History

WW2 propaganda for rationing

Today we have learnt why Britain rationed during WW2 and why it was so important. Firstly, we guessed how much food people were allowed. We have created rationing posters to convince others!

Space workshop

On Friday we learned so much about space and how Neil Armstrong explored the moon. We also used teamwork and communication skills to recreate images about space .

Amazing theatre set designs!

In Year 5, we have been designing our sets for Goodnight Mr Tom, either based in Little Weirwold or London. The children did a fantastic job of thinking of the different dimensions and what props they will be designing.

Learning about “propaganda”

Today the children had to remember their own information about propaganda used in WW2 to share with their tables. The children enjoyed being their own teachers for the lesson!

Little Weirwold

Last week, Y5 created art work using setting descriptions from our class text ‘Goodnight Mr Tom’. We highlighted key phrases then accurately tried to recreate the wonderful village from WW2.

Remembrance day

Remembrance Day

We created beautiful poppy designs for Remembrance Day.

Just a few of our amazing art work from Year 5. using layering to create an effect for Remembrance Day.  

Remembrance Day

In Reception we remembered the events of the past by making poppies and watching a rabbit animation.

Poppy Art

A couple of samples of the poppy art we created in Y6 for Remembrance Day.

Remembrance Day

We made poppies.

Remembrance poetry

To think about those who have lost their lives, we created some rhyming poetry. We based our poems on poppy fields, just like our art work.

Remembrance Day work

After learning about life in the trenches for the soldiers in WWI, we wrote (in role) letters home to our loved ones  …

Remembrance Day 2025

Year 2 had a beautiful remembrance morning. We wrote acrostic poems and created some beautiful poppy artwork.

Remembrance Day 11.11.2025

Year 3 have started Remembrance Day by focusing on some art work that uses paint, fabric and stitching. When they are dry we’ll add some stitching on them to add colour and texture.

In history we had lots of fun looking at all the old toys and playing with them.

Toys from the past (then)

We loved investigating (and playing) with toys from the past.

Art final piece

Great effort on our final piece in art. Painting with scissors has been a great skill Year 3 have gained over the last term. No pencil markings, just free hand cutting. Everyone has become more confident with this technique and we have some amazing collages of some Ancient Egyptian art work.

Planning time

We are planning our instructions for how the Ancient Egyptians would have mummified a body to preserve it.

Year 3 archaeologist!

We all became archaeologists for the afternoon excavating and finding ancient Egyptian artefacts. We spoke about what we learn from the things that can be found, which are thousands of years old.

Sketching Ancient Egyptian Art

We have looked at sketching parts of a chosen picture to focus in on different sections. We are getting ready for next week, when we’ll be recreating our chosen picture using the painting with scissors technique.

Roman Trip to Chester

Year 4 had a wonderful day at the Deva Roman Experience in Chester. We collected our shields and weapons before stepping back in time to Roman Britain. We walked the streets of Chester and battled with our ‘enemies’ The children learned a lot of new facts about The Romans, including what they ate and how they went to the toilet. The children loved it!

Some more pictures from our Year 3 trip to the museum!

Matisse and Egypt

Great work using Matisse’s style to recreate some Egyptian pictures. We only used scissors and glue. Our cutting skills are getting better, well done Year 3.

Museum Ancient Egypt

What a super day out! We mummified a body, spoke about what the Ancient Egyptians would have done with dead bodies and went on a scavenger hunt to find information out about the Egyptians.

What do we know?

We gathered all our thoughts and ideas about what we know already about Ancient Egypt! Great ideas and pictures Year 3.

Ancient Egyptian links!

We have started looking at different lessons that both have links with Ancient Egypt. We’ve spotted lots of clues that suggest we will be looking at this topic this term.

Happy birthday Smithdown!

What a day! We had party games, cake and presents for our school turning 150 years old. Happy birthday Smithdown 🎂 🎁 🎈

Smithdown 150 years celebrations

We had so much fun celebrating our schools birthday celebrations. We had a visit from the ice cream van, played party games and enjoyed birthday cake.

Smithdown 150 year’s celebration

We had so much fun taking part in our schools birthday celebrations. We had a visit from the ice cream van , played party games and enjoyed birthday cake.

Year 1 have been learning about the Great Fire of London! We thought about how the fire would have been put out!

Happy Birthday Smithdown

We had a wonderful day yesterday celebrating 150 years of our school. The children loved playing traditional birthday games 🎁, having a boogie 💃🕺and they all enjoyed some ice cream 🍦

Smiles all round!

