An archaeologist at the University of Cambridge and British Museum visited pupils at King’s Ely Acremont as they started a new term theme of ‘Time Travellers’.

Ely Standard: University of Cambridge archaeologist Dr John MacGinnis visits Ely pupilsUniversity of Cambridge archaeologist Dr John MacGinnis visits Ely pupils (Image: Archant)

Using the large sandpit, Dr John MacGinnis showed the children how to excavate and sort different artefacts, and how to then use them as evidence when researching people from the past.

Dr MacGinnis also brought in some artefacts he had dug up, incluing a 7,000-year-old piece of pottery from Iraq.

Dr MacGinnis is an independent post-doctoral researcher at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge. He specialises in the study of Neo-Babylonian and Assyrian archaeology.

Ely Standard: University of Cambridge archaeologist Dr John MacGinnis visits Ely pupilsUniversity of Cambridge archaeologist Dr John MacGinnis visits Ely pupils (Image: Archant)

Earlier in the day, reception pupils arrived at school to find a mysterious cracked egg shell and some footprints in the den leading out into the garden.

At first, the children talked about what might have broken out of the shell and among the suggestions were a penguin, an ostrich and a chicken.

They followed the footprints and the trail of ‘animal poop’ outside where they quickly found a note alongside another unhatched egg.

The note asked them to look after the egg until it hatched and how to care for it. Once the egg had hatched it became clear that they were going to be discovering all about dinosaurs.

Meanwhile, Year 2 pupils were given a gilded blue box tied with red ribbon and were told it contained clues linked to their new topic for the term.

They discovered that inside the box were wrapped parcels.

Each child opened a parcel and enjoyed being detectives to work out the connection between the clues. They discovered their new topic this term is London treasures.