Today we were set the challenge of finding how much we know about the 1940s and the 1970s.

Firstly, each group was given a huge sheet of paper on which we had to write everything we knew about the 1940s. We discovered we knew quite a lot of facts because we have studied some aspects of World War 2 over the past year. We also decided that we have probably gained some knowledge of this period through watching documentaries, reading books, watching films, using the internet and listening to stories our Grandparents have told us.

Some of the things we already knew about the 1940s are:-

• World War Two took place between 1939 and 1945.



• No Olympic games took place during the Second World War.
  


• Jacqueline Wilson was born in the 1940s.
  


• Spam was a popular food in the 1940s due to rationing.



• Lots of people grew their own food in gardens or allotments and kept their own pigs and chickens too.
  


• Enid Blyton was a popular children's author during the 1940s.
  


• Rationing carried on long after the war had ended.
  


• Run Rabbit was a popular song during the war.

Next we were given another sheet of paper and had to write down everything we knew about the 1970s. Most of us found this harder. We think that we got most of our knowledge of the 1970s from TV, films and stories from our parents and teachers, as most of them remember the 1970s.

Some of the things we knew about the 1970s are:-

• Grease was probably the most famous musical of the decade.


• ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest.
  
• Elvis died.
  
• The war in Vietnam ended.


• Fast Food became popular through chains like Wimpy.
  

We then had to think of some questions we would like to ask about these two decades.

Over the next few weeks we will try to find out more about the 1940s and 1970s and look at the differences in people's lives during these two decades.