Y6 Tower of London 3

Y6 Tower of London 2

Y6 Tower of London 1

We learnt about a man called Samuel Pepys and wrote some questions to find out more information!

We looked at some images and thought about what we already know about the Great Fire of London.

We made a timeline of different toys throughout the years!

Titanic home learning

A big thank you to all our families that have helped create some art work based on the Titanic. We were blown away by all your efforts.

Who will be king? History in 1066

In History this week, we looked at what happened to the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings. We learnt about what happened up to 1066 then the fight for power between 4 potential kings. We split up into Edgar Atheling, Harold Godwinson, Harald Hadrada and William Duke of Normandy. We had a very lively discussion about why they think they should be king and debated against the other teams. The children were brilliant and Edgar Atheling was our class winner (even though in the past it was originally Harold Godwinson then William Duke of Normandy).

Records from the past!

We really enjoyed looking at the old school logbooks last week. There was even an old trophy!

Ancient Greece: Sketches of Zeus

We have started our new history topic of Ancient Greece and for few minutes this afternoon, we had a go at sketching Zeus.

150 years of Smithdown

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Our 150 years school celebration picnic

This afternoon we had a fantastic time celebrating and eating delicious food with all of our families at school.

150 Year Celebration

What a lovely picnic this afternoon! A big, huge thank you to all children, parents and staff for all the work and effort everyone has put in for our 150 year celebration. Thank you everyone for coming to celebrate this afternoon.

150 Years of Smithdown!

We have loved learning about the history of our school since it was built in 1874. The past two weeks we have created timelines linked to the school’s History and the city of Liverpool, we have compared inspection reports from 1950 and 1964 with the present and we  created old and new collages of Smithdown\Chatsworth Street school images.

150 year celebration – art!

Just a snippet of our fantastic artwork from Chatsworth Street School in the past and what it looks like now.

150 Years!

Year 5 loved their workshop for 150 years and learning about the history of our local area.

Smithdown Treasure Hunt

We had a great walk around our school finding new and old parts of the buildings.

Smithdown Archive

Another group had the chance to look at our amazing artefacts!

Chatsworth v Smithdown

Year 3 recreated two very old pictures today. Another interesting look at the past of our school.

Smithdown P.S 150 Year Celebrations

In Reception we have been learning all about our school and it’s 150th birthday 🥳

We looked at old pictures of the children from our school – they were all in black and white.

We made a picture of Smithdown P.S to celebrate and printed with sponges using the school colours 🎨

Eid Al-Adha

Yesterday we celebrated Eid. They produced beautiful posters related to how Eid has changed over the last 150 years (linked to our 150th school celebration).

Smithdown Drama

We had AS Creative deliver a super session to link with our 150 years celebrations. Year 3 we’re looking at events through our school’s life, so in our session we focused on WWII. We did freeze frames to represent evacuation, rationing and the blitz. It was a great way to think about the children who would have experienced this event in our school in 1939-1945.

150 Years of Smithdown!

Thank you to AS Creatives for another great workshop all 150 years of Smithdown.

Smithdown’s 150 Years Celebration

Making school cake

Today we enjoyed measuring the ingredients together and making school cake to celebrate our schools 150th birthday.🎁 🎈 🎉

150 Years Celebrations

In Reception we have talked about how our school building is 150 years old. We’ve looked at old photographs of the building and have drawn pictures of our school using photographs.

Collage

We have been looking at the features of our school building and creating a collage using various shapes.

Treasure hunt !

We have been hunting for key features of our school building that is now 150 years old.

Charcoal Chatsworth

Amazing skills practised by Year 3 today! Continuing with our 150 year celebration, we used charcoal to create an image of our school from the 1960s.

Timeline of events

We have worked super hard to create a scaled timeline of events in Liverpool and our school from 1874 to 2025. We added in things like when our school was created, the blitz in Liverpool, boys and girls merged in school and when our local mosque was built.

To celebrate 150 years of our school, Year 1 have made our school using Lego and blocks.

In Year 1, we have been comparing toys from 1874 to now and looking at how they are different.

To celebrate our school turning 150 years, we have been looking at toys and how they are different from 1874 to now.

Smithdown Archives

We went to our “Smithdown Archive” today to look at the log books from Chatsworth Street School. Some of the books are nearly as old as our school so we took extra care looking at them.

We have been busy baking school cake to celebrate our schools 150 year old birthday.

Recreating maypole dancing from 1936.

150 years!

