Outstanding Historical Analysis in Year 6!

Year 6 have been working hard this week to develop their historical enquiry skills. They have been looking at sources of evidence from the Maya Civilisation to deduce information about their way of life. 

The children were able to make predictions and draw conclusions about the Maya ballgame "Pok-ta-Pok". It was brilliant to see the children asking questions and justifying any ideas they had. It was also great to see their understanding that no single source of evidence can give a full answer to questions about the past.

After the children had analysed the sources of evidence and drawn their own conclusions about the game, the rules were introduced to them. They were then able to compare "Pok-ta-Pok" to a modern day game of their choice. 

"I thought the game was related to basketball as looking at the pictures of the Maya ruins, I noticed that there were hoops on the wall. However, it was probably a bit more dangerous than basketball because they were wearing heavy armour." Josh

"I thought that it was quite a violent sport because someone was on the floor on the artefact (a vase) that we analysed and they were wearing what looked like heavy armour." Jonathan

The children then thought about what conclusions they could draw about the Maya civilisation as a whole from learning about this game. 

"This sport tells me that they were really skillful and they must have had a lot of patience because it took a long time for the ball to actually get in the hoop." Ira

" I think that they were a creative and intelligent civilisation because they thought carefully about what the game was and how to play it." Katie

Some excellent historical deducing, Year 6! Well done!