So You Don't Like Snakes?

When we went to London Zoo as well as seeing the animals we also went and listened to an amazing talk about Snakes that was very interesting by an author whose name is Nicola Davies.  

She had written an hilarious book about a little girl who didn't like snakes.  She based it on something that happened to her when she was a child and her Mum hated snakes and how she tried to change her mind.  I really liked how her book was half fiction and half non-fiction.

There were two talks but for some reason everyone else went to the first talk except for two other kids.  So we got a whole beanbag all to ourselves.  Nicola was so nice. Even before she started the talk she had a really awesome conversation with us about snakes and about writing.

She showed us the skeleton of a tiny snake so we could see what the bones were like.  All the snake had was a spine and a skull.  This helped us to understand how snakes move.

She told us about why snakes lick the air.  It's because they're smelling.  They take some molecules from the air on their tongues and then put the tip of their tongue inside their mouths into a gap called the Jacobson's Organ where it analyses the molecules and sends messages to the brain to tell the snake what is there.

Then the head snake keeper brought out a cloth bag with something living inside!

It was a pet corn snake!

 First Nicola talked to us about the snake.

The snake was orange and white on the top and much lighter on the bottom.  This camouflage means that it can hide in corn.  But if it's up high creatures below who are looking up at it against the sky won't see it either.  We learnt this is called countershading.  (Other really good examples are penguins and sharks.)

Then we even got to touch the snake! Just like Nicola had said it wasn't slimy at all but it was actually completely dry.  Snakes looks slimy because they have a translucent outer skin which makes them look a bit wet even though they're not.

Next she showed us how it moved.

Next Nicola showed us the skull of a snake (I think it was a viper.)

She then explained to us how venomous snakes work.  They have hollow fangs at the front of their mouth as if they were injection needles.  Then when a snake bites it's prey a muscle pushes venom out of the venom glands and into the fang.  Then the venom will be injected via the fang into the prey's body when the snake bites.  Vipers fangs are tucked up against the roof of their mouth when they have their mouth shut, but when they open their mouths their fangs swing forward and are pushed slightly out of the mouth.

This is the skin of an African Rock Python.  Big snakes like the African Rock Python do not use venom but constrict their prey by wrapping their body round large animals and squeezing with their muscular coils until their victim eventually suffocates. 

We learnt so much day thanks to Nicola.  We liked the talk so much that we even bought her book.  She wrote a lovely message for us and signed it.  I thought I knew lots about snakes, but I found out there was so much more to learn.

Caveman Writing

One day when we were at the park, my nanny Sophie suggested that we find big pieces of wood so we could write on them and make up our own cave man symbols.  So we collected some wood and went home.  

When we got home we looked up some caveman symbols that I could copy.

First I practised on paper.

This is the story I wrote using the symbols.  "House, fire, fire out.  Me and dog, kill deer.  River, tree, sun over cave, bear attack me.  Stormy. 

This is where I tried to write on the wood but it wasn't quite big enough.  

I was having lots of fun though so I decided to create my own symbol system to write the same story but I added some more ways of writing so that I could give more detail and make the story more exciting.  For example in the picture above you can see a wolf with dots to an eye with dots to a bear in the cave.  This shows that the wolf saw the bear in the cave.

Then I kept writing and writing...

I was having so much fun writing stories with my new writing system that I even wanted to keep writing when we went on the tube out for dinner.  Dad loved listening to my stories.

Exploring Ancient Greece

When it was a bank holiday in London we decided to go to the British Museum so Dad could come with us too.

When we arrived we were asked which of the kids trails we would like to do.  We chose to explore Ancient Greece.  We were given a handbook with lots of different activities to do and things to learn about as we went around.

We were pretty excited!!!

ANIMAL ART

First we had to find lots of animals in the pottery...

Horses

Cuttlefish

Bull

Octopus

MYCENEAN LIFE

We had to look at the objects in this case from Mycenean Greece and see what we could guess about the lives of the people.



 Here's what we thought...

