Today Year five were visited by the Anglo-Saxons. They looked like the Anglo-Saxons, dressed like the Anglo- Saxons and they were able to tell us all about their people. The first thing Year five learnt was the importance of Anglo-Saxon names. Year five spent time thinking about the significance of their own names and how this same importance was given to names during the Anglo-Saxon period. It was great to share so many examples of this within the class.  Year five learnt that Beowulf means bee and bear. They also learnt that Egbert means bright-eyed which means someone who is of great intelligence.

Next, the children participated in a role play wherby they learnt about the structure of the Anglo-Saxon homes and the materials used for this. Often this consisted of hay or straw, mud and faeces from animals. It sounds rather unpleasant but the faeces would only smell for a few days and it held things together in a great way. In additon to this, they learnt that Anglo-Saxons were pagans. They believed in many Gods. They often would have fortune tellers that would use rune stones to help identify people’s fortunes. It was evident that some outcomes were better than others which the children found rather hilarious.

Overall, the visit helped Year five to improve their understanding of daily life for the Anglo-Saxons and to explore it in a practical way.