The Greeks

St Saviour's Junior School

Pupils from St Saviour's Junior School, Bath, concentrated on the Greek theme of 'The Marquise de Seignelay and Two of her Sons'. They learnt about the mythological stories of Thetis, the goddess of the sea, Achilles, her son and hero, and Cupid, the god of love. Accurate models of Greek warships were made, like the ones seen on the horizon in the painting, and period armour was researched and imitated.

After hearing the story of how Vulcan, the god of fire, forged Achilles' armour (referred to in the painting by the volcano in the background), the pupils made a large model of a volcano and erupted it using an explosive formula of vinegar and bicarbonate of soda. View a video clip of this explosion.


This is the chemical equation for the reaction of bicarbonate of soda with vinegar:

NaHCO3(s) + CH3COOH(aq) → CH3COO- Na+(aq)+CO2(g)


Curriculum areas covered: art, CDT, history, science
Key skills: problem solving, ICT, numeracy