The penultimate week of the Winter term and we have been busier than ever!
In Topic this week we have been learning extensively about the Colosseum.
The Colosseum was built by Emperor Vespasian before being finished by his son, the Emperor Titus. The Colosseum was designed to host blood sports and the most popular of these were gladiatorial fights. The Colosseum was built from funds generated by the spoils of war. Slaves taken from far off lands would come to Rome to work on the fields, or the dreaded quarries known colloquially as "The Pit" or as gladiators. But, we were surprised to learn that there were freemen of Rome who would sell their freedom to fight as gladiators (possible reasons for this were to settle gambling debts or for fame).
We have been learning that the floor on which the gladiators fought on was made of wood and covered with sand. Underneath this floor was the hypogeum where animals would come out to be used as sport or to be used against criminals and slaves.
Through looking at this poem we have been seeing all the ways Mr Nesbitt has tried to paint a picture of an interesting story and how he has achieved this by his writing and craft. We noticed that Mr Nesbitt wrote his poem on an ABAB alternate rhyming scheme. A rhyming scheme is a form of poetry where patterns are formed through the rhyming of key words. If we look at the second stanza of the above poem we can see where Mr Nesbitt used the ABAB rhyming scheme:
In Topic this week we have been learning extensively about the Colosseum.
The Colosseum was built by Emperor Vespasian before being finished by his son, the Emperor Titus. The Colosseum was designed to host blood sports and the most popular of these were gladiatorial fights. The Colosseum was built from funds generated by the spoils of war. Slaves taken from far off lands would come to Rome to work on the fields, or the dreaded quarries known colloquially as "The Pit" or as gladiators. But, we were surprised to learn that there were freemen of Rome who would sell their freedom to fight as gladiators (possible reasons for this were to settle gambling debts or for fame).
We have been learning that the floor on which the gladiators fought on was made of wood and covered with sand. Underneath this floor was the hypogeum where animals would come out to be used as sport or to be used against criminals and slaves.
Please see below for a fascinating documentary which shows architects, mathematicians and historians coming together to place into the hypogeum of the Colosseum today a device for lifting up animals to the stage!
In English this week we have been analysing poetry via the work of Kenn Nesbitt (former American children's Poet Laureate). We have been looking extensively at his poem, The Dragon on The Playground.
There’s a dragon on the playground
who descended from the skies.
He swooped down on the schoolyard
where he took us by surprise.
He leapt across the blacktop
in a single bounding stride,
erupting flames and lava
to incinerate the slide.
He reared his huge and scaly head
and flapped his leathery wings,
then set the soccer field ablaze
and blackened all the swings.
He cauterised the asphalt
with a sudden, fiery flash.
Then reeled upon the seesaw
and converted it to ash.
He melted all the monkey bars.
The sand was molten glass.
With nothing left to liquefy
he headed for our class.
I doubt we’ll soon be rid of him
despite the fires he’s set.
You see, our teacher likes him,
so he’s now the teacher’s pet.
Through looking at this poem we have been seeing all the ways Mr Nesbitt has tried to paint a picture of an interesting story and how he has achieved this by his writing and craft. We noticed that Mr Nesbitt wrote his poem on an ABAB alternate rhyming scheme. A rhyming scheme is a form of poetry where patterns are formed through the rhyming of key words. If we look at the second stanza of the above poem we can see where Mr Nesbitt used the ABAB rhyming scheme:
He leapt across the blacktop
in a single bounding stride,
erupting flames and lava
to incinerate the slide.
We have discovered one of the reasons that poets choose this way of writing their poems is to make their poems more memorable with a smooth end with words which through their rhyming repetition make the poem catchy. We have also been looking at what makes the poem interesting with Mr Nesbitt's word choices and deciphering their meaning: descended; cauterised; molten are just some words that we have been using our dictionary to understand. If you are looking for a good dictionary online, please follow this LINK for the online version of the Oxford English Dictionary (there are audio files for each and every word so you can hear exactly how they are supposed to sound). This LINK will take you to dictionary.com which has a word of the day...every day! And if you are looking to buy one in print, Mr Chris would highly recommend purchasing the Oxford English Dictionary.
This week in Maths we have stepped up our knowledge and use of angles by finding and accurately measuring angles of a 2D floor plan of a building. We have been taking our time and have tried hard to understand and measure precisely angles which we find constantly in our everyday life.
If you would like to measure some angles for yourself, please see these floor plans below:
We have discovered one of the reasons that poets choose this way of writing their poems is to make their poems more memorable with a smooth end with words which through their rhyming repetition make the poem catchy. We have also been looking at what makes the poem interesting with Mr Nesbitt's word choices and deciphering their meaning: descended; cauterised; molten are just some words that we have been using our dictionary to understand. If you are looking for a good dictionary online, please follow this LINK for the online version of the Oxford English Dictionary (there are audio files for each and every word so you can hear exactly how they are supposed to sound). This LINK will take you to dictionary.com which has a word of the day...every day! And if you are looking to buy one in print, Mr Chris would highly recommend purchasing the Oxford English Dictionary.
This week in Maths we have stepped up our knowledge and use of angles by finding and accurately measuring angles of a 2D floor plan of a building. We have been taking our time and have tried hard to understand and measure precisely angles which we find constantly in our everyday life.
If you would like to measure some angles for yourself, please see these floor plans below:
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