Year 3 - building and designing Medieval Castles!

Year 3 have been investigating and exploring the different types of castles that could be found in Medieval England as part of our new Topic this term ‘Castles’.

We discovered there were three types of castle: The Motte and Bailey, of which Windsor castles is an excellent example, a Concentric and a Stone keep. We also looked at the many features of these castles and their uses eg. portcullis, moat, drawbridge, battlements, arrow slits to name a few. Perhaps one of our most gruesome discoveries was a murder hole.This was a hole made in an archway and as the enemies passed underneath it, boiling hot oil was poured through it !!

The children were then set a challenge, to first, design and then build a castle using their new knowledge.They had to think carefully about the type of castle they wanted to build and also decide what materials they were going to use.They certainly rose to the challenge ! We were delighted with the wide range of castles and also the creative ways in which they were brought to life. We had castles made with Lego, Junk modelling, sticks and mud and even a Cake!!