Our school is now over 150 years old! To celebrate, we are dedicating some work this week to look at our school through time and what events have happened during its time. We started off our week by looking at photos of “Chatsworth Street School” and the area around our school. Everyone was so excited and had lots of questions about our school.

We have been on a scavenger hunt looking at the historical features of our School.

We have started our School’s 150 year celebration by creating a collage of our beautiful building.

150 Years of Smithdown

Today, year 3 looked at a range of pictures and documents from our school, that are up to 150 years old. We discussed some of the events that have occurred over the last 150 years in Liverpool and plotted these on a timeline. We were all amazed at the changes in our school over the years, 📖🕵️‍♂️🔎✏️🏫

Martin Mere Viking Trip

Martin Mere Viking day!

We absolutely loved going to Martin Mere for our immersive Viking experience. We took part in weaving, foraging, thatching and defending the village.

VE Day

Reception made flags today to mark VE Day.

What was life like as a local Victorian?

We used freeze frame and role play to show our learning based on the Victorians. This was our final lesson about the Victorian era.

What happened in the Victorian Era?

Using drama and freeze frame we demonstrated significant events/ information from the Victorian Era: Irish families escaping the potato famine, a Victorian classroom, the invention of the Steam Train and living in a workhouse.

In Year 1, we have been learning all about Kitty Wilkinson and other famous figures who have been inspirational and helped change how we live. We have learnt so much!

Superstar in Year 5! 🌟

This amazing piece of work was all done at home about WW2! I was so impressed with the amount of knowledge there was about so many different aspects of the war. SUPER WORK!

WW2 Workshop

Today we had a visitor in to teach us about WW2. We trained to become special volunteer police officers and followed commands given in the war. We looked at Erie facts and even had time to role play.

Year 1 have been learning all about Kitty Wilkinson. We discovered how she helped create the first wash house and how people used to clean clothes!

Victorian Census Study

We explored the 1851 census before exploring life for the poor in Victorian Liverpool.

Retrieval Practice

This half term we are learning about the Victorians, but we don’t want to forget what we have learnt about our previous topic on the ancient civilisation of Baghdad. So, we played a game called Quiz, Quiz, Trade. This game involves asking questions  to see how much we have remembered. We did really well!

What was the impact of the Industrial Revolution?

In groups we compared an artist’s depiction of an area in Britain in the 1830s to how it had changed by
the 1890s. We discovered the changes in landscape were due to the Industrial Revolution. We then learnt about 7 key changes and ordered them by importance using a diamond nine activity.

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What is our mystery object?

In groups we investigated a mystery object. What was it? What was it used for? Who would have owned and used it?

Prime Minster Chamberlain’s announcement – WW2

Today we used freeze frames to think about how people might have felt during the announcement of WW2. We looked at the different reactions in our book ‘Goodnight Mr Tom’ and compared different emotions.

Ancient Civilisations – AS Creatives

Thank you to AS Creatives for our workshop this afternoon focusing on Ancient Civilisations.

Year 4 Early Civilisations Workshop

We had the best morning using drama to learn about early civilisations, with a focus on Baghdad (Early Islamic Civilisations).

Goodnight Mr Tom- our new English book

Yesterday we looked at clues for our new book ’Goodnight Mr Tom’. We wrote predictions and today we discussed evacuations from cities to the countryside and arguments for and against. We invited in Mrs Ridley to walk down our ‘conscience alley’ to hear our reasons.  

Amazing Roman inspired mosaics by Year 4

Palaeolithic Stone Age

We made art that we would find in Palaeolithic caves. We worked together and made our caves walls as realistic as we could.

We Won! Well, the suffragettes did!

Reaching the end of our unit, we learnt how the voting situation changed for women. Those courageous ladies achieved their aim and helped shape society today.

Stone Age Workshop

Year 3 had a lovely afternoon learning even more about the Stone Age and being able to hold a variety of artefacts including, animal bones, types of rock, pictures and even seeing how people during the Stone Age created fire!

Archaeologist Visit

We had an amazing visit from a local archaeologist, Dr Hill, who brought with him so many artefacts from the Stone Age and Bronze Age. We had time to look at stone axes, arrow heads, tools and weapons made from bone and so much more!

5JH Lion dance to celebrate the Lunar new year! 🐲

We had an amazing afternoon in our lion dancing workshop. Happy Lunar New Year!

Running stitch

We all practised our binca running stitch so that we are ready to create our 150 year celebratory bunting.

Who was Al- Zahrawi and what did he achieve?

