Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo Da Vinci was an Italian polymath. Born in Florence on April 15 1452 ,Leonardo was a scientist,mathematician,engineer,inventor,anatomist, painter,sculptor,architect,botanist,musician and writer. Leonardo was famous for his drawings the "Mona Lisa" and "The last supper". He was also famous for his inventions like the "Codex of the birds" I will tell you about it......
Leonardo bought some caged birds at the market and set them free, he watched the way they flew. He thought of an invention and drew it unfortual his inventions never flew. Leonardo Da Vinci died on the 2nd of May 1519. Only 15 of his painting survived and after his death his paintings were admired.
By Smiley

Numbers in Latin

1=I
2=II
3=III
4=IV
5=V
6=VI
7=VII
8=VIII
9=IX
10=X
11=XI
12=XII
13=XIII
14=XIV
15=XV
16=XVI
17=XVII
18=XVIII
19=XIX
20=XX
50=L
100=C
200=CC
500=D
1000=M

Research on Rome

Time in Rome;
Telling time in Rome was a vauge business. Romans rely on sundials and water clocks to tell the time,but neither are very accurate. Days last as long as the daylight and divided into twelve hours.
Who went to school in Roman time?
Boys and girls from far off places came to school at the age of seven. But poor children had to stay at home. Some of them ran errands for their parents or looked for work. Others played on the street and got into trouble.
What did the children play with?
Roman children played with lots of odds and evens. If they could not afford glass or pottery, marbles, they used little round nuts instead. They also threw dice made of bones. They even used pig's bladders to make balloons to play football with.
By Gabby.

The Extreme Photographer Carsen Peter

Carsen Peter said this about his adventure on the Stromboli volcano in Italy. He is a photographer and I read about him in a magazine called National Geographic Kids.

"When I was 17,a friend and I climed the Stromboli volcano in Italy to capture its eruption on film. We set up our cameras on the very rim of the crater.Suddenly an explosion erupted from the volcano!. Giant bombs flaming rocks up to 60cm wide began spitting into the air . We started running and trying to dodge them,we forgot to turn on the cameras!. It really frightened me,but that was when I realised I had magma in my blood and taking awesome photos of extreme nature is what I wanted to do with my life".
By Smiley

Italy Project today!

See us at work on our Italy Project today!!


Here we are doing a quiz on Ancient Rome and working on the blog!!



See our busy classroom


We are also building the Colosseum.


This is us working on a volcanic seisometer and trapdoors for the gladiators to come through in the Colosseum.

Roman soldiers by Giggles

This Legionary is armed with the standard equipment given to all Roman soldiers at the time of the Empire. He is wearing a helmet with cheek guards, a shoulder strap or baldric guard, a sword in a scabbard, tunic made of wool, a groin guard, a segmented breastplate or cuirass, a shield and belts made of leather (but soldiers often decorated them)
By Giggles and B612

What is a seisometer?

A seisometer is a machine that you put on a volcano.It measures its sound so you know when it it going to erupt.Mt.Vesuvius has a seisometer.It needs one because there are over one and a half million people living in the "danger zone" in Pompeii. Volcanoes are either:active,extinct or dormat.
By Smiley



Ocean-bottom Seisometer (OBS)
An Ocean-Bottom Seisometer is a aluminium sphere of about 17 inches and are often bright orange or yellow in colour.Generally found on the seabed,but sometimes can break free from their anchorings and can drift ashore,but they pose no danger to the public or wildlife in the area.The seisometer is commonly used as a geoghysical instrument and are used in the Irish sea to measure movements in the oceanic plates.
By Smiley

Research on Rome

The Romans came from Rome and their capital city was Rome. They were clever people with new ideas about law,art,building and technolgy.With theirmighty army and strong leaders,they invaded and conqred many countries and built a Roman empire that would last from around 146 BC to AD 476. Some peope welcomed Roman rule,but many fought against it until they were beaten by the romans in battle.

Hadrians wall in nothern England and the Raetien border in Germany are two famous frontiers and they form part of a network of forts and towns that covered the whole Roman empire. The Romans had well organized supply lines, and the people who lived under Roman rule had to provied money,food,gold,silver and slaves. Roman armies were stationed all over the frontier to make sure they did!

Did you now.
Romans used metal shovels,just like the ones you can find today in any hardware store.
Roman engineers also built bridges and aquaducts.

Research on Rome

Venice
Built on a lagoon at the end of the Adriatic Sea the city has more than 150 canals running through it.

Apulia
Apulia in Southeast Italy is a hilly agricultural region.

Alps
The Alps,stretching more than 3,200 km is the most important mountain range in western Europe.The highest point is Mont Blanc(4,808 m) on the border between France and Italy.

Mont Blanc Massif
Helbronner Point on the Italian side of the Mont Blanc Massif has an altitude of 3,462 m.

Matterhorn
The Matterhorn(4,478) in France Mont Clevin is in the heart of the Alps on they border between Switzerland and Italy.

Adriatic sea
The Adriatic Sea forms a tongue of water between Italy and the Balkans.

