Aidan 6, Sunday 29th May

We had a lot of fun today. We went to Conqueror’s Castle at Old Sarum and did some of the amazing child activates. One of the activities was the children’s outlaw school were we learnt what it was like to be an outlaw. 

The king decreed that you can’t kill any animals because they belonged to the him, the only animals you can kill were birds because they belong to god not to the king. If you kill one of the kings animals you might get put in the stocks where everyone in the castle could see you. 

The king also said you can’t take your pigs into his forest but all the people who owned pigs took them onto the common to find food, but if all the other pigs eat all the acorns, the man whose pig didn’t get any might have to take his pigs into the kings forest  to eat but they have to make sure the kings men don’t see them.  If they are caught, they would be punished. Punishment might be having their left eye cut out because their left eye was not needed for fighting, they might also get some of their fingers cut off, but not all of them because they still need their hands to work in the fields. 

We also saw the arming of a knight and his horse where the knight gets all of his armour on and his shield and sword and got on his horse. He had a lot of stuff.

And we saw them fire a perrier which is a bit like a trebuchet.

Holly 6, Sunday 29th May

That was awesome. We went to Old Sarum Castle and there were lots of activities.

One of the activities was Outlaw School where a man told us how Outlaws got attention. They got attention by blowing a horm but first they woudl dig a hole and find lots of dried leaves and sticks. Then they would blow their horn and then go into their hole and cover themselves with the sticks and leaves and wait to see who came.  If someone that they knew came then they could show themselves, but if it was one of the Kings men came they they would have to stay hidden.

Also we saw people fighting on horses.

They threw lances at other knights that had shields. We also saw how knights put on their armour.

 There were also a lot of dogs there.

Aidan 5, Saturday 28th May

 We did a cool thing today which was walking up to see the Cherhill white horse.  There is also a big pointy monument on the hill and the outline of a very old fort.

  

The white horse was made by cutting all the grass off the hill in the shape of a horse.  The ground underneath is white chalk

so the horse shows bright white on the hill.  We took Rufus with us for the long walk up the hill to the big statue at the top and the horse.  Rufus was running in the grass, Holly and I were jumping in the grass too, but we were racing up the hills and down the hills.

 Holly got stung by a stinging nettle so we had to find a dock leaf to rub on the sting. They have bumble bees but they are much bigger then the ones at home.

Mum also found a cool looking butterfly and we found some huge slugs, but they have none of the nasty creepy crawlies we have at home in Australia.  We walked about 5 kilometres.   

Holly 6, Saturday 28 May

We went to a really cool place today to see the Cherhill white horse and the obelisk.

We took Rufus with us and he leaped, jumped and ran through the long grass and he looked adorable.  Also there were big hills. Aidan and I had races upand down them and on one of the ones we went down I got stung by a stinging nettle and it hurt a lot.
Dad found a giant slug that was black and very shiny.

Mum found a strange looking butterfly fly thing that was black and red.

I got scared of a huge bumble bee.

There was also a funny looking beetle that hated buttercups.

We found a tree and I climbed it but I was scared.

To get into the field there was a stile and in it there was a hole for dogs and I went through it.

Holly 5, Friday 27th May

Today we saw an old Saxon church called St Laurence's and it was very small and fascinating.

We also went to see a barn called a Tithe barn.

My favourite thing was that we took Rufus with us and that we had sandwiches for lunch. Aidan and I had meatball sandwiches and we both tried to climb a tree but it had a really thick trunk so it was really hard.

Also we saw a golden post box which was painted gold in honour of some random guy who won gold in the olympics.

We also bought some duck food and I fed some ducks and ducklings. They were really, really cute. One mother duck had 13 ducklings. I also saw a swan with 4 cygnets but they didn't come very close.

Aidan 5, Friday May 27th

Here in England they don't have $, they pounds and pence. They call them ps.  One penny is called one p. 

We took Rufus with us today for the whole day and saw an old gaol cell on a bridge.