Yesterday we used pictorial artefacts to investigate a mystery person. We generated questions and then answered them using the internet. Finally some children were hot-seated in role.

Imagining we are cave people!

Today, year 3 mixed their history knowledge on the Palaeolithic cave people with their art skills by recreating cave art with charcoal. The children worked like our artist Laura McKendry  and completed a group activity on the floor. This allowed them to work on a bigger scale and move around their work.

Palaeolithic Cave Art

We all collaborated to create cave art using charcoal. Combining art skills and history knowledge means amazing work!

Who was Emmeline Pankhurst?

We have been finding out exactly this! Along with research and presentation, some of us sketched our own pictures of Emmeline too!

Suffragists and Suffragettes… what’s the difference?

This is the question we are investigating in History this week …

Our new book… Hidden Figures

We have looked through all our clues for our upcoming book… Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly. We will be discussing new vocabulary such as racism, segregation, civil rights, controversy and many more!

In History, we have been looking at old toys. We had fun playing with them and thinking about how toys have changed!

Transatlantic slave trade

Today we looked at different pictures of artefacts in museums around the world and how they were used during the transatlantic slave trade. We discussed the life of an enslaved person and the hardships they faced.

Extra work at home!

Some incredible examples of extra work done at home. I have loved seeing how passionate we are about negative numbers, Olaudah Equiano and Roman numeral – keep it up, we love proudly displaying your work!

International Slavery Museum trip

Yesterday we had a great time at the International Slavery Museum. We had a workshop in the ‘legacies of the transatlantic slave trade’ and then had time to explore the museum with our task sheets. 

We learnt all about Remembrance Day and made some poppies to help us remember❤️

Remembrance Day

Remembrance Day

We did our one minute silence. After, we used our sketching skills to create some Remembrance Day artwork.

Some completed pencil poppy sketches

Some of this work is stunning!

Remembrance Day 2024

11:00 11.11.2024

Huge respect in our class to recognise the soldiers that have fallen in the past. We did a minute silence in the morning and then created amazing poppy art work based on our art topic ‘painting with scissors’ in the afternoon.

Amazing homework!

Superstar 🌟sisters! Both have done work at home based on their current topics 👏. Well done guys.

Remembrance Day Poppy Art

After learning about Remembrance Day and importance of the symbol of the poppy, we had time to sketch our own poppies using pencil and oil crayons.

We have been busy making poppy art and poppy biscuits today to mark Remembrance Day.

Painting with scissors

We used our skills and techniques we have been practising by replicating how Henri Matisse created his art. We applied this method to our Ancient Egyptian topic in History.

Marking Remembrance Day with poppy biscuits and poppy art.

A day in the life of a Roman soldier 🛡️

Deva Roman Experience

Year 4 had “the best day ever” in Chester. We experienced life as a Roman soldier and learnt more about the Roman invasion in Britannia.

3TS trip for Ancient Egypt

Year 3 had a wonderful day exploring the museum and looking at the different artefacts from ancient Egyptian history. We walked the length of the River Nile and spoke about the process of mummification. We also watched some of our friends become Pharos!

A great trip to the museum!

Year 3 had an amazing day at the Liverpool Museum. We gained so much knowledge about Ancient Egypt which will help as we continue to study this topic in our history lessons. Mohammed, Azad and Banu dressed up as embalmers and they mummified a fake Egyptian body. It was a great opportunity for the children to learn all about this and step back in time. 😊

Applying Painting with Scissors

Year 3 had a great afternoon applying their painting with scissors skills to some Ancient Egyptian paintings. We discussed the pictures and what we could see, using our art vocabulary. We then had the challenge of focusing on a small part of these images and then had to recreate this.

How did Rome begin?

Being an archaeologist!

Year 3 all had a go at being an archaeologist and excavating some ancient Egyptian artefacts – just like Howard Carter!

We became ARCHAEOLOGISTS

WOW what an exciting afternoon! In history, the children learnt about Howard Carter and how he excavated ancient remains. The children then put their excavation skills to the test and uncovered some artefacts. They had great fun 🤩

Black History Month ‘24

Some AMAZING entries for the Merseyside Police competition! Children have worked hard creating lovely pieces of work with great messages as well. Well done to everyone who has submitted already. Last day tomorrow (Friday 13th September).

Year 4 History Enquiry

Year 4 generated questions and predicted events around Roman artefacts.

Historical Enquiry – The Romans 🏺🏛️

Year 3 History

Today we have recapped living memory and beyond living memory in History from year 1 and 2 topics.

