Knights and Castles (First Reading, Level 4)

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During a castle siege, the people in the castle could become so hungry that they would eat rats and the leather that their shoes were made from. Vegetables don't sound so bad now, do they? Over on The Usual Mayhem they got crafty with St George and the Dragon (fantastic book for April for children to read in April in England) and made wonderful Dragon puppets and a castle.

Drawbridge - this could be raised or lowered to allow people to either cross the moat or stop them! Our collection has over 500 resources on Castles & Knights for children, our collection has everything you could need to run a great array of History lessons and more, all while saving you time with our brilliantly made, beautifully illustrated resources, activities, games and display items.After watching the video the teacher could use this as a role-play / story-telling activity. Pupils can recreate what they saw in the video and perform their retellings for the class. Sally: Okay. Well how about we start from the outside and work our way inwards? We can look at all the important things as we go. Beneath the nobles were the knights. They also owned some land, given to them by the nobles and so they had to do what the nobles told them, including fighting for them. At the very bottom were the ordinary people, peasants .

They could repeat the time travel for 100, 1000 and 10,000 years. This would be supported if the teacher could use images / props / artefacts to prompt pupil thinking. Sally: He was going to risk everything by taking his army to England to fight Harold for the throne of England. Castle toilets were very smelly. Clothes were hung there to stop moths from eating them. That is why the toilets were called 'garderobes'. Drawbridge: Could be raised and lowered when necessary. It was used to protect the castle from invaders. Each photo is labelled with a key vocabulary word from the topic such as 'dungeon' and 'moat' along with a small description of what that part of the castle was used for. This is great for spellings and getting children to understand the keywords from the topic.

Engage children with digital learning

Windsor Castle is England's largest castle. It was originally built out of wood by William the Conqueror between 1070 and 1086.

Exploring castle in more detail B-Inspired Mama explored some non-fiction books with her children and produced a shape castle– I love the drawing in the castle window as well. Harry: Yeah, did they run the country? Where did they live? Did they have any rules they had to follow? As knighthood evolved, a Christian ideal of knightly behaviour and chivalry came to be accepted, involving respect for the church, protection of the poor and the weak, loyalty to one’s feudal or military superiors, and preservation of personal honour. Sally: Not knights, which was a male role. But there were very powerful women, who led armies and controlled battles. Have a clear idea of what you want to achieve e.g. 'give an overview of the features of medieval castles'.To describe this topic to a friend, I would tell that people in the middle ages used specific building to protect themselves and they also used to train knights at an early age to fight in battles and protect people. Sally: William was very young when he became the Duke of Normandy. This was a very important ruler in France. He had lots of enemies who wanted to take over as Duke, so he had to work hard to make sure he could carry on being in charge. Write a story all about kings, queens princes and princesses, featuring brave knights, fiery dragons or whatever you like! A medieval fantasy theme is excellent for inspiring children to write their own exciting stories using a selection of words or phrases. There’s lots of magic and fun themes for them to explore. Get started with a fun writing frame. Create a fun and exciting lesson on knights and castles for your KS1 children by using our fantastic primary resources. Browse through the different learning materials we have to offer to find something that fits with your lesson plan. But don’t worry if you’re not sure where to even begin. We’ve got you sorted with this KS1 Castle Lesson Plan Ideas , which outlines various activities you can incorporate into your English, maths and even PE lessons that relate to knights and castles for KS1. There are plenty of resources that you can use to provide information to your class but in an exciting way. You can also encourage creativity in the classroom by asking them to design their own castle - after they’ve drawn it, why not ask them to colour it in as well? A great way to practise their fine-motor skills. Another great way to ensure your KS1 class is engaged with the topic of knights and castles is to use our fantastic eBooks. You can try this Knights and Dragons Unite eBook to start the lesson off, or wind down the day. Whatever you need for your knights and castles KS1 lesson, we can help you through it. Fun Facts about Knights and Castles for KS1 Sally: It's a good question. Castles are all different and how they were built changed over time. At first they were built of wood, but that burnt too easily. So then they were made of stone. There were lots of changes over the years. Let's put our virtual reality headsets on and go and take a look at two castles to find out more.