Stone Age Art Work

In Art this week, Courtesy have been creating some amazing Stone Age artwork, tying it in with our Topic work this term. While we weren’t able to go outside because of the rain, the lovely Mr Hattersley was sent out to get very wet and to collect lots of twigs, leaves, grass and anything else he could find (again while getting soaked). As they had to share what Mr Hattersley very kindly got them, the children had to be amazing Collaborative Cats. Using the paint colours a Homosapien would have and the forage from outdoors, Courtesy were able to create beautiful cave drawings of objects a Stone Age person would, such as a bull, the sun, flowers, or any other natural object. I’m sure you’ll agree these came out absolutely wonderfully! You’ll see even more in our assembly!

Stone Age Boy

In our Big Writing in Courtesy this week, we have been writing our own version of our text this term, Stone Age Boy! This ties very nicely in with our Topic work of the Stone Age meaning we could use some of our knowledge from Topic to help us in our Big Write. We first, of course, had our planning stage where we split up our story into manage chucks such as the opening, what obstacle our character had to overcome and the resolution to that conflict. After our plan, it was time to write. Making sure to include as many good adjectives, adverbs, prepositions and many of the other types of words we have learned about through the whole year. We didn’t want any boring words like “good” or “happy” (oops). The next day, as with all good work, it was then time to pick up our purple pens and edit our work to make it even better. Despite some children finding the work difficult, we were all Happy Hippos while writing. There has been real improvement in our Big Writing this year, it is so wonderful to see and Courtesy should all be proud of ourselves.

Hunter-Gatherer Food Tasting

This week in Courtesy, we decided to travel back in time and become our Homosapien ancestors and what better way to do that than eating! Knowing our ancestors were Hunter-Gatherers, that meant a lot of berries and other foods that could be foraged. We had a lovely spread of delicious, healthy food such as nuts, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries and much more. We even had egg as they can be foraged from chickens. We also used adjectives to describe these yummy foods such as sweet, soft, sour and many more. Many children were reluctant to try some of the foods but they put on their brave faces and were Adventurous Aardvarks; they then loved what they had tried! The nuts were definitely a clear favourite. In the end, as much as the children enjoyed the food, we decided it might be best to travel back to the present where we have chocolate! I wonder what other foods our ancestors ate?

Place Value

This week in Courtesy we have been practising our place value in a really fun way; through games! Using a lovely modified game of Snakes and Ladders the children were able to show themselves being Collaborative Cats and taking turns rolling the dice. When they landed on a square, the pupils had to say the place value of a digit, number, whether it be the 100’s, 10’s or 1’s column. For example, 784 has 7 100’s (700), 8 tens’ (80) and 4 ones. Revisiting our place value knowledge is crucial for our next learning in maths and the children did amazingly!

Big Idea

Whilst exploring the lives of the pre-historic, we will become aware as historians of how artefacts help us uncover mysteries of the past. Knowledge and understanding about the Stone Age transition from hunter gatherers to farmers will enable us to consider whether we are still reliant on the natural materials around us today to enrich our lives. Developments in manufacturing and processes have allowed the evolution of these materials, but how has the pre-historic era impacted our life today? Was the change from a nomadic existence to becoming settled a necessary one? As Geographers, we will consider the areas of their settlement as well as designing homes as if Dover was the area of our settlement. Using the style of cave paintings, we will consider, ‘How does Art speak to people?’, ‘Can we use Art to tell a story?’ Through this we will create exhibitions which communicate our lifestyle to those in the future.