Base 5 do history week!

We love history!
Watch the reaction when you say to Base 5 that; 'The Ancient Greeks weren't really important and don't matter to us and our current lives at all'! Oh – how they disagree and they can tell you many reasons why! Would you like to know what is the top of their list as to why they are important?
Words.
They are most enraged with the statement because they know we use hundreds of their words every single day. And we are rather obsessed with words. Without the Ancient Greeks, Marloe said, there would be no prologues in books -how many stories would that ruin?
Our enquiry started by investigating a range of sources and looking at what these could tell us about the people from the time. We looked at maps, which suggested that this civilisation would have been seafaring people- travelling to lots of islands and with this there was probably trade. We also considered the climate and what impact this may have had on the people who lived there. We discovered that the first Ancient Greek civilisation had to battle with earthquakes and wildfires (which also led to a debate about climate change currently). We looked at some coins, this told us that not only did they have an advanced currency system linked to trade but that they also had to skills to mould metal and make intricate designs – there must have been skilled craftsmen and a range of tools to do this. The children also suggested that they may have had mines- digging for these precious metals and , if they did, there was the possibility that slaves were used. The children knew that there were slaves in this time as, after investigating democracy, they knew that 'free men' made the decisions- this in itself suggested there were slaves – men who weren't free.
As with all our history sessions, our enquiry gave us many answers but also left us with more questions and because of this further enquiries are now planned!
I finish this with a request- if you see anyone from Base 5, just suggest that the Ancient Greeks are just an ancient civilisation and just don't matter to us at all- I can promise you that you will learn something from their response.