Visiting a Thatcher

In February one of the children came into school having met one of the thatchers in the village.  He was very excited to talk about what he had learnt from him.  He asked whether we could all go down to the village to find out more.  The children walked down to where Jamie was thatching one of the houses in the village and we were able to learn all about the water reeds that Jamie uses and about how they are grown and the journey that they make from China to get here.  They also learnt how a thatched roof is created, how long it lasts and the skill and knowledge needed to be a thatcher.  The children came back to school with some examples of the different types of water reed (old and new) as well as the spars which are the pegs used to attach the water reed to the roof. The children decided to map the journey of the water reed and then wrote about what they had learnt about thatching.