On Tuesday year 4 ventured out int he rain to the Earth Trust, to learn about the Anglo-Saxons. I was really impressed with how much the children knew about how the Anglo-Saxons would have lived.

When we arrived, we walked up onto Wittenham CLumps and explored the old Iron Age fortifications, which wuold have also been a Roman fort, and then an Anglo-Saxon fort. The children enjoyed pretending to storm the battlements! After that, we talked about shelter and had a go at building our own wooden shelters in the woods. We only had 40 minutes to build them in teams, but they were surprisingly waterproof!

After lunch we all had a go at lighting a fire using a flint and steel, in a similar way to the Anglo-Saxons. We talked about how important fire would have been to people in those times for warmth, cooking and light. The children made bread and it was cooked on the open fire. We served it with honey, but the children found out that this would have been a very rare treat for the Anglo-Saxons, as bees weren't domesticated in those times. Anglo-Saxons ate the equivalent of 3 teaspoons of sugar per year.

I was really impressed with how well behaved the children were on our trip. There was no moaning despite the very wet weather, and the children were polite to the staff and to other people we met, such as dog walkers. 

Thank you so much to the staff and parents who accompanied us on the trip.
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