We have loved our History project learning about the Shang Dynasty so far because we have been real Historians finding out real facts about the past! We began our project with an archaeological dig, carefully brushing away the sands of time to extract artefacts from the past, using them to tell us about how people lived in Ancient China. Our inference skills were phenomenal, explaining so much about what the artefacts tell us, well done Year 5.

We then learnt more about one piece of evidence in particular, Oracle Bones. Oracle bones were discovered in the city of Yinxu and were a very important discovery as historians realised they not only proved the existence of the Shang Dynasty, but they were also evidence of the first form of writing in Ancient China! In order to understand them closer, we used the Shang alphabet to write our own questions to priests for answers and made some ourselves, very resilient year 5, well done.

This week, we have used our research skills to find out more about daily life in the Shang Dynasty and how life was different for different people. We were amazing analysts and discovered brilliant facts, such as some poor people actually dug out rocks to live in as a home, even underground! Using these great research and inference skills, we have also analysed how the Shang Army was so successful in battle. We were amazed to discover they had armies as large as 13, 000 men and they trained regularly, making the pretty formidable battle enemies!

We love being Historians in Year 5 and are excited to find out more next week!