• We thought that they probably ate fish because archeologists had found fish hooks and weights for fishing nets.
• We thought that they probably ate meat because there was a spear that could have been used for hunting or fighting.  
• We thought they might have eaten goats, bulls and deer because they were drawn on lots of the pots and we thought they would draw things they knew.
• Isaac thought they might have had things like stews or soups because their eating things were shaped like bowls.

• We thought they had probably been fighters because there were swords as well as the spear.

• We thought they were probably rich because there were lots of gold objects found in the tombs.

We also saw these seals.  They were usually hung round a person's neck and used to make a mark to show something was someone's property.  For example they might be pressed into the clay by a door to show someone owned a house. Or it might be used on a container to show who it belonged to.  Or it might be used on a wax tablet when writing a message to show who it was from.

GREECE MEETS EGYPT

Later in the Archaic age Greece established trading with Egypt and so got to be influenced by Egyptian art as well.   One of the activities we had to do was compare and contrast the two statues here.  The one on the left is from Egypt and the one on the right is from Greece.

Similarities

• Both males
• Similar hair
• Both carved out of stone
• Both have one foot/leg in front of the other

Differences

• The Egyptian one is carved out of limestone and the Greek one is carved out of marble.  I thought this might be because the Egyptians used to write lots of hieroglyphics on their art, so they would need something like limestone that was soft and easy to carve into.
• The Greek one is nude and the Egyptian one wears clothes.  I think this might be because the Greeks liked to express the full bodies including muscles and things so that the body was really accurate.  The Egyptians seemed to prefer to have statues wearing clothes.
• The Greek one has broken down over time but the Egyptian one is still complete.  I was surprised because I thought the marble would be stronger except my Dad told me that the limestone was probably buried and protected in layers of sand which would have damaged it less whereas the Greek one would have been buried in less protective materials.
• The Egyptian one is holding something in each hand - we guessed they might be scrolls because the statue looked a bit like a scribe.  Because scribes would usually wear tunics and bare chests.

MOVING LIKE A MUSE

Next we had to practise standing like the statues of the muses in the temple behind us.

ATHENA'S BIRTHDAY

This room had a huge frieze going all the way round the room which was carved to show a parade celebrating the birthday of Athena - Goddess of War and Wisdom.  The next day I did some writing about this which you can read here...

http://theexcitingadventuresoffinn.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/writing-athenas-birthday.html

The stone-carvings were amazing, but had been damaged over time.  It gave us a good sense of what a celebration would be like during that time.  

We had a great day and Isaac and I had lots to talk about on the way home!

Adverb Poem

One day I asked my Mum how I could improve my descriptive and poetical language.  She suggested a adverb poetry exercise she used to do with her Speech and Drama students.  I decided that I wanted to give it a go.  The adverb I chose was 'Silently'.  

This is my Adverb poem.

Silently

Silently the majestic clouds slip past the dim Autumn sun.
Silently the malevolent ninja drives his sleek blade across the enemies villainous throat.
Silently a cool breeze drifts through ancient skies.
Silently a deadly shark will rocket through the calm ocean.
Silently a strong wind carries a beautiful seed dancing over deep oceans, harsh deserts and cold, snowy mountain peaks.
Silently the gentle morning dew embeds your feet in a sparkling crystal moisture.
Silently!
Silently the hawk shall swiftly glide through the endless heavens above.

by Finnegan Pannell-Gould

What does the Bank of England Do?

Isaac's class is studying Financial Literacy so we decided to go to the Bank of London Museum.  We learnt lots about money that you can read about on his blog.

http://boodlesawesometrips.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/the-bank-of-england-museum.html

THE JOB OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND

One of the things I learnt a lot about was the job of the Bank of England.  Here are some of the things I learnt.

The bank says their job is to "promote the good of the people of the United Kingdom by maintaining monetary and financial stability."

Keeping the Inflation Rate at 2%

One of the main ways the bank keeps the country financially stable is by keeping the inflation rate at 2%.  (This is a goal set by the government).

Here is one activity where I had to try and balance the inflation rate at 2%

  

Inflation is when prices for goods and services go up.  When they go up our money becomes less valuable and can't buy as much.  The banks job is to keep the inflation rate at 2%.  For example if something is worth $100 and it goes up by 2% it will be worth $102.  The bank doesn't want inflation to be too high or too low.  It can be a tricky balance.

