Historical Investigators in Year 3

Year 3 pupils and their teachers have been very enthusiastic about their History topics on the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings. As well, as following a History curriculum that has enabled them to learn more about who these people were, where they came from, why them came to Britain and when they came, the children have also had the opportunity to pose their own enquiry questions and try to find the answers to them in History and English lessons. Using a huge number of information books, photo cards of artefacts, video clips and iPads, the children have carried out research to answer questions such as ‘What did the Anglo-Saxons wear in battle?’, ‘Why did Viking longships have heads on the front of them?’, ‘What was an Anglo-Saxon diet like?’, ‘What did Viking explorers eat on their long journeys?’ The list of intriguing questions went on and on and we soon realised that expert historians would struggle to answer some of them, due to lack of archaeological evidence.

Last term, in History lessons, the children collaborated in pairs to carry out research and create an informative poster on the Anglo-Saxons and in English they worked independently to create their own interesting booklet on the topic. So far this term, the children have honed their note-taking skills and carried out independent, paired and group research on the Vikings. Note-taking in itself is a very hard skill to master when you are only seven or eight, but Mrs Bowyer and Miss Franklin have seen a huge improvement in the children’s ability to identify and note down key words, phrases and dates. This will serve the children well for Year 4 and beyond. The children’s findings will be presented at the end of our topic, when the notes are written up. Thanks to the high level of interest in our topics that researching has created, the level of excitement for our trip to The Beaney Museum has grown steadily over the past few weeks. The children seem to be very keen to participate in their Anglo-Saxon and Viking workshop and learn even more about these fascinating people!