tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-280800652011-07-28T23:10:32.287+01:00If Latin isn't fun, it won't be my fault!Dr Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821700582876521466noreply@blogger.comBlogger191100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28080065.post-6856039253057741492010-04-17T20:46:00.008+01:002010-04-17T21:22:03.823+01:00

My Year V are finishing Chapter 7 of Minimus, and they are very taken with giving orders. We took advantage of the fine weather to practice a spot of parade drill, with the help of some bamboo canes and a legionary helmet earned with supermarket vouchers. (Irritatingly, the crest won't fit across the helmet, so the centurion wasn't quite correctly outfitted)tacete!milites! audite!pila portate!

Dr Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821700582876521466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28080065.post-32293805398665869732009-11-08T13:31:00.003Z2009-11-08T13:43:13.464Z

Months after acquiring the playmobil amphitheatre ('for school, of course') I've finally finished stringing together year 5's little animations. This set features soldiers following orders, and is based on Minimus Chapter 7.The children photographed the playmobil figures with a digital still camera, then recorded the sound clips using the computer's basic sound recorder and a simple microphone.

Dr Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821700582876521466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28080065.post-67809183291648588552009-10-25T19:18:00.003Z2009-10-25T19:38:26.451Z

More doctor comics

Dr Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821700582876521466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28080065.post-52532789916086060702009-10-18T21:03:00.002+01:002009-10-19T17:52:36.107+01:00

ir-01ir-01, We've been working with the 'Doctor, doctor' material again. This time round, pupils composed their dialogues and turned them into comic strips either in the traditional pencil-and-paper way, or with Comic Life and our collection of puppet photos. I'm pleased to report that this year's stories are as gruesome as ever...

Dr Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821700582876521466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28080065.post-48523135406299984572009-04-29T20:26:00.003+01:002009-04-29T20:48:30.524+01:00

Another bit of video, this time from Year 5 working with our new puppet theatre (it's an old wooden clothes-horse with felt stapled over it). Pupils used the 'Doctor! Doctor!' exercise from the Minimus workbook to write little Latin dialogues, which they acted out with the help of our mouse puppets.We have a set of three - doctor (with tiny scalpel and pill sewn on his paws), patient (optional

Dr Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821700582876521466noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28080065.post-60776805493861212252009-04-22T19:16:00.003+01:002009-04-22T19:26:26.791+01:00

Year 7 wrote little puppet plays to explain the use of the six cases. Here's a collaborative effort, with two of our favourite puppets (picked from an ever-growing collection).

Dr Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821700582876521466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28080065.post-34548727502887839082008-02-23T18:31:00.001Z2008-02-23T19:20:48.874Z

My Year 6's and I have been working on a play. It was supposed to be ready in time for last year's Minimus Mythology competition, but everything went wrong - people were away, the weather was terrible (and we had decided to film outdoors). In the end, we shot the film in December, in our school chapel. Then it took another two months to edit and wrestle with the subtitle program. We think it was

Dr Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821700582876521466noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28080065.post-55975016877289823412007-08-10T19:44:00.001+01:002007-08-10T20:28:08.937+01:00

The Judgement of Paris this time, with an enlarged cast of plastic people. We photographed the figures against a blue felt display board, so we could edit them more easily (and then we never did).Firstly, here's Hermes, messenger of the gods, bringing the Golden Apple to Paris.Here are the three goddesses, lining up for the beauty competition:Hera, in queen-of-the-gods kit (the dress is really

Dr Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821700582876521466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28080065.post-56182611130164426082007-02-18T15:12:00.000Z2007-02-18T16:39:51.118Z

A few more bits from the 'Roman' cupboard. I like to pick up Roman-looking stuff from charity shops and car boot sales as well as making things.The torc is made from rope twisted over a wire core. I think it was an old school skipping rope. The ends are stitched and bound with thread. Then I put several coats of gold Meltdown paint on it.The drinking cup is one of those pots that have expensive

Dr Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821700582876521466noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28080065.post-1163368301079787432006-11-12T21:50:00.000Z2006-11-12T21:51:41.096Z

This is a Roman-style comb that I made, for 'hands-on' experience and for acting out Minimus plays. It's made of boxwood and the teeth are (very badly) cut out with a handsaw. The case is leather, like Lepidina's. It's part of a collection of stuff I keep in my classroom. There's a wax tablet, a couple of bits of wood veneer to show how thin the Vindolanda tablets were, a roll of papyrus from the

Dr Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821700582876521466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28080065.post-1160941547564579252006-10-15T20:39:00.000+01:002006-10-15T21:04:53.103+01:00

Corvus the Latin-speaking crow has been meeting Form V, who are learning their present tense verb endings with animal noises. He can hold a whiteboard pen pretty well, but his mouse control isn't up to much.

