We’ve had a super week with lots happening.  On Thursday we celebrated World Book Day by dressing up as our favourite book characters and took part in lots of fun activities throughout the day;  such as, cartoon making, telling stories through music and taking part in a treasure hunt. 

Today was a day we’ve been looking forward to for a while as well – our class visit to the Verulamium Museum in St Albans to find out more about Roman life in Britain and what kind of legacy the Romans left behind.  We took part in a special Market workshop where we dressed as both Romans and Celts. We then divided into groups and were given a list of artefacts to find on different market stalls.  There was a stall which sold pottery, another sold iron work, another sold clothing and jewellery and the final one sold food. We had to try and match the object to its description and then show the rest of the class and see if we were correct. We learnt that Romans covered food in salt to preserve it because there were no fridges, they designed a special woollen cloak (called a birrus Britannicus) to keep them warm because they found Britain such a cold and wet place and they invented a frying pan with a folding handle which Roman soldiers used as they travelled around the country.  We found out that many things the Romans used are still in use today like a plumb line to measure straight walls and a manicure set complete with tweezers because Romans liked to keep clean.  Many fruits and vegetables were introduced to Britain by the Romans too which led to a big improvement in people’s diets.   We also looked around the Museum’s displays of artefacts and were fascinated by the intricate mosaic floors, the tiny ear scoops used to clear the wax out of Roman ears and, of course, the skeletal remains of some Romans displayed in their ornate coffins.  We even used our scientific skills to recognise some of the bones!  In the afternoon we were able to visit an excavation site a little way from the Museum to see what Roman remains had been uncovered.  We were shown what the different levels looked like and contained as the archaeologists dug down through the soil; from 20^th century finds like Lego to 18^th century clay pipes and then to Roman tiles (called tesserae) used in the construction of floors. It was a fascinating day for all of us and was a lovely way to consolidate our understanding of the Romans in Britain.

Congratulations to our Stars of the week and to our Learner too.

We hope you have a lovely weekend and look forward to seeing you next week.

Best wishes

Mrs Howard, Miss Cicero and Mrs Mills