This afternoon Year 2 had a very exciting experience. Dawn from Freshwater Theatre Group came to work with us about our History topic of the Great Fire of London. First she told us some facts about the fire and then we played a game. We had to follow instructions to make different shapes relating to the fire. We then got into two lines to become the houses on the streets of London. We learnt they were all very close together and that was one of the reasons why the fire spread so quickly.

The fire started with one small spark in a bakery on Pudding Lane and was soon spreading all over London. Sean acted as Samuel Pepys and Sophie was his maid. She woke him up to tell him all about the fire and he was shocked! Then some other children joined in with the Drama and acted out what might have happened when the fire started.

Our favourite part was when some of us acted as the fire and the rest of us tried to put the fire out. It was very hard work! We tried buckets of water but that didn’t work. We tried pumping water through hoses but that didn’t work. We tried using axes to pull the buildings down so the fire couldn’t spread anymore. Then we used gunpowder to blow the houses up and finally it worked and the fire died down.

Today Key Stage One visited Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. We had a very busy but wonderful day.

Toucans started the day by having a Pattern and Print workshop. Anna, the teacher at the Museum, took us to a special room in the gallery where we looked for different patterns. There were lots of interesting items with patterns on such as plates and teapots but there were also patterns all around us on the building itself. We found the patterns and drew them, taking care to add lots of detail. Next, we went into the Art room where we turned one of our patterns into a printing tile. We drew our design onto a polystyrene tile. It was quite difficult because we had to do it deep enough so it would print, but not too deep or it would break. After that, we put printing ink on our tile and used an old-fashioned printing press to print our designs. They looked fantastic! As printing ink takes a long time to dry we left our work at the Museum. Anna will post them to us in about a week and we will display them proudly in our classroom.

In the afternoon we explored the Art galleries for ourselves. We went and looked at some paintings from over 300 years ago! We thought the people wore quite funny clothes and had unusual hairstyles. We practised our own drawing skills by trying to re-create one of the portraits we liked the best. We tried hard to add enough detail. Then we went to look at the Little Hoot display. These were owls that were designed by schools to go with the Big Hoot owl project. We thought they were absolutely fantastic! Before we left we went to look at the Staffordshire Hoard. We couldn’t believe all this wonderful treasure was just lying under the ground for such a long time. It was amazing!

At the end of the day we set off back to school. Maddison said ‘It was a wonderful day’ and Llukan enjoyed it so much he said ‘I want to go there again’. Toucans behaved impeccably, which is very hard to do in such a quiet place. Well done Toucans – your teachers are very proud.

We had an exciting visitor from a firefighter because our topic this half term is all about the Great Fire of London. He showed us an animation about how the Great Fire of London spread.

Kaicie – He told us how the fire spread from just one house to the whole of London.
Salma – The Great Fire of London spread because the wind was very strong.
Riley – The fire spread for 4 whole days and nights in 1666.
Katie – The Great Fire of London started in a bakery.

He also showed us the uniform that he wears to help him fight fires.
Nila – He wears boots that his trousers are connected to. The boots had metal plates inside which means if anything falls on his feet it won’t hurt.
Daisy – A wears a helmet which is very hard and has built in glasses.

We also talked about how to keep safe from fire.
Cara – He showed us how to stop, drop and roll.
Christos – He reminded us to make sure that cookers are always off.
Ciera – He told us to keep away from fireworks because they might hurt you.
Kayleigh – Children should never play with matches.

He also let us ask him some questions. This is what we found out.
Emily – the smallest fire he had ever been to was in a bin!
Nicola – the largest fire he has ever been to started with a chinese lantern which flew into a paper recycling factory in Smethwick. It took the firefighters 2 whole weeks to put the fire out.

We loved finding out all about his job.