Home Learning Challenge Year 1 Week 1 We

Home Learning Challenge Year 1 Week 1

We are learning about school life when our grandma and grandad’s were young.

What can you find out about school life and how it has changed? Has it changed a lot since your grandparents were young? How has it changed over the last 100 years?

School life 100 years ago What were the classrooms like in the past? The teacher stood up or sat on a tall chair at the front so they could easily see all the children. School children sat on benches behind their own wooden desks. Sometimes, five children had to squeeze onto a bench made for two. wooden desks Wooden desk Classrooms were very big and had no carpet. There was a single coalfuelled iron stove at the front near the teacher, but children at the back would often be very cold! single coal-fuelled iron stove There was usually a world map on the wall showing the British Empire and portraits of King George V and Queen Mary.

What Equipment Was Used in the Past? Children wrote on dark slate with a white squeaky, chalky 'slate pencil'. They had to spit on the slates to rub out mistakes. Older children wrote in 'copybooks‘ with wooden ‘dip pens’. These had metal nibs they had to dip again and again into china pots of ink in a hole in their desk called ‘inkwells’. The whole lesson would be written on a blackboard by the teacher, for the children to copy, memorise and chant aloud word-for-word.

What Was the Teaching and Learning Like in the Past? Some schools taught crafts or trades in the afternoons that would be useful in later life, but would be different for girls and boys. Boys would be taught carpentry, and girls learnt how to sew, knit, cook and use a flat iron. Some girls and boys were also taught gardening. Teachers were very strict and there were sometimes more than 60 children in a class! Boys and girls were taught separately if the school was big. hammer Fork spade Pupils who behaved well, were given special classroom ‘monitor’ jobs, including ‘Bell Ringer’, ‘Ink Monitor’ and ‘Blackboard Monitor’. Children took part in PE lessons called 'drills'. They had to march on the spot, do simple stretches and swing big wooden clubs around, to work on their strength. Sometimes, boys also took part in boxing lessons. Wooden club bell

• Write a letter or postcard to a grandparent • Ask some questions about what it would have been like when they were younger. What was it like at school? • What was their favourite toy or game to play with their friends?

Toys or games children may have played with over 100 years ago? How are these different to toys you play with today?

• What are Toys made from? Old toys were usually made from materials such as wood, metal, glass and fabric. New toys are usually made from plastic.

Lots of old and new toys can move in some way. They may even make sounds. Many new toys use electricity or batteries to move, make noise or light up. Many old toys moved by clockwork or ‘wind-up’. This was usually a small metal key which attached to the toy and you turned lots of times. This would make small wheels (or gears) inside the toy turn and make the toy move. These toys may have lots of different parts, made from lots of different materials. A tablet computer has a glass screen, a plastic cover and metal parts inside to make the electric parts work.

Old toys were made differently to how toys are made today. Lots of old toys were made from wood. These toys were all handmade. This meant that they took a long time and cost a lot of money to make. It also meant that fewer toys could be made. Lots of new toys are made from plastic. Plastic is much cheaper to use. It can be melted and poured into moulds so lots of toys can be made at the same time. This makes the toys much quicker to make too. Toys are mostly made by machines in factories now.

Invent a new toy for the future. What do you think children would like to play with in 100 years’ time?