What a fabulous start to the half term we have had in Year 2, we have already squeezed in two trips one to North Melbourne Library and the other to Colchester Castle.

Last Tuesday on a very wet and miserable morning we set off to the library, the children were a real credit to Lawford Mead as they walked really sensibly despite the weather.  When we arrived at the library we all had to get our very wet and soggy coats and hats off before we could begin the activities.

Christina one of the librarians sat the children down and asked lots of questions to help us to understand what different services the library offered. After this we had time to explore the library finding different books, some of us with library cards could even borrow a book and take it home, we also had chance to do a book review for the library.

A little later Christina gathered us all together again and read us the story ‘I Want to be Famous’ which is a wonderful tale about a little snail, who is granted three wishes by his Fairy Godmother, but at the end he realises he is happy with who he is.

 

 

 

On Friday we had a most wonderful trip to Colchester Castle, again the children impressed all of the adults with their immaculate behaviour and some thoughtful questioning.

In Bonsai class we were met at the entrance to the castle by a Norman Knight who went by the name Sir John!  Sir John took us on a journey of discovery to find out what it was like to live in the castle 1000 years ago.  With Sir John’s help we broke through the castle walls, we looked into the water well where Sir John explained that in Norman times the people who attacked the castle would try to find the well so that they could poison the water supply by placing dead animals into the well.

   

 

A little while later we had the chance to ascend the spiral staircase. Sir John explained what it was like to be a knight guarding the castle on the stairs and why spiral stairs in castle always spiral in a clockwise motion.  Can you remember why?

 

Birch class also had a guided tour of the castle with Lady Holly, she took them up the spiral staircase too, which led them to the roof of the castle, here we tried to imagine what it was like 1000 years ago when you would have been able to see for miles and miles as the city of Colchester was then very small with only market stalls in the main street and a few houses which were surrounded by fields.

After our tour of the castle we had a chance to explore some of the exhibitions that were on display and this also gave us a chance to dress up in different costumes of the period.

 

During the day we also discovered a little more about life in the castle when we found out about how they wrote with feather quill ink pens, how they used different herbs and spices to make medicines.  In the classroom we also had an opportunity to see the different jobs that people had for example a blacksmiths job was not just to shoe horses but he also made anything that was made out of metal and used in the castle i.e. tableware and also armour for the knights.  It was the Lady of the Castle who looked after the herb garden and the carpenter made everything from wood including cups and jugs.

We had a little time in the castle shop where Miss Fretton and Mrs Saveall kindly bought us some books that we can share back in the classroom, we were also allowed to purchase a memento of our visit to Colchester Castle.

We had a little time left before we had to climb back onto the coach and return to school so we were allowed to once again explore some of the exhibitions, this time some of us tried our hand at chariot racing and also dressing up as village peasants.

Thank you Miss Fretton and Mrs Tuck for organising such a fantastic week.

Which was your favourite part of our first week back after the holiday?