Ancient Rome
About 2,000 years ago,Rome was one of the biggest cities in the world.At that time the Romans ruled all the lands around the Mediterranean sea.these lands were called the Roman Empire.

The Roman Empire
The Roman`s had a huge army of well-trained Soldiers.They used their Army to fight for new land and to protect the Empire.Most Soldiers fought on foot using a spear, a sword and a dagger

Home Comforts
In Rome ,rich people lived in comfortable houses with large gardens.Some had toilets,running water and a kind of central heating.

Research on Rome

Newspapers;
If your a fluent in Latin,a daily paper is called the Acta duirna actually a single handwritten sheet is handed out with the latest news.
Mail;
There's no postal service for ordinary citizens, but government mail is sent by courier. You could try charm or a bribe to have urgent letters included with the official mail. But its really not worth it if your only sending postcards home. They'll arrive months after you if they ever arrive.
Laundry.
If you have a toga it will need specialist dry cleaning. You can send your toga and other dirty washing to a fuller. Fullers generally treat cloth before its made into clothes, but they also offer a cleaning service.
Emergencies.
Since 6AD a combined police and fire-fighting force called the Cohors Vigilum has been in operation. They'll be on hand if your apartment catches fire, but don't expect them to do two jobs at once if your valuables are stolen.

The Colosseum

The Colleseum was built during the reign of Emperor Vespasiana c. 72 Ad and dedicated in 80Ad by his son Titus. The popular name of Colosseum came about because the immense oval stadium was situated next to a colossal statue of Nero. The original name of this anceint Roman sports arena,the largest arena of its kind,is the Amphitheatrum. The Colosseum is over 64 metres high with eight entraces.
By Sunshine.

Roman Chariot

We are in 3rd class. This is the first model we have made,it was fun making it.
It is a Roman chariot. It took 20-30 minutes to make it. We are not finished making it,we still have to make the horse. We did it by ourselves.We had some problems making it,but we worked them out eventually.We are looking forward to making more lego in future.
by Sunshine and Rainbow

Research on Ancient Rome

Fashion in Rome
Men:
Underneath men wore a lioncloth. This is the only underwear they bother with and it's generally kept on at night. Over the top they wore a simple tunic. The tunic is deisigned to hang slightly at the back than the front ,which ends at the knees. Outside,they wore cloaks.
Women;
Women also wore simple underwear with a plain tunic on top. Over that they wore a long dress called a Stola. These are plain too,although women wore stoles of silk in dazzling shades including red ,blue ,yellow and purple.



The Colosseum:
Getting in and out:
There are 80 entrance arches ,all numebred expect for the four main entrances. Free tickets are given out in the morning. Each ticket has a number which matches an arch. You enter through the arch that has the same number as your ticket. Only men are allowed to sit in the first two Cavea. Women must sit above them , seprated by a wall. Behind the women is the outer wall where the standing room is and the slaves sit.

Don't let the number of people overwhelm you. The building can be evacutated in ten minutes. There is seating for 50,000.
It's divided into three; the arena, the podium and the cavea. Under the arena are cages where the animals are stored. There is hidden door that releases the animals.

The podium is a broad terrace on top of the arena wall. The best spot is reserved for the Emperor. other seats are taken by the Senators and foreign ambassadors. The cavea is divided into three tiers of seats seperated by landings, reached by staircases and 160 passages.

Visit from Martin O Halloran

A man named Martin O Halloran came to our school. He was a teacher in Rome.He brought a book on Rome.
The best one was the test book. It was about home work. He told us a little bit
about the Colosseum. We asked him lots of question on the Colosseum. It was
interesting. He was there till two o clock. He said he would like to go back to Rome.
We told him we are doing are project on Rome. We told him all we know about Rome.
He asked us questions about Gladiators.We answered them. He asked what kind of animals they had in the Colloseum. We said that they used lions. There are 240 arches in the Colosseum.
In every arch there was a God. Martin told us how to make a St. Brigid crosses.
He had a lot of reeds. I made two of them. I had fun.
by Sparky


ST.BRIDGETS CROSS.

Today Mister O Halloran came to our school to teach us how to make St.Bridgets Crosses. He brought a lot of rushes. He showed all the class. He made one for each class. We had to help him make them. Everyone got too make one. It was hard at first but after a while we got the hang of it ,and it was easy from there. We had to put the rushs together, then we had to put elastic bands on the end of the rushes so they wouldn't fall apart. St.Bridget visited a sick man in hospital. She was telling him about God, but he wouldn't listen. There were rushes on the ground so she made a cross and it was called a St.Bridgets cross. We spent a long time making them. He brought a couple of examples to show us. It was very good and interesting.
By Lynx

Project on Italy

This year the Senior Room will be doing a project on Italy. This is a lesson that they will be undertaking. Why not listen to our podcast? If you have any ideas why not email our students on their email on the right!

Liten to the podcast on the Colesseum by clicking on the posts link on the bottom bar and choosing Colesseum and Gladiators.


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