Lesson video

Hello there and welcome to today's history lesson.

I'm Mr. Moss.

I'm really passionate about history and I'm also really looking forward to teaching you.

With you today, you need to bring your looking eyes, your listening ears, and your thinking brains.

As well as that, having something to write with and write on and someone or something to talk to would also be really helpful.

Alright, then let's get straight into today's history lesson.

In this history lesson, we're going to be looking at how Polynesian explorers travelled and navigated.

The outcome will be, I can describe how the early Polynesians sailed across the ocean.

So, let's look at some of the key words that are going to be really important in today's lesson.

My turn, your turn.

Make sure I can hear you saying these back to me.

Seafarer.

Navigate.

Hull.

Sail.

Great job.

Thank you for saying those back to me.

Let's talk about what each of these mean then.

A seafarer is a person who often travels by sea.

You can see that word sea within it, and I mean sea as in the ocean.

It's waves here.

Navigate.

When people navigate, they control where the boat is going.

The navigator is the person in charge of choosing the direction in which something is going.

And the early Polynesians were excellent navigators.

We're going to be considering how they navigated later in this lesson.

We'll also be going to be looking at some Polynesian boats, and we're gonna be looking at two parts in particular, the hull and the sail.

A boat's hull is the stiff outer shell.

The hull, the main body of the boat.

And a sail is a large piece of cloth attached to a boat that uses the wind to help the boat to move.

So it uses wind power to propel the boat forward.

As I said, keep an eye and an ear out for these keywords as they're really important in today's learning about the early Polynesian travellers and explorers.

So, we are going to be looking at how Polynesian explorers travelled and navigated.

We are going to begin by considering why and how did early Polynesian people travel.

Then we're going to look at how did early Polynesian explorers navigate? How did they find their way? How did they safely navigate the seas and oceans and find what they were looking for? Let's get on with considering why and how did early Polynesian people travel? So you may have been wondering what is Polynesia? Can you say that for me? Polynesia.

Here we have a map of Polynesia.

There are five oceans on earth and the Polynesian islands are found in the Pacific Ocean.

Can you say that for me? Pacific Ocean.

Notice a triangular shape here.

It's often called the Polynesian Triangle.

It's a group of islands, about a thousand islands in total that make up Polynesia.

Poly, meaning many.

So, many islands.

If you look carefully, it includes places like New Zealand, Tonga, Samoa, Hawaii, the Cook Islands, Tahiti, and Easter Island.

And as we said, it's found in the huge and large Pacific Ocean.

It's a vast, vast space that this map doesn't do full justice to.

They're very spread out with huge, vast expanses of water between them.

This is the Pacific Ocean here, the white on the map, the surrounding body of water.

So, the Polynesian Islands are found in the Atlantic Ocean, Arctic Ocean, or Pacific Ocean? Complete that sentence for me.

Off you go.

Great job team.

You've clearly been paying attention.

The Polynesian islands are found in the Pacific Ocean.

And remember there are about a thousand islands or so and they cover that triangular region, the Polynesian triangle.

So as you can see, there are lots of small islands in Polynesia and it covers a huge amount of space.

Early Polynesian explorers travelled from island to island to meet and swap things they needed like food.

Remember, humans need certain things for survival, don't they? Food, water, shelter, safety.

These early Polynesians were not unlike any other early humans.

They needed these things to survive and when they couldn't find them on the islands they were on, they had to travel and trade with islanders from other islands across this huge expanse.

This meant that they had to become master navigators and travellers of the ocean.

How do you think they travelled then, from island to island? How do people travel on water and across seas and oceans now? Pause the video and have a think.

Brilliant.

I loved your thinking there and some of the conversations that I could hear you having.

Of course, they weren't walking across the water.

They were most likely travelling by some form of boats, weren't they? We know that early humans across the globe had access to building canoes and early boats in order to travel across the water and explore.

They used boats called.

My turn, your turn.

Canoes.

And here we can see an image, an illustration of one early Polynesian seafarers on a canoe.

Our seafarers are the two people that we can see here who are sea travellers, people who are expert travellers across the sea.

And you can see the canoe is quite advanced, isn't it? It's more advanced than say the Pesse canoe, which was found in Europe, which was a carved out hollowed tree trunk.

This is a slightly more advanced canoe.

If we look carefully, we can spot some of its features.

Take some time now to look carefully at this image.

What can you spot? Perhaps think about some of our key words like hull, seafarer, or sail.

Pause the video now.

Brilliant.

