Year 5’s topic for the summer term is ‘Xi’an and we have been looking at the reign of the first Emperor, Qin Shi Huang. The Emperor was responsible for the building of the terracotta warriors and in Flamingos we have studied why the warriors were built, as well as the techniques and materials used in building them. Last week the children practised making a warrior out of plasticine and this week we did the real thing, using clay. The children really enjoyed exploring the different ways that they could re-shape the clay, using both their hands and some tools, and they have produced some excellent sculptures.
As part of our Xi’an topic, we have also researched other aspects of Xi’an’s history, such as the ‘Silk Road.’ The whole of Year 5 recently played a trading game in which the children were put into groups and given a country or area to represent. Each group was then given 2 items from that country to trade with the other countries – China had silk and Persia had rugs, for example. The children were then challenged to trade their items with those from other countries and try to build their stock through good trades – we discussed that this was how trading took place along the Silk Road.
All of this learning on the history of Xi’an will make our residential trip to Xi’an in June all the more enjoyable!
By Danny Haden