Hello

During this last week of English in Year 3, we are going to use our imagination and transform ourselves into a citizen of Pompeii living in the Year AD79 (almost 2000 years ago) when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in a deadly explosion, engulfing the city of Pompeii, burying its residents and buildings in layers of ash.

Today, we will take you on a journey of volcano eruptions and we will take a first look at the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius itself.  Mt. Vesuvius is still an active volcano today and it is situated in southern Italy near the city of Naples.  It has actually erupted at least once every century, but AD79 was the deadliest eruption to the citizens living close by.  However, because we cannot see live footage of an event that took place almost 2000 years ago, we can see live footage of Vesuvius erupting within the last 100 years and we have included live film footage from when it erupted in 1944, during World War 2. We suggest you watch this through twice, first to see how the eruption had a devastating affect upon the people who lived close by and, second, to pause the video and write down the fantastic powerful verbs and adjectival phrases used to describe the eruption and the affects upon the people so that you can use them yourself, in the Big Write later this week, when you will be imagining yourself as somebody living through the same volcano erupting in 79AD!

So relax in front of your computers and enjoy VOLCANO CINEMA today.  All we ask is that you have a pencil and paper with you so that you can jot down any fantastic powerful verbs, adjectives or adjectival phrases that you hear or from what you see that might be of use to you when you write your diary entry later this week as a citizen of Pompeii AD79 (YOU DO NOT NEED TO SUBMIT ANY OF THESE NOTES TO YOUR TEACHER TODAY)!

ENJOY!