Last week we started learning about the Victorians. We began learning about Queen Victoria and went on to learn about the life of the Victorian people.

We did a Big Talk about the workhouse and spoke about the jobs, the conditions, the food and how we would feel if we had to live there. Then, we wrote a diary entry about a day in the life of a Victorian child in the workhouse.

This week, we started doing some art work related to the Victorians. We have painted some cityscapes which are the outlines of Victorian rooftops with chimneys and a chimney sweep. We looked at different shades of blues and oranges and mixed the paints to create different shades for each layer of rooftops.

Beth S brought in some Victorian artifacts for us to look at and discuss. Some of the items were:

• Wash board
• Iron
• Tea pot
• Money
• Fountain pens
• Jelly pan
• Hot water bottle

It was fascinating to see that these were real Victorian objects and how different the same objects are today.