Dr Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821700582876521466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28080065.post-1159306255558497462006-09-26T21:56:00.000+01:002006-09-26T22:40:59.386+01:00

Way back in the nineties, when I was first teaching, we painted the story of Odysseus' journey onto the library wall. This year it disappeared under fresh paint and new shelves, but it deserves its moment in public.Every child in the Prep school at the time contributed at least one drawing. Some children responded with a flow of lively characters and details - others needed persuasion, more

Dr Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821700582876521466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28080065.post-1157306095423766282006-09-03T18:41:00.000+01:002006-09-03T18:54:55.440+01:00

This is the fourth time we've tried the hands-on archaeology experiment, finding out how different materials are affected by being buried underground for months. The first time, we couldn't find one of the burial sites at all. The next time, we flagged the buried box too well and it was disturbed by person or persons unknown (or possibly the school dog!). This time, we dug a really deep hole and

Dr Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821700582876521466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28080065.post-1154281256056491342006-07-30T18:04:00.000+01:002006-07-30T18:43:48.873+01:00

Another of our rather-longer-term projects was Coin-Making, held up by all sorts of technical difficulties in the process. It took all year (well, to be honest, the casts spent months shoved into a cupboard in frustration after the great Plasticine Disaster) but we managed to turn out some display-worthy pieces in the end. The children were Year 5 when they started this project.We started by

Dr Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821700582876521466noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28080065.post-1153654271469023562006-07-23T12:05:00.000+01:002006-07-23T12:31:11.483+01:00

Our Year 4 children performed an assembly about Boudicca right at the end of term (not that anyone had anything else to think about that week...). Most of the Iceni were in checky PJ bottoms and blue face paint (but I'm not going to post any pictures of topless gentlemen) and the Romans in my red T-shirts. The children made their own Celtic shields. The horse is a Moreton Hall classic of great

Dr Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821700582876521466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28080065.post-1149343398393292332006-06-03T13:57:00.001+01:002006-06-03T15:03:18.413+01:00

As I teach everyone Latin, Art and ICT, it was a natural and irresistible move to make mythological scenes and take digital photos of them. Our Art room lay figure, Bob, would happily dress up for us, but I decided it would be easier to work with small figuresThe children have been generous in donating obsolete dolls, and I have picked up a few in charity shops and car boot sales. So far we have

Dr Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821700582876521466noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28080065.post-1148459898658622682006-05-24T09:38:00.000+01:002006-05-24T21:15:43.560+01:00

The second of our stand-against-the-wall-of-sickbay videos, filmed as a series of short clips with a Canon G5 on a not very stable tripod and re-dubbed later to cover up the background noise and my ever more desperate instructions (You're off stage! Hit him now! Go on, die!) The script was written to fit with Chapter 8 of Minimus, where Flavius visits the doctor, and the 'Doctor, doctor!'

Dr Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821700582876521466noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28080065.post-1147893116236910792006-05-17T20:11:00.000+01:002006-05-17T20:11:56.240+01:00

This story is a break with the usual formula of Dr F Latin plays: we filmed it in short clips, outside the school sick bay (the only blank wall we could find!) and re-recorded all the sound track to lose the sound of Harry Potter playing in the next room, and me yelling instructions to the actors. The script is available on the Minimus website.Powered by Castpost

Dr Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821700582876521466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28080065.post-1147611659979034242006-05-15T18:22:00.000+01:002006-05-14T18:32:54.266+01:00

salvete omnes! Minimus and I are venturing from the safe haven of our website into the scary outer space of the blogosphere. I hope that Minimus readers and website visitors will leave the odd comment, as it's very easy to do. I also hope that I can set up Minimus podcasts and streaming video (never say I don't have aspirations far beyond my actual abilities...)I should be able to keep people

Dr Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821700582876521466noreply@blogger.com1