So, people who often travel by sea are called.

My turn, your turn.

Seafarers.

They are farers of the sea.

They are travellers of the sea.

And the early Polynesian travellers were seafarers.

In order to move from island to island, they had to become expert travellers across the sea and ocean.

So, people who often travel by sea are known as landfarers.

True or false? Off you go.

Good job team.

This is absolutely false, isn't it? I wonder if we can justify why you said false here then.

Hmm.

People who often travel by sea are called landfarers.

Let's read two justifications and see which one we agree with.

Early Polynesians are known as seafarers because they travel by sea.

Or B, ancient British tribes are known as seafarers because they travelled by sea.

Hmm.

Which one is justification for us? Think about what we've been learning about and the area of the world we've been learning about too.

Pick from A or B now.

Off you go.

Good job.

Absolutely.

We've been looking at the early Polynesians, the people that lived in these thousand or so islands in the Polynesian Triangle in the Pacific.

They were seafarers because they travelled by sea.

Landfarers would be people that lived on land and travelled by land.

And we haven't been learning about ancient British tribes today.

We've been looking at the Polynesian, early Polynesian people who travelled by sea in their canoes and we're now gonna spend a bit more time looking at their canoes.

So, the seafarers were very important people on the islands.

This is a really important fact for us to remember.

They were important and well respected on the islands, and we're going to think about why that is.

Some people had an important job to navigate the boats and by navigate, that was to decide the direction they should go in to successfully get from one place to another to safely transport the boat.

They had to find the right way to go.

These people were therefore very important.

The reason they were so important is because the boats were used to get things like fresh water, food, so that people on different islands could live happily and safely and with the things that they needed to survive.

So therefore, seafarers and in particular navigators were incredibly important people in Polynesia at this time.

The Pacific Ocean is vast, it's incredibly large, and the weather can also change very quickly.

It can get incredibly dangerous and stormy.

So small canoes were not strong enough for early Polynesian seafarers.

A simple hollowed out canoe like the Pesse canoe found in Europe, would not have done very well in the Pacific Ocean waters.

So we can see that they developed these more advanced canoes.

And we can see from this illustration what these canoes were like.

We can see two hollowed out holes and then a space for the seafarers to move around on and store goods.

And as well as that, a sail to capture the winds to travel more rapidly and safely.

So, I'd like you now to pick the two statements that are true from here.

Polynesian seafarers did not swap items they needed.

Hmm.

Tiny canoes were strong enough in the Pacific Ocean.

Polynesia is made up of lots of small islands.

It was an important job to navigate the boat.

Read the statements again and pick the two statements that are true, are correct.

Off you go.

Good job team.

So A says Polynesian seafarers did not swap items they needed.

This is not true.

We know that the islanders, the seafarers in Polynesia would travel between islands and trade and swap goods that they needed in order to live and survive.

B says, tiny canoes were strong enough in the Pacific Ocean.

This is not true either.

Polynesia is made up of lots of small islands.

This is true.

Poly meaning many.

And it was an important job to navigate the boat.

Yes, early Polynesian explorers and seafarers, the navigators in particular, played a very important role as they were able to safely find the things that the Polynesians needed and navigate the boat from place to place.

So early Polynesians created strong boats that had two hulls, so two parts, two main bodies to the boat attached together to make them less likely to roll over into the sea.

So they created really, really strong canoes that had two parts to them.

They had sails attached and lots of space for people and items in the hull of the boat.

This was really helpful as it allowed them to bring items to and from the islands.

And the sails allowed them to harness the power of the wind on the sea so they could travel quickly and more efficiently.

So two key parts to the early Polynesian boats that we need to consider here, the hull and the sails.

In fact, we have two hulls, two stiff, main, strong body parts that could also support the seafarers and items and then the sails that they could use to harness the power of the wind.

So what I'd like you to do for me now is add labels for the hull and sail to the image of the early Polynesian boats that we can see here.

Here we have an illustration of early Polynesian seafarers, so people that travel by sea, on their canoe.

Could you add and label the hulls and also the sail? Do that for me now.

Off you go.

Brilliant job.

So hopefully you've got them labelled like this.

Our sail that's here that we know will be used to catch the wind.

And then we have a hull here, which is that hard stiff outer shell in which the seafarers could stand or sit and also items could be kept.

So, for our practise task now what I'd like us to do is to decide if each statement is talking about the hull or the sail of early Polynesian boats.

So think about the canoes and boats that we've looked at.

