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On Friday 9th October 2015 J3 went to Chichester to visit Fishbourne Roman Palace. The home of Celtic King Cogidubnus who adopted the Roman way of life when the Romans invaded Great Britain.

It was a glorious Autumn day and this was our first outing of the year.

We arrived ready for our workshop which was interesting and informative.

We learnt about the lives of the Celts and the Romans that lived in the area over 2000 years ago and the amazing artefacts that were found when the area was excavated in 1960.

The best part of the workshop of course was becoming slaves and taking part in various activities.

The girls were able to work in the kitchen, grinding wheat into flour and mixing various herbs and cooking the evening meal as well as sweeping the floor.

The other activities the children were involved in were to write their names in Roman letters on wax tablets, writing in ink pen using a quill.

They learnt how to weave using yarn. Learnt how a Celtic round house was constructed which was quite a feat and did rubbings of a Celtic scabbard which had Celtic patterns embossed on it.

There were various puzzles and games as well and thegirls were able to construct lovely intricate mosaic patterns.

The highlight of the workshop was when Annika was chosen to be dressed in ceremonial Celtic princess dress and Evie was dressed in a toga and a very long cloak. They both looked rather fine!

After lunch we went to view the amazing mosaic floors of the palace and saw how this amazing palace was heated.

We managed to sketch beautiful examples and ‘Cupid and the Dolphin’ floor pattern was certainly the main attraction.

The end of a lovely day at Fishbourne Roman Palace was exploring the beautiful gardens where we were able to record some interesting and unusual herbs and flowers.