Here ye, here ye! The Middle Room travels to the Middle Ages!

The Middle Room took a trip back in time to the days of the Normans, looking at where the Normans came from and how they lived. We took a virtual tour around a Minecraft Norman castle, visiting all the main features of the castle including the drawbridge over the moat, the bailey, the battlements, the great hall and a visit to the forge where the blacksmith worked. Some Normans even dropped in to visit us!

The topic was particularly engaging as we have our own Norman city on our doorstep. It was very interesting to look at all the buildings in Kilkenny that were built by Normans and their descendants. We came across one very interesting lady, daughter of a Norman banker, of the name Alice Kytler. ‘Horrible Histories’ gave us a nice little story about Alice and her servant Petronella. It was very apt leading into Halloween to learn that the very first witch trial in Europe (and therefore the world) happened here in Kilkenny. Alice did manage to escape, probably not on her broomstick though.

In art we painted our coil pots using colours that would have been used as dyes for clothing in medieval times. We looked at how the different colours might have been made and how the richer more vibrant colours required ingredients imported from the India and China, and therefore were very expensive. The poor had a more limited choice in the colour of their clothes.

To keep with the spooky theme we also made spooky evening silhouttes. The children blended their colours outwards and finished with the purple night sky. They do look spooky at the end of the corridor.

On the last day everyone dressed up for Halloween. Well done to everyone involved in putting together these amazing costumes (including mammys and daddys). We had lots of fun on the day!

On a continuation from our previous blog, our plant experiments turned out as expected; the plants without light grew but not well, those without water didn’t grow and neither did those without suitable soil. As you can see, the plants in the control pot grew in the same direction whereas those in the dark grew in varied directions.