Autumn 2024
History
To launch our topic into the Stone Age we asked how we know about life in prehistoric time periods. We know prehistory means before information was written down or recorded so we looked for other sources of information. We read about coprolites (fossilised poo) and were excited to receive a box of these from a Stone Age museum. We became archaeologists and made measurements of our coprolite, describe the colour and surface texture and them began to carefully excavate it to answer the question “What did Stone Age people eat?”. We discovered evidence that suggested their diet included meat and fish (we found small bones) fruit and berries (we found small seeds) and leafy plants.
After learning that early Stone Age people were known as hunter gatherers we decided to see how easy this way of life would be. We had a list of specific items to find outside and we needed to make sure we could gather enough to feed our tribe. We also had to be alert and quiet to make sure the sabre tooth tigers didn’t sense us – some of us didn’t survive!
Brackenhurst Trip
We visited Brackenhurst to experience areas of Stone Age life and were able to share many of the facts we have learnt. First, we looked at some artefacts that showed how knapping was used to change the shape of stone to make tools and talked about how this was the very start of technology. We know that Stone Age people created paintings on walls to tell stories and record important events and celebrate achievements. During transition week we had a go with paints brushes and pencils (you can see them on the curriculum display). At Brackenhurst we got to paint with our fingers! We were fascinated to learn that people of the time made jewellery from bones and stones. We were able to use modern tools to make our own pendants from wood. We joined a tribe and marked this on one side before drawing our own Stone Age item on the reverse. We made our own small drinking cups from clay during the day and used tools to carve patterns into the surface.
Art
Inspired by the art Sarah Morley, we have created beautiful landscape paintings. We used watercolour paints to create a wash fading the colours across the background, midground and foreground. Then we looked at perspective to add details at different distances and finally used ticker poster paint and crumpled paper to add texture to elements of our paintings.
Science
As scientists we have explored rocks, soils and fossils and forces and magnets.
We leant about the 3 main types of rock and how they are formed while searching for them in our immediate school environment. We explored different types of soil, making sketches of our observations and finally we used drama to act out the process of fossilisation.
In our forces topic we began by defining a force and decided that they were a push or a pull that slowed down or sped up the movement of an object. We looked at friction and used our skills to plan and carry out an investigation into which surface creates the most friction for a toy car.
We were also about to plan and carry out an investigation that helped us to find the strongest magnet from a range in the classroom and discuss how magnets help us navigate the globe.
DT
This term our DT project has been investigating shell structures in order to make a keep-sake box. Firstly, we investigated different packaging looking at what they were used for, how they were constructed and decorated. Next, we looked at the nets of shapes especially cubes and cuboids and we discussed why many packages and boxes are this particular shape. Then, we had a go at making a protype of our box. Finally, we made our own keepsake box. Our brief was to design a box to hold a stone age artefact in a museum storage. Our designs reflected what artefact could be stored inside.