Interest Rates

One way the bank can affect the inflation rate by increasing or decreasing interest rates.  

If prices are getting to high (inflation is rising too high) the bank will put up interest rates.  If interest rates go up people have to pay more interest on money they have borrowed.  For example if people have borrowed money from the bank to buy a house it's called a mortgage.  If the interest rate goes up they have to pay more money for their mortgage.  That means they have less money to spend on other goods and services.  If everyone is spending less then prices of goods and services drop to encourage people to buy more.

If Inflation isn't high enough the bank can lower interest rates.  This means that people will pay LESS on money they have borrowed.  That will mean they have MORE money to spend on other goods and services.  More spending is called more demand.  High demand will push prices up.

Quantitive Easing 

If inflation falls sharply another way the bank can help keep to it's 2% target for inflation is to inject money straight into the economy by creating money electronically if the inflation rate looks like it's going to be too low.  It's a really complicated process.

In this activity I had to sail a boat and use the handle to keep the interest rate at 2%.  I also had a quantitative easing button to use for inflation or deflation. 

Making sure people trust the money system (Maintaining public trust in currency)

When the banking system was first set up people would take their gold to the bank and the bank would give them a piece of paper with a promise on it to give back the gold when they needed it.  So they would always have the actual gold as a back up.  

This is an original 'promise' note given out by the bank promising to return people's gold.

But now, the notes and coins we use aren't worth anything so the only way the system works is if people trust the money is worth something.

One way that the bank makes sure that people trust the money is by making sure it's really hard to make fake or counterfeit money.  They do this by putting lots of special protections on the notes.  For example, notes have a watermark that can be seen when you hold it up to the light.  Some notes have microlettering which is really tiny microscopic lettering.  Some have a metallic strip down the middle.  Others have a hologram.  Others have a special mark you can only see when you hold it under a UV light.  By doing this the bank helps people be able to trust that money isn't fake.

Here I'm checking a 20 pound note under a special UV light.

This is a close up of the glowing "20" mark you can only see under UV light.

Also, they put the faces of people who are famous that people trust (such as the Queen and other people who have done great things for the country on the notes.)

Isaac and I are putting bank note puzzles together and learning all about the famous people on the different notes.

While the bank tries to keep everything financially stable there have been times where England's enemies have tried to do the opposite.  During the second world war the Germans actually tried to remove the public's trust in the bank notes by creating lots of fake notes and putting them into circulation.  This could have caused huge problems for England if they had led to the public not trusting that any money they had was real.

These are some of the actual forged notes

The counterfeit problem was only picked up when the notes were returned to the bank to be destroyed (which all notes are after a certain amount of time) and they noticed that the serial number of some of the notes had already been returned.  After that time all notes above 5 pounds were destroyed, so the only notes available for use were the 1 pound and 5 pound notes for a really long time.  

Taking Care of Gold

The Bank of London takes care of a lot of gold bars in the bank vaults though most of them don't belong to the bank anymore.  We got to touch one, which was about 97.5% gold (which is quite normal as none of them are quite 100%).  It weighed 13kg and was worth 291,781 pounds - just for one bar!

Here I am lifting the gold bar.

We learnt lots about the gold bars in the vault.  One thing we learnt was that the bars are stacked with 80 bars per pallet.  So I decided to use the multiplication skills I have been using in maths to work out how much each pallet would be worth.... 23,342,480 pounds!!!!

The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archeology

I've always really loved Egyptian History and for a long time I wanted to be an archeologist, so when Mum told me there was a Museum of Egyptian Archeology I couldn't believe how lucky I was to be living so close to so many cool things like this.  

Mum decided that she and I would make a special trip together so we could spend the afternoon surrounded by all the cool artefacts.  So we jumped on the tube and whizzed towards to the museum!

Here's me walking down the quiet alley towards the ancient artefacts.