Greek Pottery

We are starting to learn about all the different styles, colours, shapes and uses of Ancient Greek pottery here in Y6.

Ancient Greek School Posters

After learning about life in Ancient Sparta and Athens, we researched Greek schools and what would be taught in each. Following this, we presented our information in a poster ./ information page format. Hope you like them!

5EHD Martin Mere trip

Year 5 had a fantastic time learning about Anglo Saxon and Viking daily life in Martin Mere. We learned how to weave, fight in battle, make a thatched roof and forage for medicine and food in the woods

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Bell Beaker Pottery

Super work creating our Bronze Age Bell Beaker pots. We created a similar shape and added patterns to them.

We had a good afternoon discussing how housing had changed and improved over time and what Bronze Age Roundhouses would have looked like.

We looked at how people from the Bronze Age would have mined for copper and tin to create their tools and weapons. We acted out this process.

Year 4 had a great day at the Deva Roman experience in Chester!! They even walked around as Roman soldiers!!

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The Smithdown Romans!

What a great day we had in Chester at the Deva Experience! We marched the streets of Chester and learned lots of interesting facts about the Roman Empire.

The History of Telling The Time for Science Week

We combined science with history with our TIME topic and looked at how tools to tell the time have changed over the years. We created a timeline of discoveries and measured out our own sundials with our protractors.

What an exciting afternoon! We had an archaeologist join us to show us artefacts from the Stone Age. We really enjoyed learning more about our topic and demonstrating all of our knowledge we have gained so far.

This superstar made a spear that may have been used in the Stone Age to hunt various animals at home.

Super visit to Calderstones and the Storybarn today! We explored how Stone Age people would have lived using the land and trees around them. We also had the chance to see the Calder Stones that were over 4,800 years old.

Expressive Collages! Titanic Art

We worked hard in art today to make expressive collages of the Titanic.

We have combined our knowledge of Palaeolithic cave art with skills and techniques acquired from Laura McKendry.

WWII Liverpool Skyline ‘The Blitz’ Scenes

We created our own versions of the Liverpool skyline one night during The Blitz in World War Two.

Using historical sources

We read some accounts of evacuation during WW2, comparing content and explaining what information and evidence each source provided.

Where did Ibn Battuta travel?

We have been investigating our first explorer Ibn Battuta in Year 2. We researched the countries he visited and how he travelled today.

What was operation Pied Piper?

We have been looking at evacuation and it’s impact on children during the war – we examined some sources and discussed what they were and their intentions!

Remembrance Day 2023

Year 2 have made remembrance poppies today

2GH made some beautiful poppies to help us remember today.

Remembrance Day

For Remembrance Day, we read the poem ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ and after discussing the content, we embellished the poem with images of poppies.

Remembrance Day

We have created some beautiful poems after reading Flanders Fields and used watercolours/charcoal/pencils to create some poppy artwork to mark Remembrance Day.

Using Henri Matisse’s style, painting with scissors, Year 3 created poppies to show their respect for all the people who have lost their lives and our thoughts for their families.

How and Why did WW2 Start?

We have started our WW2 topic by exploring who was involved, how it began and why. We made a double page spread to answer our enquiry!

4KM had a great history lesson this afternoon learning all about the Victorian classrooms…

4KM had a great history lesson this afternoon learning all about the Victorian classrooms and comparing them to modern day classrooms. The children finished off the lesson with some role play of learning in a Victorian classrooom!! #smithdownhist

What ancient Egyptians believed about death?

What ancient Egyptians believed about death? We used role play to become priests that would have preserved bodies and prepared them for being buried. We washed, pulled organs out, placed the body in salt, embalmed the body and then placed it into a coffin. #smithdownhist

Fun learning about mummification in History!

This afternoon, 3KM have had so much fun learning about mummification in History! #smithdownhis #smithdownyr3

What an exciting afternoon excavating some Ancient Egyptian artefacts!

What an exciting afternoon excavating some Ancient Egyptian artefacts! We all became archaeologists and discovered things like Howard Carter. We found some things that may have belonged to Tutankhamen. ⚰️?? #smithdownhist

Year 3 have had fun being Archaeologists this afternoon!

Year 3 have had fun being Archaeologists this afternoon! We have been using a picking tool to remove the dirt, look at what we discovered! ? #smithdownhis #smithdowny3

What a week it has been already!

What a week it has been already! Year 3 children have settled in so well and demonstrated their maturity and attitude towards their work. They could remember lots of their previous learning in History. They could organise events into living memory and beyond. #smithdownhist