into our very own soldiers. Next week, we will design our soldiers some clothes and dress them appropriately for battle. We had to demonstrate many of the characteristics including perseverance and determination and some of us even showed excellent patience and teamwork.
Date: 1st Dec 2022 @ 3:01pm
We worked in small groups to create a ‘living graph’ relating to the fighting between Anglo-Saxon kings and the invading Vikings. We placed events on the graph in chronological order, and then, in discussion with our group, moved them up or down on the Y-axis based on the level of threat to the Anglo-Saxons. We then used this to draw the shape of the graph on our own axis and picked 3 key events during the period.
Date: 24th Nov 2022 @ 9:01pm
This week, as part of our History unit 'Remembrance', we continued our learning journey by exploring the key question 'What was it like for a soldier in World War 1?' We began the lesson by learning the key word trench and discussed what one of these was before we split into groups to explore different aspects of life for soldiers in the First World War. We explored how life was in their free time, the trench conditions, food as well as the dangers of being involved with the war by looking at different pictures and interpreting what they were showing us. Once we had explored our given area, we were all very brave and presented our information to our friends so we all had an understanding of all elements of the war.
Date: 22nd Nov 2022 @ 12:03pm
This week we have started a new Reading into Writing journey. For this journey we are learning about playscripts. We have started our journey by reading some good examples. The first example we read was a playscript about Boudicca. We found the features of a playscript then had a go at acting the scene out.
Date: 20th Nov 2022 @ 8:08pm
As our journey into Anglo-Saxon Britain continued, we found out how the Anglo-Saxon kings were converted to Christianity by St. Augustine, who was sent to England by Pope Gregory I in 596AD. After learning the facts, pupils were challenged to use their history skills to uncover sources of evidence and decide 'how we know' what we know about the Anglo-Saxons.
Date: 16th Nov 2022 @ 7:10pm
We began our history topic with reading the story ‘Too Many Toys.’ We read and discussed the story, talking about other children’s favourite toys, before moving onto identifying our own favourite toys. We found out what Miss Kay’s and Mrs Websters favourite toy were and listened to the reasons why, before contributing our own thoughts and ideas. We became confident using the phrase ‘My favourite toy is ___ because ___’
'My favourite toy is Lightning McQueen because it has flames and can go fast'
'My favourite toy is a ukalele because it can make music'
'My favourite toy is Elsa because she has long blonde hair and ice powers'
Date: 18th Oct 2022 @ 7:47am
Today we had our first Now Press Play session and we chose to listen to a Maya story. It involved the tale of a young Maya child, who is forced to leave their village when drought hits. On route, their mother is kidnapped by warriors from Tikal. Along with their friend - Ixcel - and your pet jaguar - Soft Paws - they make their way to Tikal to get their mum back. We enjoyed the session as it allowed us to imagine what life was like in a Maya village.
Date: 17th Oct 2022 @ 2:57pm
This month, as part of our School celebration of Black History Month we have been completing our writing journey about Rosa Parks. As part of our GPS lessons we looked at information about Rosa Parks and the influence she had on Black rights by refusing to give up her seat and wrote statements about her life and questions we would have liked to have asked her if she was still alive. We will use our knowledge to write a letter to Rosa thanking her for her hard work and determination.
Year 4 Why did the Roman Empire end?
Date: 6th Oct 2022 @ 2:45pm
This week, we started to focus on why this huge empire came to an end. The Romans were so strong and well-trained, but eventually invading so much of Europe caught up to them. Having such a vast army all over Europe was costly and soon issues were occuring. Have a listen to some of the children explaining more reasons...
Year 6 - How did the Maya empire grow to be so successful?
Date: 28th Sep 2022 @ 11:42am
Our History lesson today involved looking at how the Maya managed to survive in jungle conditions for such a long period of time. We learned that they were skills at clearning large areas of woodland in order to create flat land. They also learned how to farm the land and when the best time to grow crops was. Over time, they were able to gather precious raw materials in order to sell and trade with other Maya states. In turn, as states grew powerful, they were able to attack and conquer neighbouring cities and claim their land.
Reception Once they were giants
Date: 20th Sep 2022 @ 8:55pm
Recption have been reading the story 'Once they were giants'. The story is all about a little girl growing up in a supportive and loving family. Throughout the story we discussed the different skills the little girl learns as she grows like sitting up, crawling, walking and talking. As a group we talked about the different things we have learnt since being a baby.
"I learnt to go to the toilet and not in my nappy" Kazimir
"My mummy taught me to eat food and not throw it on the floor" Kayden
"I learnt to ride my bike" Nathanial
We talked about how all these things we had learnt were in the past and discussed what we might learn to do in the future.
"I'm going to learn to read at school" Lana-Rose
"I'm learning to write my name" Miley-Rae
"We are learning numbers at school" Alfie
"I want to learn to drive a car like my dad" Ishaanvir
We then looked at the life of the queen and how she grew and changed over time. We looked at pictures of her as a baby and discussed how she changed as she grew into a child, an adult and then finally an elderly lady. We talked about all the different things she learnt to do and achieved throughout her life and then set some goals for ourselves.
