It has been really busy of late, but we thought we’d share with you the fantastic time we had with the children of Class 5 at Taxal & Fernilee Primary School in Whaley Bridge.
We’d been invited by their teacher Mr Darley to do a workshop as part of the children’s history theme – Ancient Mesopotamia. They had been reading the fantastic Varjak Paw books which had given them quite a bit of background information on Ancient Mesopotamia, and Mr Darley told us they were really excited by the prospect of two archaeologists coming to their class. He wasn’t wrong on this! From the very start the children were keen to show what they had learnt about Mesopotamia with Mr Darley and we were so impressed!
Our morning began with a spot of training to be archaeologists, and it was apparent that Class 5 were on the ball and they came up with really good questions about the everyday ‘things’ we use and the meaning we invest in them. We quickly moved on from the meaning of things to the how’s and why’s archaeologists excavate. Once they’d mastered the tricky idea of stratigraphy they were ready to go.
The excavations went really well and all the children were asking good questions about the artefacts they were finding, many of which they not seen before. Despite their excitement, each team was careful in their work and were able to piece together a picture of daily life in Ancient Mesopotamia. Of course, we had to make sure that ‘the public’ got to see their finds and each team had a mini-museum display to proudly show off their work!
To see what Mr Darley thought of the morning’s activities, visit our testimonials page, but suffice to say he and the children had a great time. Mr Darley has also sent us examples of the follow-up work that the children have done and that too is impressive. We can honestly say that Class 5 were one of the best classes we’ve worked with and are a credit to Mr Darley and the school – well done everybody!
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