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The Ground Beneath Our Feet: Part 2

Four local primary schools have taken part in an exciting project funded by The Royal Society. Each class spent two days in North Lincolnshire Museum, exploring the history, geology and science of the ground beneath their feet.

On the second day, the schoolchildren worked with local poet Graeme Williams to bring their learning life, creating poems that drew on their experiences in the Museum.

In the Jurassic Sea gallery, you will see their fabulous poems on display, illustrated by local artist Charlotte Portier-Tock. The children reference their time spent in the Museum galleries, objects from the Collection they handled, science experiments they conducted and questions they asked.

Image shows poem text:
I am an ammonite from ancient times,
Who lived five hundred million years ago.

I hunted for my food in shallow waters,
But died when I was hunted in my turn.
My shell lay under layers of sediment,

Until, at last, I turned to cold, hard, stone.
An archaeologist then dug me up,
And put me on display for all to see.
I was a trilobite, and in my lifetime,

My crystal eyes shone bright like opals gleaming,
My body swam in warm and shallow waters,
My tail swished as I swam in salty seas.

My kin spread into every kind of ocean,
We lasted for three hundred million years,
Until we died out with the dinosaurs,
And now we’re all just fossils in the rock.

I am the fossil of a Plesiosaur,
A long-necked creature swimming in the sea.
I was discovered by Miss Mary Anning,

The greatest fossil hunter there has been.
She found my skull embedded in a cliff.
And when she dug, she found the rest of me.

They put me on display in a museum,
My bones, from now on, there for all to see.
A dinosaur covered in rocks and soil,
I died when a meteor hit the Earth.

I am nothing now but a bunch of bones,
Alone, since all my kind have disappeared,
Then I was discovered, for all to see,
Now everybody is looking at me,

And I feel like I have my friends again!
I am a piece of local ironstone,
You’ll find a lot of ammonites in me,
For once I formed the bottom of the ocean,

When everything around us was just sea.
They dug me up and turned me into iron.
And, in their fiery furnaces, made steel,
I am a piece of local ironstone

Discovered in the ground beneath your feet.
I am a bone from centuries ago,
Embedded in the earth, a long night’s sleep,

And deep beneath the ground I dreamt of sunlight,
Though peaceful was the dark in which I lay.
And other bones and shells all lay beside me,

Until some people came with spades and trowels,
They dug us up and pulled us from our dreaming.
And put us in a box for all to see.
I am the crystal shine of ammonite,

From deep within the creature’s spiral shell,
My hollow chambers grew to help it float.
Within the salty waters of the sea.
And when the ammonite still lived, it said,

‘When I am gone, please polish up my shell,
Then when I rest in peace, my shell can glimmer,
And everyone can see the way I shine.’

Images:
Sketch of complete plesiosaur fossil.
Picture of an ammonite fossil on a stand.

Illustrations of a red, nautilus shell.
Picture of a trilobite fossil embedded in a rock.

We would like to thank all those involved, especially the incredible work of the children from those schools involved:

St. Norbert’s Catholic Primary Voluntary Academy
Scunthorpe Church of England Primary School
Bottesford Junior School
The Riverside Federation

The Ground Beneath Our Feet: Part 1

The first in a series of poems created by school children with local poet Graeme Williams, with inspiration from the museum displays.

The Ground Beneath Our Feet: Part 3

The third of a series of poems created by school children with local poet Graeme Williams, with inspiration from the museum displays.

The Ground Beneath Our Feet: Part 4

The fourth of a series of poems created by school children with local poet Graeme Williams, with inspiration from the museum displays.

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