We went for a walk along a canal and  saw a boat go over the aqueduct it had to turn a tight corner to get on the bridge. An aqueduct is a bridge for boats.

We saw a Saxon church it only had two rooms and it was made in the tenth century a long time ago.  There was Tithe a barn where the nuns stored the crops they got from the farmers then the nuns would sell it. 

We went to a shop called Bread and Butter for lunch. Holly and I got a meatball sandwich that was really tasty. 

We saw a golden post box. It was painted gold in honour of a local man who won gold in the Olympics.  I think this is a really cool idea,  

On the way back to our house sit Holly fell asleep because she was so tired from all the walking.        

English money - hey there 3G and 5/6T !

Hi 3G and 5/6T,

We thought  you might all like to see what English money looks like.

These are all the coins.

They have pence and pounds instead of dollars and cents.

They count the pence the same way we count cents.  There are 100 pence in one pound.  Instead of writing $ you write £

There is a 2 pound piece, a 1 pound piece, a 50 pence, 20 pence, 10 pence, 5 pence and they also have 2 pence and 1 penny.  The 2 pence piece is huge, it is almost as big as the 2 pound piece.

Most people just say 'p' instead of pence.

The 50p and the 20p both have 7 sides. Their 50p doesn't have as many sides as our 50c and it is smaller.

The 20p smaller than the 10p which I think is weird. The 5p is even smaller than our 5c.

The other side of the coins looks like this

They all have the Queen on the other side, just like our coins.

These are some Australian coins and English coins together so you can see the different sizes.

This is what some of the notes look like.

One pound is worth about $2.00, so when we see the cost of something in the supermarket we have to double it to work out what it is worth in Australian money.  So over here it looks like everything is really cheap because lots of things only cost £1 but really they cost $2.

We hope you liked seeing English money.

Have a great day at school.

from

Aidan and Holly

Aidan 4, Thursday 26th May

Wow! mail comes through a slot in the front door in the morning.

 Dad cooked us breakfast which was an egg, toast and baked beans with a cup of tea. We went to a little village called Lacock to look at Lacock Abbey

where William Talbot lived.  He invented photography. 

In the abbey garden we went on the trail and found a tree swing.

Holly loved it but it hurt my bum on the rope ball.  We also smelt wild garlic on the track. 

Some of the Harry Potter films were  filmed at Lacock Abbey a couple of years ago. There was a very old book from 1300’s  in one of the rooms, it had survived  the Dissolution in the 1500's. The dissolution was where King Henry the 8^th destroyed all the abbeys in England. 

     

In the abbey the head nun could look through a squint to spy on the other nuns.  These are the cloisters. There are lots of stone things carved in the roof.

In the village there was a stand selling meringues and fudge, There was another store down the street, it was selling eggs and  jam, the eggs were 1 pounds 50 & the jam was 2 pounds 50.

We looked around the town and went to a bakery to get lunch.

Holly and I got a chicken tikka roll. On our way home we went to the supermarket and got three Indian meal for tomorrow’s dinner.

Holly 4, Thursday 26th May

YAY!  We went to the Lacock Abbey and we got a sticker. There was a walk and you had to find wine bottles with letters on them to solve a puzzle.  On the way we found a rope swing and I went on it for a long time and Aidan was in a very bad mood but I was in a very happy mood.

At our house the mail comes through a slot in the door called a mail slot, so the mail lands on the floor.  This morning Dad cooked us an English breakfast.

When we were at the Abbey we walked into the town for lunch. in the village we saw a stand selling meringues and fudge outside someone's house.
It was very cute. We also saw lots of things about William Talbot

who invented photogra
phs because back then they had to draw things to remember them and he was no good at drawing so he invented photographs. This is a painting of him.

The Abbey where he lived used to be for nuns.

In the abbey there was a squint which is a hole in the wall where the Mother Abbess would spy on the other nuns.  Harry Potter was filmed in that Abbey as well.

We also saw a very old book from the 1300's and a tiny tea set made from real china.

At the rope swing I also found 5 pence.  Now I have found 12 pence altogether.