Art - the video introduces ‘heraldry’ - you may use this to link to the art curriculum objective of ‘using a range of materials creatively to design and make products...using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space’. Fatima: So I've seen lots of castles in books and on the Internet, but it will be great to know a bit more about what makes a castle, a castle. 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.

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 .

Sally: Yes - kings, queens and nobles would often tell them what to do. It was a hard life in many ways. When the king went to war, the knights would have to fight for them. Sometimes the nobles would fight each other, which meant the knights would have to fight for them too.

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. Medieval history can be one of the most compelling areas of learning to explore. Filled with stories of valiant knights and tower castles, perhaps down to the continued popularity of the stories of King Arthur but it remains exciting and especially because it has a lot of clear imagery for children.This video lends itself well for pupils designing, and / or building, their own castle and then presenting it. A medieval castle had two purposes: it was both a fortification and the home of a lord. The first castles were just earthwork enclosures.

Moats: Extra protection for castles. Water was channeled into the moats, while other moats were filled with rainfall. 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. 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, Sally: He was going to risk everything by taking his army to England to fight Harold for the throne of England. Sally: Yes, it was a dangerous situation. Two people wanted to be King, but you can only have one King of England.Longbow: The most important weapon of the Middle Ages trained archer could fire 12 arrows a minute. He could wound an enemy 250 yards, kill at too yards and pierce a knight’s armor at 60 yards. 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: Each knight family had a coat of arms: a special picture that told a story about their family and the place they came from. Everything in the coat of arms is like a little story and means something special. English (Composition) - imagine you are a knight for a day... What is life like? Make up a story about a knight and a castle! Pupils could work in groups to come up with a story about what it is like to be a knight and then the teacher could use this as a stimulus to get the pupils to compose some writing. This would be enhanced if the teacher could do some examples of oral storytelling first to set expectations and give examples which would make the pupils feel more confident.

A knight should learn a specific code of behavior. He was expected to protect women and the weak to serve his lord and the thing weak to serve his lord and the king and to defend the church, even with his life.Sally: Good question. Each castle had gates, often with a metal barrier called a portcullis and with doors made of a very strong wood. And sometimes they had a moat, which is a ditch filled with water to stop people from being able to get into the castle. You could cross the moat by using a special bridge, called a drawbridge. Castle comes from the Latin root 'castellum' or 'castrum' meaning 'fort', which itself comes from the latin 'fortis' meaning 'strong'. By this nature we can see that the word means strong structure. The portcullis was the spiked barrier which protected the doors from fire and battering. It was made from metal or woof and could be lowered by chains.