Date: 20th Sep 2022 @ 4:03pm
This week, we found out why Boudica revolted against the Romans. We also looked at the way she has been described in the past and what image we have of her. We decided that she is strong, brave and determind. We then had the opportunity to experience a Now, Press, Play session all about Boudica's revolt. We were a boy, who's father was fighting for the Romans as Boudica revolted.
Year 4's Trip to Boundary's Roman Museum
Date: 13th Sep 2022 @ 7:33pm
Today Redcliffes turned into Boundary's Roman museum. The children had the chance to explore lots of aspects of Roman life and their invasion and reign over Britain. Children looked at artefacts and examples of lots of Roman equipment, utensils, coins and a fantastic replica of a legionary's amour - some even tried it on! It was SO heavy!
Year 6 - An introduction to the Maya civilisation
Date: 7th Sep 2022 @ 4:13pm
Today we began our new history unit of the Maya civilisation. This involved learning about who the Maya were, where they lived and where they apeared in the timeline of world history. At the end of the session, we went outsdie and looked at lots of pictures that showed evidence of how the Maya lived and we had to look at the photos and discuss with otherd what we think it told us about the Maya. We are looking forward to learning more about them.
Year 5 Dancing through the Ages
Date: 6th Sep 2022 @ 7:27pm
Our first Topic in PE is Dance and in our preassessment, we discussed what we already knew about Dance styles through the ages! We weren't too sure about the history of dance, so we have started today with the Charleston from 1920's. We made a class motif using the counts of the music in the style of the Charleston including kicks and flicks! It was energetic and fun.
Date: 6th Sep 2022 @ 4:22pm
We are delighted that over summer our new History timelines have been installed in the school main hall. We have had two installed. One is about world history and includes events such as world wars, the invention of the internet and legalisation of gay marriage. The other timeline is all about our local area of Blackpool. Underneath our Blackpool timeline we have maps of how the area of Layton and Grange Park has changed too!
Year 4 find out why the Romans invaded Britain
Date: 6th Sep 2022 @ 4:08pm
We started off our History topic this year by investigating why the Romans invaded Britain. The children firstly looked at our brand new History timeline in the hall and where the Romans are within the history timeline compared to their previous learning about the Stone Age, Iron Age and WW2. Then we investigated and found out why the Romans came here. Reasons included; we have great land, lots of cattle and lots of gold.
Year 5 - A smashing History lesson
Date: 14th Jul 2022 @ 4:32pm
As part of our journey to Ancient Greece, we have been learning about the system of democratic government in Athens. Each year, the citizens could vote to remove a public servant if they felt they were becoming too powerful or if they were not doing a good job. A meeting was held in the agora (market), and people voted by scratching a name into a shard of broken pottery. If enough votes were cast, that individual was thrown out of Athens, or 'ostracised' for 10 years. The word 'ostracised' literally means 'judgement by shards'. We had a go at writing our own name into a shard of pottery using the Greek alphabet.
Date: 13th Jul 2022 @ 12:48pm
Year 6 continued their local area study of Blackpool by finding out how Blackpool has changed over the years. We used a variety of resources including videos, photographs and maps to identify changes and suggest possible reasons for these changes. We then went on to learn about the factors behind the growth and subsequent decline of Blackpool and how the town has suffered because of cheap foreign package holidays.
Date: 11th Jul 2022 @ 7:47am
This week we had our Heritage Day. It was a fantastic day learning all about the history of Doreen Lofthouse and Fisherman's Friend. We began the day by learning all about how Fisherman's Friend are made and how they first came to be. We then tried a lot of the different flavours (some were much better than others)! Then, we created our own timelines to show the development of Fisherman's Friend over time and how Doreen Lofthouse and her charitable donations benefited the local commnity for years after her death.
Date: 7th Jul 2022 @ 9:04am
As part of heriatge day, Year 3 answered the question 'Who are the Thompson family and more specifically who is Amanda Thompson?' We started by looking at the jounrey of the Pleasure Beach and discovered how much it has changed since it was first opened. We ordered pictures to create a timeline of the Pleasure Beach. Did you know that the Pleasure Beach was originally built on the sand dunes?
We then went on to look at the significance of the Thompson family and everything they had done for the pleasure Beach and Blackpool. We used our art skills to create an artistic fact file about Amanda Thompson. We were inspired by her achievements, especially in her achievements as a female. We found out that the role she is holds is mainly held by men!
It was very interesting learning about Amanda Thompson and her family and we are grateful for the jobs she creates in Blackpool and the tourism that she helps to bring in to our home town.
Year 2 Heritage Day- Blackpool is Grand
Date: 5th Jul 2022 @ 8:01am
Yesterday, the whole school took part in Heritage Day celebrating significant people and events from the past in Blackpool. Year 2 explored the key question ‘How did Thomas Sergenson and Frank Matcham influence theatre in Blackpool?’ Throughout the day, we completed a range of activities comparing Blackpool Grand Theatre when it was first built to what it looks like today as well as comparing the inside to a modern theatre. We also created a timeline of historical events in Blackpool and even added our previous learning of Mary Seacole and World War One to our timeline. We loved learning about the history of the Grand Theatre.