Egyptian Homework Projects

Here are some of the beautiful pieces of homework that have been brought in to school over the past few weeks. The children have clearly enjoyed spending their time making these Egyptian artefacts and learnt lots along the way. There are also many pieces of written work on display in the classroom, so please do pop in and have a look at them all.

Earl Soham Museum

The amazing array of artefacts produced by children in years 3-5 during activity week is now available for viewing on the school website. Earl Soham Museum will remain available via a link on the Resources page of the website. You can also follow the direct link below to access the site.

Earl Soham Museum

We hope you enjoy looking at the fantastic finds and ancient artefacts on display.

A Grand Day Out - Ipswich Museum, Christchurch Park & Mansion

Earlier today the school went on a day trip to Ipswich. We started in the museum during the morning. There was so much to see and do as you can hopefully see from the photographs...

Then we walked to Christchurch Park for a picnic lunch (summer had finally arrived) and then a period of energetic fun in the adventure playground.

Custard Cream Pyramids!

Following last week's attempts to build a giant pyramid out of shoe-boxes, we drew on our new-found expertise this afternoon, and attempted to build some rather smaller, but no less impressive, pyramids out of custard creams. 

We began with a 'dry run', stacking our biscuits to form pyramids, then mixed up our 'mortar' (buttercream icing) to stick it all together. 

Of course, the most satisfying thing about making pyramids out of custard creams is eating them immediately afterwards! Thankfully, there was just enough time to grab a photo of each finished pyramid with its creators, before they were demolished.

Thomas Mills Armada Day

Today year 5 and 6 headed off to Thomas Mills for a fantastic cross-curricular day all about the Tudors and, in particular, the Spanish Armada.

We were joined by pupils from Dennington Primary and divided into two groups by year group.

Year 5 began the day in the DT room, building a model of an Elizabethan English warship. In under two-hours, the children were able to create a superb model, using a range of tools that are not available to them at primary school.

Meanwhile, the year six pupils learnt about the Spanish Armada and how they met their downfall due to a combination of good English tactics and superior ships and weapons, mistakes on the part of the Spanish, and most importantly, the good old British weather!

This was followed by a maths session in which the children played a board game. Their aim was to successfully sail their ships (this time in role as a Spanish flotilla) from Spain to the Spanish Mainland to collect Aztec and Incan treasure for King Phillip.

After lunch the groups swapped over and completed the other activities. It was, as usual, an excellent day that all of the children (and staff) thoroughly enjoyed.

Yellow Class Visit to Cambridge Museum of Classical Archaeology

Despite being apprehensive of the weather yesterday, today dawned kindly and we were able to set off to Cambridge for our postponed museum trip.  On arrival we were met by Jacqui, the Museum's Education Officer, who very quickly inspired the children with her enthusiasm.
She gave us an initial introduction, and was really surprised by the amount of  information the children already knew about the myths and characters in them. The children were then give time to just look, no writing or drawing. We came back together to discuss what they'd found, and again she was impressed by their observations. There followed an activity where the children had to form statues as part of a pediment - the top of a temple. Then some of them imitated some of the statues around them for their friends to guess which one. (Some were much easier to copy than others!)
Next we went off in small groups to look in more detail at some of the themes running through the exhibits, which included Athletes, Fighting, Colour, Gods and Goddesses, and of course the mighty Herakles.

We finished our visit by hearing the story of  Perseus and Medusa and found out why Athena has a Gorgon's head on her breastplate.
After a short walk into town, and lunch, we popped into the Fitzwilliam Museum briefly whilst waiting for the coach, to look at their collection of greek pottery. I think, parents, that many of you may be being asked to take your children back to Cambridge in the holidays as there was so much more to see but no time!
All in all a good day, endorsed by the fact that the museum curator congratulated the children on their enthusiasm, knowledge and understanding of the subject for ones so young. Well done Yellow class!

Gods' Argument: An animation

The following feature film was produced as part of a homework project during our topic on the Romans. I thought it was a fantastic piece of work and wanted to share it with everyone. Please leave a comment for the Year 5 boy who produced it. I'm sure he will be thrilled to hear what you have to say about his work.

Romans and Greeks Day

On Thursday we celebrated the culmination of our half-term's work on Romans in Blue Class, and Greeks in Yellow Class, with an activity day, in which the children were invited to dress as an Ancient Roman or Greek.

In the morning in Blue Class, we prepared a range of Roman recipes which were taken from the E2BN Cookit! website's History Cookbook. We worked in groups to produce a range of foods (most of which seemed to contain honey) including Bean and Chickpea Salad, Dates Alexandrine, Cucumeres, Tiger Nut Sweets and Honey Cake.

