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Adventure 2: A Wartime Tale

The new adventure started with an announcement by Neville Chamberlain: World War Two had begun! The children were then introduced to Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy - who were wartime children struggling to understand what was happening. It was our job to learn all about the war to help them know what to expect. The first task was to learn key facts about the outbreak through a burn 2 learn. They then found out about all the other countries around the world that were involved.

After the children learnt about the outbreak of war, they stepped into the shoes of Lucy or Peter to write a diary all about their experience so far. They imagineered how they felt and what they did after hearing the announcement of war. Then completed some work on conjunctions before writing their finished diaries.

Next came something they had heard a little bit about in guided reading: air raid shelters. The children learned about three different types of shelter and then, after being asked to help, they wrote adverts to try and convince the families of wartime Britain to get their own Anderson shelter.

We then decided to see if we could make our own air raid shelters. They decided what materials would be best to use to mimic the actual materials. Then they designed their own and made it trying to make it as strong and safe as possible. After making them, we tested them by dropping different objects on top.

In art the children learnt about the artist Lowry. They looked at a range of his art work of cities and discussed how he created mood through his use of stick figures and colour. They used his style to depict scenes of London during WW2.

In another art lesson the children learnt about key London landmarks that were around during WW2. They then did some silhouette art using oil pastels or watercolours and black paper to show London during The Blitz.

The children then heard that The Blitz had occurred back in London. They used pictures to imagineer what it would have been like. They considered what they could hear, see and smell.

The next part of the lesson focused on our science topic of light. We first thought about the importance of light during the war or the need to block light during blackouts. The children first learnt about some key areas of light: light sources, how we see light, how light travels and the shape of shadows.

 

We then completed an investigation that looked into the best materials to block light during an air raid in the Blitz. The children decided on four materials to test. They learnt about vocabulary like opaque, translucent and transparent to decipher which material would be the best and worst. They then completed the investigation and drew a table to show the results.

Next up came the evacuation! The lesson began with Mrs Oldroyd in role as an evacuee (Lucy). The children hot-seated Mrs Oldroyd and asked questions to find out which she had a suitcase, label, identity card and gas mask. After discovering that the Pevensie children were being evacuated, they learnt more about what this meant and what they would have taken with them. They had to write a paragraph about what evacuation was and draw what the children would have taken.

The children all then stepped into the shoes of Edmund or Lucy to imagine they were evacuated to the countryside to live with old Professor Kirke. They wrote a letter home to mum describing their experiences since leaving her at the train station: their experiences on the train; they described the Professor’s house; and told mum about a strange adventure they had involving a wardrobe.

Our songs this adventure are all hits from the second world war and will all feature in our Christmas Carol Concert.

Carols

We 3 kings

It's a long way

Quartermasters Store

We'll Meet again

Jingle Bells - Guitars

Winter Wonderland

Winter Wonderland 2

You are my sunshine - Ukelele