Castles Year 4

Hello

I am an NQT and my first class will be Year 4. I am taking them on a residential to Beeston Castle in January, so for the spring term would like to do a history/geography topic on castles. However I am struggling to construct a medium-term plan on this as 'castles' is not a QCA unit in itself. So I am not sure where to get my objectives from and how to ensure progression.

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

You would need to break it down and think about what you want them to achieve from the unit and then start tying objectives in.
For example in Spring 1 you could do narrative and tradional tales in english at the same time so they have lots of stories with castles in them. You could do a historical topic that has lots of castles (not English so won't embarrass myself by guessing a topic here). In DT you could make a castle at the end of a few lessons after first sketching a plan, resourcing materials and then finally constructing it.
You can obviously make it as in depth or not as appropriate but you get the idea. Hope that helps and I explained what I meant clearly.

 

Scholastic do a book for cross-curricular work on the theme of Castles. I have used it and think it's worth spending the money on.

 

Add some homework themes, on if they are on holiday - can they find a castle, what films have they watched with castles in it,
remember castles were 'popular' in mediaeval (sp?) history from after about 900-1400, they were in decline except for the other various wars when they were useful again. Make sure you make the most of good background reading, and you'll find it so much easier.

If you have to produce QCA style planning then look at them, there is a generic one that's quite adaptable or utilise the 'invaders and settlers' unit, as time wise that's quite close, and year group friendly.

I've kept things from pre QCA, a lot of people did castles then. (I know that's not much help but if you have friends of family that were teaching around then, they might have stuff too).

 

Oh and i just thought - they should know all about castles - they in a lot of fairy tales!

maths links an obvious one here...

 

PM me your email address if you like, I did this topic in Year 5 and did a full medium term plan.

 

PM me your email address if you like, I did this topic in Year 5 and did a full medium term plan.

 

After a re-think I have decided to do it more Geography-based. I could compare the location of Beeston and its surroundings, to that of the village the children live in. I haven't looked at it in much more detail than that yet so not sure how much that would work!

 

Hi there i am looking for help with a castles plan as well if you are able to mail your one it would help
joanne jldoyle53339@gmail.com
many thanks

 

Just to throw a spanner in the works, they LOVE learning about the history of medieval castles - especially the old defence systems, and the prisons etc.
What you need to be careful of is that if you are decided to get rid of History, you are not then imbalancing your long term plan - ie are they still getting enough History throughout the year? You need to make sure the breadth of the NC is covered.
We plan thematically so we do a broad long term plan with topics, ensure that we have adequate coverage of his/geog/science based topics, and then we use Chris Quigley's key skills document to make sure we are planning for the appropriate skills to be taught. We always link our Literacy to our topics where possible.
Do you have a long term plan that you have either been given or completed yourself?
PLEASE do go back to your school and ask for advice or clarification if need be. I dont want to confuse you and remember myself how terrifying and complex everything sounded at the beginning - but you will get used to everything, you just need to be completely clear with the way the school works.
My line of thought with castles would be something like this:
Lesson 1 - What do they already know? Create a whole class mind map. Children write down questions they want to find out the answers to.
The next few lessons - Geog based lessons - look at castles locally and nationally - compare and contrast the styles, mark them on a map, discuss historic reasons for having a castle in the locality.
The next few lessons - Hist based lessons - Look at castles from different ages, discuss the different types of castles (motte and bailey etc), focus in on medieval castles - remind children they didn't have technology in those days - research how they defended themselves, what features of the castle were for defence, discuss the lifestyles of the people, what they did for fun (jousting, jesters,banquets) etc.
The next few lessons - DT based lessons - Design and make a model castle - they could box model and papier mache in groups maybe. Challenge them to create a working drawbridge maybe?
Then when they go on their trip they will have some great ideas about how the castle used to be used, and their imaginations will be fuelled.
That was just me writing down random things that came to mind so they may not suit your class, or make much sense, but just a few ideas.
Local geography alone is completely dull.