Is each statement talking about the hull, so that hard outer shell, or the sail, that piece of cloth that we use for catching the wind.

The statements are, two were join together to stop the boat rolling over and to give stability.

Used to carry lots of people, used to catch the wind to move the boat, used to store lots of swapped and traded items needed for the early Polynesian people and attached to the hull.

Pause now.

Say whether it's the hull or the sail.

Off you go.

Good job team.

You've clearly paid a lot of attention during this learning cycle and have a really good understanding of the different parts of these early Polynesian boats.

So let's have a look and see how you've done.

Your answers should have looked like this.

Two were join together to stop the boat rolling over.

These are the hulls, the two hulls.

Used to carry lots of people.

That would also be the hulls.

Used to catch the wind to move the boat.

This is the sail.

Used store lots of swapped or traded items. That's the hull.

And attached to the hull is our sail.

So check.

Did you manage to get those answers correct? Make any corrections now.

Off you go.

So, we've looked at where Polynesia was, where they lived and also how they travelled.

Now we are going to look in more detail about how early Polynesian explorers travelled successfully.

And in particular we're going to be thinking about how they navigated themselves, how they managed to get from one place to another safely.

So early Polynesian seafarers used clues from nature to help them to navigate.

Look at this illustration of a person using clues from nature to navigate.

What can you see in this picture that they could use to navigate? What things do you think the early Polynesians may have used? Pause the video now, look at the picture.

Have a think.

Great job.

Well, I can see the sun, I can see the land, the sea.

I can also see a bird from nature.

I can see some clouds, I can see some stars, and also someone holding their hand up.

I hope you managed to see those things as well.

So what did early Polynesian seafarers use to navigate? Computers, clues from nature or maps? Pause the video now and select the correct answer.

Great job.

While they didn't have computers then, actually we haven't taught you that they hadn't used maps either.

They used clues from nature.

And we're gonna be looking in more detail now about the types of clues from nature that they use to help navigate successfully.

So, early Polynesian explorers.

So, people moving between the Polynesian islands and going to unfamiliar new places.

Those seafarers studied the sun, clouds, the moon and the stars as well as animals, birds, and the movement of the water in the ocean.

So the waves of the sea as well.

They used these things, they studied them to help them successfully navigate through the Polynesian Triangle.

So I'd like you now to match the numbers on the image to the correct clues from nature used by early Polynesian seafarers, so the sea travellers.

We have one, two, three, and four, and you need to match them to the sun, birds, waves, and stars.

Do that for me now.

Off you go.

Good job team.

You've clearly been paying a lot of attention.

So let's see how you've done.

The sun was number one, birds was two, the waves was four, and the stars, moon, three.

Remember, these are the signs and clues from nature that the early Polynesian seafarers would used to successfully navigate.

Remember, these seafarers and navigators were extremely important in early Polynesian culture.

So for our practise task, what I'd like us sitting now is draw a picture of some of the natural things that Polynesian explorers used to help them navigate around the Pacific Ocean.

Remember, the Pacific Ocean could change very quickly and be quite a dangerous place as well as being very vast.

So these Polynesian explorers were incredibly clever navigators.

Remember, they could use the sun, the moon, and the stars, clouds, birds, and also sea creatures as well to help them navigate.

Can you add labels to your pictures too? When you finish, tell a partner what you have drawn and why.

Pause the video now.

Off you go.

Excellent job team.

I'm loving seeing these pictures, drawings and illustrations and the detailed labels that you've added to them.

So, you could have included, and here's an example, you may have drawn a person using their hand to navigate and looking up at the stars.

My picture is of someone using the stars in the night sky to navigate.

I drew this one because I love stargazing.

Perhaps you drew the waves in the ocean.

Perhaps you drew some animals from nature such as birds.

Perhaps you drew the sun and the clouds.

Great job.

Remember, early Polynesian explorers, seafarers and navigators used signs and clues from nature to help them successfully navigate around the Pacific Ocean.

This was incredibly important as it allowed these people from these various islands to trade and swap goods in order for them to survive and live.

Great job in history today, team.

We've been looking at how Polynesian explorers travelled and navigated.

Early Polynesian explorers were seafarers, so people who travelled by sea, because they travelled by boat between many small islands in the Pacific Ocean.

Early Polynesian seafarers built strong canoes with a hull and a sail that could handle long ocean journeys.

Early Polynesian seafarers navigated using clues from nature.

These clues included the stars, the moon, the sun, sea animals and birds, and the direction of the waves and tides.

Keep up the great history and I'll see you again soon.