Sedgwick museum

Last Friday we went to the Sedgwick Museum. It was the most awesome museum ever! It had lots of dinosaur fossils including some fossils that Mary Anning dug herself.

Mary Anning was a girl who earned her living by selling dinosaur fossils. When she was a  baby she was  struck  by lightning. But she survived! One day she discovered the first pleisiosaur. She also discovered the first pterosaur. My favourite fossil was a full one with all the parts.

There was a hippopotamus skeleton which was really cool because it was so large.

Then Jacob discovered something really cool. The museum was opened by his hero David Attenborough!

 out the front of the museum.

 me looking at an elephants tusk - found near Cambridge. They think elephants lived here before the ice age!

Alfred the great

Here is a quiz on Alfred the great that I wrote. I hope you like it!



http://www.quizyourfriends.com/take-quiz.php?id=1302260559522581&a=1&

Anglo Saxon Quiz

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Rebecca's Anglo Saxon quiz

Here is a quiz on Anglo-saxons.I hope you like it!

1. Where did the word saxon come from?

The phrase 'your sacked!'which the saxons used a lot.
A tool they used called a Saxe
A knife called a seax


2. Who do people think the king from Suton Hoo was?

King Alfred
King Redwald
King Aethelraed


3. What did the word wednesday come from?

Woes day because lots of people die That day
Wodens day named after a god
Wacky wednesday,a book by famous saxon Dr Zeus


4. What did the Anglo saxons do when a family member is murdered?

Kill someone from the murderers family
Eat him
Breath a sigh of relief:They hated there family


5. How did the hero in Beowolf kill grendal?

With a club
With a ping pong ball
With his bare hands

Thank you for doing my quiz!!

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Northanger Abbey (2)

Here is a quote that I like from Northanger Abbey:

"'And what are you reading, Miss — ?' 'Oh! It is only a novel!' replies the young lady, while she lays down her book with affected indifference, or momentary shame. 'It is only Cecilia, or Camilla, or Belinda'; or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best–chosen language."

In this part of the book, she is saying that people in her time think novels are not very serious, but why shouldn't she let her heroine read novels? She thinks novels are serious because she is writing one and also because she thinks they are a great way to learn about humans and what they are like.

I like this quote because Jane Austen loves novels like me.

But she hates gothic novels. She makes fun of them in this book.

British History Timeline

Today we have made a timeline. We did it because we needed to get an idea of where everything fits together in British history.

We used two books to find where the people fitted in and the internet to get an idea of what the people looked liked.






Here is a picture of us working on it:

We each drew a different picture. I drew Jane Austen and Queen Victoria. Here is a picture of them:

 And here is us with our British timeline!!

My excursion

On the weekend, we went on a gianormous excursion to an ancient Roman place. It was in St Albans. First we went to a museum. It had lots of fun and interesting stuff. The fun stuff was: making an arch, looking at x-rays and using electronic things. The interesting stuff was: a picture of a stone with the real bits cut in, a piece of cement with paw prints on it and a movie about a Roman king. When we had finished,  I bought a model Roman villa I could build.

Next, we went to an ancient Roman theatre. That was favourite part. It felt so real to be looking down on a Roman theatre. On the other side were some more ruins. They had taken some things from this site and put them into the museum we saw earlier. There was also a hole with some wire on top. It was very scary to walk on.

Then we went to an Italian restaurant called Zizzi's. Dad's old school friend invited us. I made great friends with a girl my age. I ordered dough sticks, pepperoni and sausage pizza and chocolate ice cream.

Then we went to St Alban's Cathedral. It had an excellent choir and lovely stained glass windows. I liked listening to the bell best.

After that we went to the place in the Roman ruins where the central heating came from. It didn't have much.

As we were going home Jacob said that this city was his favourite.

here's the Roman villa I made once I got home!

Poems

Today I made a poem about my sister Elsie and I thought I would show it to you

Elsie

Elsie is a maiden with

a burden she is laiden with

she's far from home and longs to go

back to the place she used to know

but despite that she is always trying

to stop all her relations crying

she's always being very kind

and the cleverest thoughts are in her mind

and even when she's being bad

she's alway's very,very sad

battling Boudicia, sweet Persephone

Elsie tries to be like these and is patient unlike me

don't look at me as if I lie for every word is true

and I hope someday that you will come to see things this way too.



Our nature walk

Today we went on a nature walk.

The first animal we saw was a squirrel.Unfortunately I didn't see much of him because I wasn't wearing my glasses.

I took great pictures of some geese. Here is one of them:

I liked taking photos of the leaves and trees as well:

I  noticed that although some of them were dead, there was still moss growing on them.

This picture is my favourite because it looks like what you'd find in a book.

Here are some questions that I asked and researched when I got home:

1. What do geese mean when they flap their wings?

2. How old was the oldest squirrel?

3. Are black sheep rarer than white sheep?

Here are the answers to the questions

1. When geese flap their wings they are warning everybody to get out of their way or else.

2. Squirrels in captivity can live up to 20 years. Squirrels in the wild usually only live up to 12 and a half years.

3. Black sheep are rarer than white sheep. They are rarer because the gene that is more common is white fleece. But if two white sheep had a grandparent who was a black sheep, they may also have a black sheep.

The Botanic Gardens

Yesterday we went to the Botanic Gardens with some friends of ours. First we went to the greenhouses. They had plants from tropical islands, the mountains and the desert! My favourite was the tropical one. I liked it because it had different coloured goldfish and I pretended that I had found a new animal from a tropical island. It looked like a bunny with a monkey's tail but it climbed trees and was as small as a mouse. I called it a 'homolo'.