In the afternoon, we dressed up and took in in turns to be slaves, handing around the food to our wealthy masters and mistresses, who were lounging on the floor in true Roman style.

The banquet was followed by some Gladiatorial bouts using the shields, swords and armour that many of us had made for homework (with strict instructions not to actually cause each other any bodily injuries!)

With adrenaline pumping we then set off to the hall where it was finally time to test the trebuchets we had been building in groups. Our target was the fort we produced last week, the ultimate test against marauding hordes!

We were then treated to some Greek Tragedies: a collection of short plays based on Greek myths, performed by Yellow Class. 

Thank you to all the parents who produced the lovely costumes to make this such a special day. We had a fantastic time!

VCOP: Boudicca

In our VCOP sessions this week we have been writing about Boudicca. The children started with three simple sentences, without any punctuation:

boudicca wanted revenge

she got an army

they marched on camulodunum londinium and verulamium

During the week the children focused on a different element of writing each day: 

• firstly adding more interesting vocabulary (V)
• then joining sentences with connectives (C)
• varying the start of their sentences by using openers (O) 
• finally ensuring that they had used a range of punctuation (P).

Here are two of the resulting pieces of writing, which I think are just fantastic.

Boudicca greatly desired revenge, and she longed for it more than life itself. This was because, when the Romans came to collect the taxes that the Iceni were paying, Boudicca refused. Violently, they assaulted her daughters, and whipped and beat her until her tribe paid the taxes. However, although she was a fierce and powerful woman, I believe she was probably one of the greatest of the few Celtic queens.

Soon after, she created a strong army of Celtic soldiers and warriors, carefully selected from the Iceni tribe, of which Boudicca was queen. She became queen after her husband (Prasutagus) died from an unknown illness. Eventually, they started heading towards three of the many major Roman cities: Camolodunum, Londinium, and Verulamium, seeking   violent revenge every step of the way...

But, unfortunately, when they were marching, they met a legion of Roman soldiers. Seeing that her army were greatly outnumbered, Boudicca drank deadly poison to avoid suffering the pain that the Romans would inflict upon her.

By Jasmine


After the sad death of Prasutagus (Boudicca’s husband) Boudicca refused to pay the taxes to the Romans. Boudicca got humiliated in front of her tribe, so she demanded a violent revenge on the Roman army.

Insulted, she recruited an army of powerful Celtic warriors to vanquish the Roman foe.

Fearsomely, they marched on the following cities: Camulodunom, Londinium and Veralamium (also know as Colchester, London and St Albans).

Boudicca’s reign of terror ended when her diminished army met a large legion of Roman soldiers. She knew that she would be beaten, so she killed herself by drinking some deadly poison meaning that the Romans wouldn't have the pleasure of killing her.

By William

Building a Roman Fort

Over the last three weeks, we have been busy in Blue Class building our own Roman fort, based on Garrianonum (Burgh Castle) which we visited earlier in January.

First we studied the construction of the walls at Garrianonum, and produced designs of flint and tile on polystyrene, which we used to print a pattern for the walls of the fort.

We then cut out and folded the nets which Mr Mansell had designed to build the walls and turrets. Making the corners was quite tricky.

We each produced a building from a net, adding our own decoration based on research from books about the Romans. We made barracks for the soldiers to sleep and train in, granaries to store their food, and forums where they could meet and hold discussions and debates.

On Thursday afternoon we worked together to put all the pieces of wall together and planned the layout of the interior of the fort, using books to help us.

 We hope you like our finished fort. Our plan for next week is to complete the trebuchets we are making and test them against our fort! I wonder which will be the strongest?

If anyone would like to build their own Roman Fort and would like to use the nets, please contact me - I would be happy to share the plans. jamesmansell@earlsoham.suffolk.sch.uk

Romans Go Home!

Yesterday the children in Blue Class set off early to Great Yarmouth where we had a real treat in store for us at the Time and Tide Museum. The children met three historical figures: Lady Livia Fortunata, a Roman woman; her bodyguard and member of the Roman army, Titus Flavius; and a Celtic villager, Ketha. They spent some time with each of the three characters, who talked about their lives and tried to persuade the children to join them.

Lady Livia was encouraging the children to come back to Rome to be her servants where they would learn useful trades and live in a luxurious villa.

Titus Flavius taught them about life in the Roman army, introducing them to some of the weapons and drill.

And Ketha described a more sedate, free life as a Celtic villager, hoping to try and make friends with the marauding Saxons who kept attacking British shores.

At the end of the three sessions the children were given the chance to choose who they would join.

