What a start 7Pioneer have had on their first ever expedition at XPEast!
It is a pleasure to teach 7Pioneer in Hums. We’ve had an exciting start so far to our expedition ‘Over the Top!’ which focuses on the Guiding Question: ‘does war unite or divide?’
We began Immersion week exploring different aspects of WW1 such as the causes and context, followed by our Gallery Walk which looked at the themes of unification and division. Pioneer had some excellent ideas, notices and wonders about the content in the first week and made some brilliant links to draw it all together. We also had our first Expert in, bringing artefacts from the First World War. The pupils enjoyed handling the artefacts and discovering information about how they were used and work. Every pupil asked an interesting and thought-provoking question to find out more.
At the beginning of our second week, we started to explore the qualities and characteristics of the soldiers of WW1. We discussed how they showed determination, loyalty, friendship and courage, to name a few, and linked this to how we can show these qualities in our everyday lives.
The variety of roles soldiers had in WW1 was also explored. Pupils researched the responsibilities and skills needed to be a medic, engineer, and infantry, for example. We not only looked at the roles of people in the Great War but also pigeons!
This resulted in a visit from our second Expert and his homing pigeons. The pupils learnt all about the pigeons and how they were important for carrying messages and communication. We then attached our own messages from the ‘front line’ to our pigeons and sent them on their way. All three of our messages and pigeons made it back to their home!