After the greenhouse I ran straight to a fountain. I was expecting nice clean water with some coins at the bottom. What I wasn't expecting was that the fountain was partly frozen. Here are some pictures of it:

 A picture of the partly frozen fountain.

 Me about to step into the fountain but mum wouldn't let me :(

Holding a piece of ice.

It was partly frozen because it was 0 degrees or under the night before. 

Then we went to the cafe. Next to the cafe was some rockery and Elsie and I played kingdoms on it. I was the princess and she was the queen. Jacob was the evil person that we defeated. (Really, he decided not to play the game.)

Then we went inside the cafe and had some biscuits. We had a great time!

Shakespeare, my hero

Yesterday was my mum's birthday. Mum and Dad had a surprise for us. We were going to the birthplace of William Shakespeare! On the way there we stopped. We weren't at Shakespeare's house; we were at our first castle!

Here are some photos of the day:

 The arrow-slit and the tower

Jacob, Elsie and me near the gates

 Me standing by the castle

Then we got into the car and went to Stratford-upon-Avon, where we stopped at a cafe named after a line from one of Shakespeare's plays. After lunch we went to Shakespeare's birthplace. Here are some pictures of that:

 In the kitchen

 Next to the window from the birth-room where people (including some very famous people) used to sign their names in the glass

Outside the front door.

 

In the knot garden on the site of the house called New Place where Shakespeare lived after 1610.

Then we went home and had dinner.

 This is Mum with her cake that I helped Dad to cook.

Travel Guide to Ancient Rome

We've been learning a bit about Ancient Rome. My brother and sister and I wrote this travel guide together. I hope you enjoy it (if you ever master the art of time travel!).

Northanger Abbey

Lately I have been reading Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen with my mum. It was the first book she ever wrote. It is about a girl named Catherine Morland, who goes to Bath with Mr and Mrs Allen. Mrs Allen is very vain. Here are a few quotes about them from the opening chapters:

Catherine:

No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have ever supposed her born to be a heroine. Her situation in life, the character of her mother and father, her own person and disposition were all equally against her. She had a thin awkward figure, a sallow skin without colour, dark lank hair and strong features - so much for her person; and not yet unpropitious for heroism seemed her mind.

Mrs Allen:

Mrs Allen was one of that numerous class of females whose society can raise no other emotion than surprise at there being any men in the world who could like them enough to marry them. She had neither beauty, genius, accomplishment nor manner. The air of a gentlewoman, a great deal of quiet, inactive good temper and a trifling turn of mind were all that could account for her being the choice of a sensible, intelligent man like Mr Allen.

I think that Mrs Allen is very vain and likes her clothes too much. She is also very unreliable because she doesn't get Catherine Morland a partner when she is supposed to be the one introducing her!

I think Catherine Morland is very nice and quite pretty. But I don't know much about her yet.

Here is a picture of Mrs Allen and Catherine Morland dressed up for their first ball.

Book Review: 'Tom's Midnight Garden'

Tom's Midnight Garden is about a boy who goes back in time to the Victorians. He tells no-one except his brother, Peter, who longs to be with him.

This story is set in a poky old flat in Cambridge. The house used to belong to the Melbourne family. It used to be beautiful, but now it's all polluted.

It is about Tom, who has to live with his Aunt and Uncle due to chicken pox. It's boring until he finds a way to go back in time. There he meets Hatty, a spirited and imaginative young girl, and Abel, a kind and hard working gardener. But Hatty grows older every day until suddenly she is a woman, and Tom cannot go into the garden. Devastated he stays in the flat where there is no Hatty. Or is there?

The main characters are Tom, Hatty and Peter. Hatty is a late Victorian girl, one out of two people that can see Tom. She is Tom's only friend. Tom is very adventurous and practical. His favourite thing to do is climb with his brother Peter. Peter is the only one Tom trusts, and the brother of Tom. His friendship with Tom is so powerful he can go to him if he wants to.

My favourite thing from this story is when Tom goes to Ely Cathedral. This scene involves Tom and Hatty skating to Ely Cathedral. They saw the town at once and beyond it, for Ely is very small. As Tom climbed up the stairs, Peter appeared. When Tom pointed out Hatty, Peter let out a cry of amazement. For it was not a child anymore. She was a grown woman! I like this scene because I've been to Ely Cathedral before.

The grave of destiny!

On Sunday I went on an expedition to the church where my ancestors went.When we got there my dad told  us to look for the head-stone of our ancestors' grave, which he thought was lost. (When my grandparents visited the church nine years ago the head-stone was not in the place where it used to be.) But a minute later he found it. I was so excited and happy. Then we looked inside the church until mum found something. We were amazed. We used to think that we had 1 person buried here, but mum looked in a book that had a catalogue of the writing on all the head-stones and there were 2! We rushed outside to see it. When we found it we couldn"t even read the writing. That wasn't suprising because the grave was from 1723!

Now I'll tell you about my ancestors.The first grave belonged to my great great great great grandfather and great great great great grandmother, Edward and Susan Starling.

We think the second one belonged to my great great great great great great great great grandmother Anna Starling.

 
Then we went home, pleased with our discovery.

Made by human hands

As we were walking to the Fitzwilliam museum, I managed to take some photos of some stuff. They all had something in common. They were made by human hands!Here are some of the pictures I took.

These are some Cambridge colleges in the distance. They are older then you might think.

 

 

 This is a fountain which was built and placed in the marketplace in 1614 when they built a system to carry clean water into Cambridge because the water in the ditches was really, really gross.

 

 The top of the doorway of the Fitzwilliam Museum.

(all the things inside it were made by humans too! )

St Mark's Church, which is round the corner from our house.