The history coordinator at Darwen St James is Mrs Thompson.
Reception class are learning about dinosaurs this week. They have designed and drawn their own fantastic dinosaurs, and could tell Miss Sears and Miss Davidson all about it.
Year One have continued to investigate toys in their history lessons, and have made some Thaumatropesto play with.
Reception class have had lots of fun this week learning all about the chronology of life, from babies to the elderly!
Year 6 have been learning all about the Vikings, and were lucky enough to be able to experience some Viking clothing and armour, from the Lancashire Museums. They discovered just how heavy Viking Chainmail (byrnie) really is!
Year 5 have been learning about the Anglo-Saxons settling in England and had fun making a timeline of events!
Year 1
Year 1 learned all about the Golden Hinde, Sir Francis Drake and pirates this term!
Year 2
In Year 2 this half term we have been learning lots of amazing facts about two famous, inspirational women from the past - Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole. We have learnt all about their lives and discussed similarities and differences between them.
Year 3
In Year 3 this half term we have been looking at the Ancient Egyptians. The children, as have I and Mrs Ainsworth, have thoroughly enjoyed learning all the wonderful facts about pyramids and pharaohs. In one lesson the children learnt about Haward Carter and how he found the most famous tomb-The boy king, Tutankhamun. The children then discovered a tomb in class and became archaeologists to investigate the tomb. The tomb had been sealed for many years and was full of poisonous gas (not really!) and they had to get in look at the artefacts in only 10 seconds. They managed it and went on to sketch the artefacts. Well done children!
The next week they had to investigate who built the pyramids as scripts and film portray it to be slaves. After a serious investigation, team work and clue deciphering-they came to a suppressing conclusion-it was actually in fact farmers who built the pyramids. What a surprise!
Year 4
In year 4 we have been looking at the Legacy of the Ancient Greeks. We started by looking at what school was like in ancient Greece and compared it to how school is for us now - surprisingly there were some things that were still similar but equally there were some very different things! We then looked at the alphabet from ancient Greek times and we found lots of words that they used that we still use now! We finished the topic by looking at the Olympic games, then and now. It made us giggle when we learnt that in ancient Greek times the competitors were always naked!
Year 5
In year 5 we have been looking at the life of a Victorian child. The children spent the day at Helmshore Textile Museum to learn all about mills in the Victorian times. The children have also explored different myths about life in the mills and tried to decipher fact from fiction.
Year 6
Year 6 continued their study of the Ancient Maya this half term, concluding with an investigation into why the Maya civilisation declined so suddenly.
Pre-School
This half term the children have been learning about themselves. Through this the children have developed their understanding of birthdays and we looked at how we celebrated our birthday last year. We listened to the story of Kippers Birthday and all the things he had to celebrate. The children then made a present for Kipper.
Reception
This half term, reception has been learning about timelines through the story Once There were Giants. We have talked about what we were like as babies and how we change as we grow up.
We then ordered the photos from the story to create a timeline from baby to adult.
Year One
This half term the children have been learning about toys from the past and the present. They have talked about how they can tell if a toy is old or new and also discussed the materials that have been used to make toys over time. The photographs show Year 1 sorting images of toys according to different criteria and giving their reasons.
Year 2
In Year 2 we have been learning about a significant event in our British History - The Great Fire of London. We have been using our historical enquiry skills to find out why it happened, why it spread so quickly and how the people of London survived after the fire.
Year 3
In History, Year 3 has been looking at the Stone Age to the Bronze Age. Firstly to understand prehistory, the children used a toilet roll timeline! This was to get the children to understand that prehistory was a long long time ago. From here they moved on to learn about Stone Age people and how they developed over time. One of the lessons the children looked at Stonehenge and had to discuss the four main theories people had about it. They discussed which one they felt was the correct theory.
Year 4
We have been looking at Ancient Greece and how this ancient civilisation lived. The class have enjoyed using their maths skills to make timelines of events and also using their detective skills to investigate if there is any evidence to suggest if any of the Greek myths and legends are true.
Year 5
Year 5 have been learning about the Anglo Saxons. They have looked at why the Anglo Saxons invaded Britain, look at Anglo Saxon settlements, monarchy and religion, namely how Christianity came to Britain.
Year 6
This term Year 6 have been learning about the Vikings. We have thought about stereotypes of the Vikings, and how they are portrayed in our modern society - as killing raiders who pillaged everywhere they went. We then looked at historical evidence which told us a different story, that the Vikings were also settlers, who had farms and housing, who traded with other countries and had a civilised society with a monetary system and craftsmanship. We also created living graphs which showed how close the Vikings came (or didn’t!) to conquering England.
The subject lead for History at Darwen St James is Mrs Thompson.