大象传媒

Fatima and Harry find out about the main features of a castle - including the moat, drawbridge, battlements, thick walls, towers, etc.

The Features of a Castle

In this episode Sally shows Fatima and Harry the main features of a castle. It is a stimulus for a range of activities, in particular for showing changes beyond living memory ('What was life like for people who lived in castles?')

During the animation the characters explore a number of castles - including Warwick Castle and Edinburgh Castle - which is useful for schools in these regions wanting to teach 鈥榮ignificant places in their locality鈥.

The castle features that Sally shows Fatima and Harry include:

  • the significance of location (eg on top of a hill)
  • external features - such as towers battlements, thick walls, a moat, a drawbridge, etc
  • internal features - such as a well, large stores to guard against siege, a hall for everyone to socialise.
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Further resources

Download / print the Notes including illustrations, photos and worksheets (pdf)

Teacher's Notes

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Edinburgh Castle

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Warwick Castle

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What is the same about these castles? What is different?

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Some features of a castle
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Teacher's Notes

Before the video

The pupils could be asked to draw what they think a castle looks like and present it to the class.

This will help develop pupils using art to express their ideas and thinking as well as develop the spoken language skill of presenting.

The teacher could ask questions about castles such as 鈥榳hat are they made of? 鈥榃hat are castles for?鈥

During the video

The teacher can stop and ask pupils to reflect if what they thought castles were like is true.

It might also be good to check for clarifying questions as there is a lot of new vocabulary which may need explaining.

After the video

This video lends itself well for pupils designing, and / or building, their own castle and then presenting it.

This will meet objectives in the NC for Design Technology (eg building structures, exploring how they can be made stronger, stiffer and more stable and using a range of tools and and materials).

When the pupil presents their castle, this would also hit the spoken language objective of using spoken word to present.

This would be a great opportunity for the children to develop their spoken language skills by taking part in a discussion around which is the most important feature of a castle and why.

Each group could be given one feature of a castle and asked to explain to the rest of the class why that feature is the most important feature of a castle.

At the end of the discussion the class could take a vote.

There are also elements of the physical geography curriculum which could be utilised through using this video as a stimulus.

The video includes the need to build castles on hills or near a water supply. This could be used as a way into pupils being able to understand some of the physical features highlighted in the curriculum (beach, cliff, coast, forest, hill, mountain, sea, ocean, river,soil, valley, vegetation).

This could be combined with the above activity of building a castle making it cross curricular between history, geography and DT.

This film is relevant for teaching History at KS1 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and 1st Level in Scotland.

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More from this series

The Tower of London. video

Fatima and Harry explore one of the most famous castles in the UK: the Tower of London.

The Tower of London

Famous Sieges. video

Fatima and Harry learn how castles defended against attack by hearing the stories of two famous sieges.

Famous Sieges

The Legend of King Arthur. video

Fatima and Harry learn the difference between fact and fiction - hence the difference between history and myth.

The Legend of King Arthur
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