The Petrie museum holds all the artefacts collected by an archeologist called Flinders Petrie who made many trips to Egypt.  It was kept safe during the Second World War by a single woman named Violet Lafleur.  She packed and moved all of the artefacts to a safer place in London and even worked through a bombing.

When we arrived at the museum I was given a map and a cool pack of cards about the interesting artefacts and the men and women involved with Petrie.

Stone Carvings

Stone was usually used to draw/write events in Mythology or Legend or to write about what special people such as the Pharaoh had done.  I was so surprised how many there were.

Here's a picture of me in front of one of the many glass cabinets holding the stone tablets.

Here is a picture of a Pharaohs name engraved in the oval on the stone with a line under it.  The oval is called a "cartouche".  Often the names of people such as Pharaohs were written inside an oval cartouche like this.  The cartouche was meant to protect them from evil spirits in life and after death.

To me this looks like a story because it has a name repeating in it.  Can you spot it inside the oval cartouche?  This one has been coloured.  

Here is one with coloured pictures and writing.

In this one I thought the figure on the left was Ra the god of the sun because of the sun disc above his head which usually represents that that god is Ra.  But the card said it was a god called Horus.  So when I got home I looked it up on the computer.  It seems like the Egyptian Mythology is quite complicated and weird, but from what I read Horus and Ra combine and become Amura.

Objects of Mythical Protection

The ancient Egyptians believed that when you die you go to the Underworld. The Underworld was believed to be a place where spirits would go when the person died. To get to the Underworld there were rivers of fire, beasts and monsters and other obstacles. There were gods and beasts who guarded the Underworld such as Ammit (a female demon with the head of a crocodile, the mane and front paws of a lion and the body and hind legs of a hippo) and Anubis (God of embalmers).  They decided whether or not to let spirits in to the Underworld or not.  To be able to get in you had to have a just heart and how they would tell is they would use a weighing scale and for your heart to be just it had to weigh the same as this magical feather that one of the gods owned.  But if your heart weighed more than the feather it would be fed to Ammit.   

Because travelling to the Underworld was so dangerous people felt they needed protection so often would have objects buried with them to protect them on their journey.

These are Shabtis.  They would usually be found in pyramids and tombs as they were buried with people to protect them.  The scripting engraved on them is usually meant to represent spells and charms for protection in the underworld.  I discovered that they usually held tools of some sort.  For every about 10 Shabti like that there would be one 'boss' Shabti holding a whip.

This is another amulet for protection.  It's mean to represent the eye of Horus which legend says watches over all humans.

Clothing

These are some remains of actual dresses worn by the ancient Egyptians.  Things like the stone carvings remain practically whole and undamaged except by breakage.  However, the fabric of these dresses is much more delicate and has been more severely damaged over time.


They also has some replica clothing that you could learn about and try on to see what ancient Egyptian clothing was like.

This is a loincloth for a worker.

I made my Mum put the worker's loincloth on.

Here I am wearing the Pharaoh's loincloth.

This one shows a dress.

This is a wrap skirt which would have been worn by the big tough workers.

This is a piece of jewellery designed to look like a laurel wreath worn by Roman Emperors such as Julius Caesar. 

Other Interesting Objects

There was a really lovely lady who was there to help out.  She knew so much about the objects on the cards and took lots of time to explain things to me.

These are some pieces from the palace of Akhenaten (probably Tutankhamen's father) and Nefertiti. These pieces were particularly interesting because Petrie covered them with tapioca pudding when he found them to preserve their colour.  I think they should be called the pudding puzzle pieces.

Here I am learning about the beads from the card.  I also learnt an interesting fact from the lady who was helping us.  That was that they think Tutankhamen's name is written on one of the beads.  So it could have been his!

This is from a coffin lid.  It shows an artist's impression of the person who died.

These are early Egyptian tools.

This one is a bit creepy.  It's a chunk of hair from a Mummy found in a tomb.  It's still even got some scalp attached.  Gross!

Me and Mummy!  (Well, not an actual Mummy - just the case.)

Egyptian Writing...

Here I am practicing writing in Egyptian.  I wrote a new nick name I chose for myself - Lupus - which means wolf.