Today we had a surprise visitor. He or she is a rescue hedgehog! We were lucky enough to have him to visit before he goes to the rescue centre. We hope he will come back to us with a mate when he is heavy enough to hibernate without help. It was fantastic to see a real hedgehog after studying their habitat and food web.
It was a foggy and very chilly start to the day but that didn’t dampen our enthusiasm! This week our group headed up to our workshop space to continue working on our upcycling project. We touched up the white base coat on our furniture items and then added some colour to customize our designs. We used fabric dye on the cushion material to give the seats of the chairs a new look. Also Lucas showed us what a motorcycle helmet is constructed of – he has sawn a helmet in half to show us a cross-section. He explained the materials used to cushion impact and protect a biker’s head. A busy day in the workshop with excellent teamwork today. Well done for remembering your painting clothes everyone – we certainly got messy!
It has been another great week of work on Seesaw, I thought it would be nice to share some of the children’s art work from this weeks drawing challenge. The topic was butterflies.
We visited Gressenhall Museum and Farm to experience what life was like on the ‘homefront’ during World War 2.
We met an officer from the Homeguard who taught us self-defense, using a broomstick handle as a bayonet! We had to ‘fall in’, stand to attention and march in line. He even checked that we weren’t spies.
We met a ‘land girl’ on the farm who showed us how to clean the harnesses for the Suffolk Punch horses. We tried our hand at milking cows (using fake udders) and learned how the role of women changed during World War 2, as many women stepped in to keep farms, factories and transport going.
The Air Raid Precautions Warden let us hear a real air raid siren and try on a gas mask. We huddled in the air raid shelter and sang ‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary!” He showed us playing cards from World War 2 which featured pictures of German, Japanese and RAF planes.
In the cottage, we helped make chocolate truffles using rationed ingredients. There was even mash potato in the mixture but some of us still gave it the thumbs up!
At the village shop, we saw how to show our ration card to buy portions of food. We learned how people used their gardens and parks to grow food and kept chickens to help stretch out their rations.
We had an amazing time at Gressenhall. We were able to show how much we have learned about life on the Homefront. We also gained lots of new ideas, to add to our Working as Historians showcase!
We have had a busy day in Dolphin class. This morning, our special visitor Tina came to teach us all about Bollywood dancing. She told us about where Bollywood dancing comes from and she taught us a Bollywood dance.
Year 5 had a special day where they were in groups and learnt about WWII. This particular group was learning about different historical artefacts that were used in this time.
One of the artefacts was a gas mask which people used to protect themselves from deadly gasses. The masks had special yellow bags in which to go in. When a bomb dropped it made a noise and that meant everyone had to put on their masks and go to the nearest shelter.
Another artefact shown was a metal hat worn by soldiers to protect themselves from getting hurt from explosions.
Children were sent away to safety. They often travelled with their suitcases filled with toys and necessities. We thought the children were anxious and scared to be leaving their families behind.
This was an interesting session because we learnt a lot of new information that we did not know before. We look forward to finding out more!
We walked into the city to look for clues that told us buildings were old. We went to Elm Hill, The Cathedral, St Peter Mancroft and St Andrews.
The walk was very tiring, but it was actually very interesting as well (Isla).
As you were walking through Elm Hill, if you looked at the roofs, you would notice that one of the roofs was different. It was thatched. (Lily)
If you looked at the old buildings, you would notice that the windows were wonky because they were old. (Alfie)
When we were walking in Elm Hill, we saw wobbly buildings because the wood was on the bottom of the bricks, and the bricks were too heavy, so the wood warped. (Kacper)
When we were walking in the Cathedral, on both gates there were lots of carvings. (Morgan)
The city wall used to be around the city, and the Strangers were people who lived outside of it. There is a broken bit of wall near where Toys R Us used to be (Troy, Aron, Lily).
There were loads of streets where we normally went to, but we didn’t know they were really old (Isla)
We are studying what life was like in WWII this term. On Monday we investigated how much food people would get in the war. We found out that rationing started because they didn’t have enough food for everyone. People were only allowed 2oz butter ,8oz sugar, 2oz cheese ,4oz bacon and ham ,40z marg ,3 pints milk , 2oz tea , 1 fresh egg , 1 packet of dried eggs every 4 weeks.
On the 8th of January 1940 butter , bacon and sugar were rationed.
People had rationing books so they could get their food each week. Adults got more food than children.