After lunch and a brief look around the museum, we set off to Burgh Castle, the site of the Roman Fort, Garrianonum. The children toured the site, trying to picture what life might have been like for the cavalry unit who were garrisoned there 1700 years ago.

We will be following up our trip back in school by attempting to build our own model of the fort in the coming weeks.

Bomb Blasts Blue Class!

During this morning's assembly Blue Class received a direct hit in an air raid. So unexpected was the raid that the sirens failed to sound and Mr Mansell was caught by the blast and knocked unconscious.

Much of the outside of the building was damaged.

"A scene of devastation met the children's eyes..."

A scene of devastation met the children's eyes as they returned to the classroom, expecting to start their literacy lesson. Much of the outside of the building was damaged, with bricks strewn across the ground, making entry to the classroom difficult. Inside the room, tables and chairs had been thrown around by the blast. 

Thankfully the teaching assistants quickly took charge of the situation and kept everyone calm. When Mr Mansell finally came round, and the gash on his head was cleaned up, the job of tidying up the mess began. 

"We were very lucky really," remarked Mr Pearce (headteacher). "The damage was all superficial and nobody was seriously injured. The children were very sensible and remained relatively calm in the circumstances."

Mrs Lander, a qualified first-aider, who was amongst the first on the scene, told us, "Mr Mansell bravely soldiered on in the true British spirit, despite receiving a nasty head wound." 

In spite of the damage and mess that the blast caused, everyone involved was determined not to let their spirits flag.

"If Hitler thinks sending his bombers over here will make us surrender he's another thing coming," said Mr Mansell. "He'll have to do better than that!"

Veteran Visit

Blue Class had the honour today of being visited by World War II veteran, Captain Albert Pond, tank commander with the Desert Rats. He spoke to the children about his experiences of war, fighting in the battle of El Alamein as a tank commander and taking part in the invasion of Italy. He talked of the blistering desert heat that he and his men had to endure, and explained why water is such a precious resource when you have so little available. He recounted the injuries he had sustained in duty and the problems they faced with flies, scorpions and dung beetles! He shared the story of how he came to possess a Hitler-Youth knife, given as a gift of thanks by a German Officer for an act of kindness towards his two young children.

His stories were both moving and interesting and the children were gripped by what he had to say. Through his words, the children were able to glimpse the stark realities of war and what it must have been like for those on the front line. We offer our most heart-felt thanks to Captain Pond for offering to share his memories with us, and for the difficulties he had to endure that we might be free from tyranny.

Blue Class Evacuated

Prior to the outbreak of war, children in Blue Class were evacuated to safety today. Over the weekend the pupils were asked to pack an overnight bag with essentials and come to school with a packed lunch.
When they arrived this morning there was some speculation as to what would be happening, but it wasn't until shortly before 9:30am that Mr Mansell explained that the children were to be evacuated to safety.

They were told that they would be spending a week at a school in Tolleshunt D'Arcy, effectively 'swapping' places with pupils from there. Mr Mansell told the children that they would walk down to the village green, where the coach would meet them, to take them to their new homes.

There was a mixture of feelings: some were understandably nervous and a little anxious, whilst others were excited at the prospect of something new.

The class set off, pausing briefly at the school gates to wave goodbye to their siblings who had come out to see them off. They then proceeded along the street and along to the road towards the village green.

The children were all very brave, and there were no tears, but there were certainly some relieved looks when Mr Mansell then explained that it was all made up and they wouldn't be going anywhere!

We followed up our 'evacuation' with some literacy work on diary writing about their experience, which will be continued this week.

I hope the children will all remember the experience for a long time and that it will be a tale they can tell their children in years to come!

Guy Fawkes Morning

To celebrate the capture of 'Guido' and the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot, Yellow Class spent the morning undertaking a variety of activities related to the event of 1605.

Children wrote poems...

Rockets were made...

Interactive quizes and firework safety activities were completed on the internet...

Children put the events surrounding the Gunpowder Plot in the correct order...

All-in-all, the children had a great time and learnt a fair bit about why we: 'Remember, remember the fifth of November'.

REMEMBER:

Fireworks are great to watch, but please be careful and follow the FIREWORK CODE:

Keep fireworks in a sealed box or tin

Use them one at a time, replacing the lid immediately

NEVER put fireworks in your pocket

Read the instructions carefully, using a torch or hand lamp NEVER use a naked flame

Light fireworks at arms length using a taper or firework lighter

Stand well back and NEVER return to a firework after it has been lit

NEVER throw fireworks

Keep all pets and animals indoors

Take care of sparklers, use gloves to hold them and dispose of sparklers in a bucket of water as soon as they are finished

Enjoy and stay safe