Minimus/Primary Latin Project

[Marina]

New thread to discuss persuading Ellbell to give Minimus a whirl!
(and anyone else out there...)
Ellbell, I also work full-time although I honestly don't think my work is as intellectually demanding as yours
Thanks to the excellence of the Teachers' Handbook, session prep is fairly straightforward, although I have not had the ingenuity of Rosa when it comes to arty/crafty extension activities.
I had to LOL at the repelling the marauding Celts at Brigantium, that sounds really entertaining.
We have a firm schism in our group between those who think the Celts were Wrong but Wromantic (pace Sellars and Yeatman), and want to do our end of term play naked from the waist up and wearing tartan trews and a fright wig (the trews are, inevitably, Boden, I am told ); and those who are ardent citizens of Rome and all want to be Hadrian. One child so enjoys playing emperors in plays he has a laurel crown and an imperial cloak on standby.

So far the prop list reads:

one rubber chicken
one pirate's hook (doubling as strigil)
16 white sheets

We are doing the Roman Baths play from the website and the parents are coming to watch.

I get lots of grateful remarks too, quite frankly it makes my week

I would be heading off to do a Primary PGCE right now if I could afford to

So what are you having at your feast Rosa, it sounds absolutely brilliant!

Marina - love your mini-Hadrian. I was wondering about making wreaths for the end of term feast but my ingenuity is stretched to the limit there.
We made bullas yesterday - they had a great time making charms to go inside them with buttons and metallic spray paint. Here's the link for the pattern I used if you are interested.

Thanks for that Rosa, bullas look like a craft activity that even I can manage without mayhem
Now I sent that Ellbell a wax tablet e-mail about this thread, where could she be?

Salve! Ecce Ellbell! Mea vita operosissima est.

Hmm... that's quite enough of that, I think!

Have been in throes of work crisis (secretary has left us as of today - she has worked in our institution for 30 years - and all hell is going to break loose next week, as I have no clue how things work... aaargh!). I am really struggling to keep my head above water at the moment, which convinces me that I probably shouldn't take on anything else just yet. I have study leave in 2009-10, so maybe then would be a good time to give it a whirl. My Latin is pretty rubbish though, despite recent translation activity .

Marina... am loving your Emperor-in-waiting and Boden-clad Celts... Wonderful!

What age do both of you teach your Latin to? I really want to do it, but I think I need to give myself a bit more time. Dh was trying to persuade me not to stand for 2nd term as school governor last night, but still undecided on that one... I do enjoy it and it's only an infant school (dd1 has moved on to the Juniors now, but dd2 is still there) so a bit of a sinecure really. Might sound out headteacher of Junior school, though. Someone is clearly keen on the Romans (or are they on the National Curriculum for KS2?), hence the Brigantium trip.

Thanks for starting this thread, Marina. Looks like Latin might be a bit of a minority interest. Think MN may have more chicken-keepers than Classicists!

Hey Ellbell. I have year 5 and 6 in my Latin club. You could do year 3 and 4 as well with Minimus, but I wouldn't try and do 3-6 in one club. I'm not a proper teacher!
As regards Romans - it is part of the KS2 history curriculum - they usually do it in Y3/4.
I am thinking of offering my services to the secondary school as my Y6 kids (including DD1) are moving up in September. They may think I am barking though.

I bet they will not think you are barking rosa. If they are clued up they will be delighted. That's what Minimus Secundus is for, after all
Good for you . I'd give my eye teeth to be able to spend a lot more time doing Minimus and much less doing my real job right now

All part of my cunning plan Marina. I am doing an OU history degree with a bit of classics thrown in and hoping to teach in some form eventually.

Hi both! My dd is in Year 3, so that explains the Romans thing. Years 5 and 6 are probably a good age for the Latin, though, aren't they?

Good luck with the OU degree, Rosa. How much have you done so far? Do you get to go to Summer Schools? (If you get sent to a well-known Northern University, let me know...)

nimble-minded Yr4s will get it though Ellbell

Oh yes, I'm sure. I was doing the calculation that if I try to offer it the year after next, my dd will (conveniently) be in Year 5! Hooray! [fickle/nepotistic emoticon]

Why do you think I offered it to Years 4 and above

Just to let y'all know that I went to ds's school Latin club play this morning and it was FAB! They did Cinderella (partly in Latin, with narrators doing accompanying witty translations/explanations). And it wasn't just the white middle-class parents, either -- there were plenty of big scary mums from the tough estate as well, smiling at their toga'd kids.

Lots of 'Eheu' and 'pes maximus est'. Top line: when the narrator is rude about the wicked stepmother, and she replies (bearing in mind this is inner-city primary): "Quid me appellavisti? Visne illud iterare??"

Ds's sole criterion for choosing a secondary school (he's in Y4, so we're going to look in the autumn) is that he wants to do Latin.