Titanic and other things

We went along to the museum with the HE group to see the Titanic exhibition and take part in a drama session on the subject. Katie and Ben had started their lapbooks on this ill-fated liner so we'd read a couple of books before the trip (although Ben still thought it had sunk just a few year's ago).

As before, with the Galileo session, the museum staff were very knowledgeable, and the actor (who had played Galileo last time) was once again fabulous with the children, responding and working with them to get the best out of the drama session.

The group was split into 10 and over and under 10s so one group could visit the exhibition while the other did the drama before switching around. I stayed with Ben, in the younger group, and found he and his friends got quite a bit out of the displays and hands on sections - playing quoits, setting the Captain's table correctly, sending morse code (the constant beeping sound must have driven the staff absolutely mad in the end) and trying out a few knots, to name but a few. After this they did the drama session which was perhaps more geared to the older children. Katie said her group had some budding thespians and they seemed to generally get more wrapped up in the subject compared to the youngsters. Nevertheless I think everyone enjoyed themselves and it made for a good morning out with the group.

On the lapbook front, Katie and Ben have used maps to plot the route of the Titanic as well as find out some facts about Southampton, Belfast and Cherbourg. We've also read about the key chaps involved in the beginnings of it all, the Ismays, JP Morgan and Lord Pirrie (or piri-piri sauce as Katie calls him), important dates etc., etc. as well as look at how the boat was constructed. All week we have read, discussed and written about first class passengers with Katie making a rather lovely doll (photo at some point I'm sure).

One a totally different topic - here's a photo of Katie's finished puss-cat. She got the idea from an ancient Blue Peter book that I'd had as a child that we found lurking in the cupboard.


Other things - we're back into Flat Travellers, with Katie being offered to swap her Flat "Chocolat" with another in California. We've also started a discussion board with the idea of discussing a news item of interest (either from the paper/news website or from Newsround) over lunch with discussion views written up afterwards on the board. One of two topics discussed at length this week was Wind Turbines (which we visited last week) vs the new Wave Hub which is destined for the seas of Cornwall, the other being a question on the Newsround site "can children live without adults?" Interesting one and Katie did post a comment on the site board but either it didn't reach them (the PC put up a "can't connect" comment - argh) or it didn't get printed.

Finally, finished painting our snug. It looks much fresher in green and very relaxing. We set out wanting a rather warm, snuggly feeling in their but someone it's ended up a modern feel, but still lovely. Can't wait to enjoy sitting by the fire - we have the sweep coming to clean the chimneys in a couple of weeks (they still use the old fashioned brushes, just like my mum did when I was a child).