KS2 Humanities Week

History came to life at Aragon last week! The theme was "hundred years of history", where each year group had the opportunity to learn about historical events they may not had heard of before! It was incredible to see the buzz around school for all things history as children were immersed in the culture, politics and entertainment of days gone by.

Year 3 looked at the 18th Century (1700-1799). We started off the week designing our own stained-glass windows representing a religious picture. We learned about James Cook and why he was a significant person in history. We role played as James Cook travelling around the Pacific Ocean, using the maps that we created to help us to navigate our way. We created our own James Cook timelines, showing the key events in his life. We created fact files about him and learned lots of amazing facts. Did you know that James Cook spent a lot of his time on science experiments and mapping new areas? Year 3 enjoyed learning all about him! We learned about the Kings and Queens of the 18th Century, Queen Anne, George I, George II and George III. Then chose one to draw using our observational skills to create a portrait. We looked at Morden in the 18th Century and compared it to now and enjoyed discussing how Morden has changed.

Year 4 have had a great week learning about their part of the Aragon timeline, 1600- 1699. We launched our week with an introductory lesson about witchcraft where we learnt about what they used to do to people to try and find out if they were a witch or not. We played a really cool game where the villagers had to try and work out who the witches were by accusations, this was to try and understand how anxious people were back in 1645. We then got creative and made montages about a given topic. Table 1 was given witchcraft, Table 2 was given Shakespeare, Table 3 was given Pocahontas, Table 4 was given 1600 Exploration (America) and Table 5 was given The Gunpowder Plot. We worked really hard, researching facts and cutting and sticking pictures and words onto our montages. After that, we became Geographers and studied London Bridge and what it was like in the 1600's vs what it's like now. We can't believe people lived ON London Bridge and there wasn't a road! We folded an A4 piece of paper in half and sketched the bridge then on one half and the bridge now on the other. Next, we learned about The Gunpowder Plot. We watched clips and had a class debate whether Bonfire Night should still be celebrated or not. We then made puppets and practiced sequencing the events ready to perform. We had so much fun!

Year 5 explored the 15th century and were transported back to the Tudor period. We had great fun learning all about the formation of the Tudor Rose and how the Tudor family came into power over England. We had great fun learning all about Henry VIII and his six wives. We also really enjoyed recreating some of the Tudor portraits, the Year 5 staff were blown away by the amount of detail that the children were able to add to their artwork. Later in the week, we found it fascinating to learn all about the Tudor influences in our local area and in particular the name of our school. The week was finished off with the children learning all about the other periods learnt across the school.

As the oldest pupils in the school, Year 6 were tasked with being sent all the way back to the beginning of the whole school timeline- the pre-1400s. They were fascinated to learn about the gory and gruesome punishments of the Romans and Anglo-Saxons that were given when crimes were committed and they re-created their own court case! They also learnt about the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and made their own Bayeux Tapestries.

On Friday 1st December, we opened the doors of the Aragon Museum where children presented their findings to each other dressed as a figure from history! A big thank you to all staff who helped made Humanities Week one for the history books!