Posted on: January 20th 2017
On Thursday we visited the British library. As the traffic was marvellous, we arrived there in just 35 minutes. Now, we will tell you all about our trip…
Once we had deposited our belongings, Year 5 were shown into a learning room where our guide, Marianne, told us about maps and who uses them, for example, sailors, people who are visiting the country and historians. We then travelled to the Treasure Gallery where we were instructed to retrace our steps and create a map about how we arrived at our destination. After that, we split into groups and participated in a Map your World workshop which involved using critical thinking skills to analyse maps.
Following this, we discussed the different means by which to construct a map, for example: birds eye view and a parallel view. Eagerly we climbed the steps to the top to see what the difference would be between a bird’s eye view and a parallel view.
After viewing the different perspectives we found our way to the world’s second largest atlas which was created for King Charles II in 1660. 5H were all stunned by the size, but what surprised us more was that Australia had created an even bigger atlas!
As soon as we were finished looking at the colossal atlas we were shown back down to the learning room where we discussed our findings and talked about our favourite parts of the trip.
It was a brilliant experience and we thoroughly enjoyed it!
By Ava and Georgina
On Thursday 19th January, Form 5 went to the British Library and it was huge! Our guide, Jean showed us everything from the smallest atlas in the world, made for Queen Mary’s doll’s house that can be seen in Windsor Castle, to the second largest atlas ever made. The library was filled with around twenty million books and the number is increasing as we speak! Did you know that every book ever published in the UK is sent straight to the British Library? Caitlin Alpert 5O
Yesterday, Form 5 went to the British Library and participated in a Map Your World workshop. Once in the learning room, we were told a lot of facts and that there were around four million maps and twenty million books there altogether. After we were split into our classes, our first activity was to follow a verbal ‘map’ and we had to find where it led to. We finally reached the cushion area and we drew a plan to show how we would explain our journey to others and compared ours to the other maps created.
Later on, we also experimented drawing bricks from a bird’s eye view and plan view and talked about other important information given on maps. We also went to look at the book cases containing the books that King George III was given but he had given them away as he wanted a ballroom instead! My favourite bit was when we went to see the second largest atlas in the world and our guide, Jean showed us copies of some of the old maps that were inside.
We shared our experiences at the end of the workshop and I thought it was so cool as there weren’t just books and maps in the library but also 3D art and lots of things to look at.
Leila Salem 5O
