Inquiry - Castles in Wales
We started our Inquiry with a visit from a real life Saxon soldier. He taught us all about Saxon life before the Norman Invasion in 1066.
Before we visited a castle, we wanted to know all about their features. So we want on a scavenger hunt around our school garden to find definitions for different castle features.
We then visited Kidwelly Castle to learn all about its history.
We investigated the Bayeux Tapestry to try and find out why the Normans invaded Britain.
We found out that the Normans came to Britain and fought at the Battle of Hastings. So used books and the internet to find out more about the battle.
From our research about the Battle of Hastings, we found out there were four different men who wanted to be king in 1066. This lead to lots of conflict! Se we decided to interview each king to see who would be most suitable for the role.
After much debate, we decided it should be... Harold Godwinson.
After learning that the Normans starting building castles to control the areas that they invaded, we decided we best build our own!
So we used maps to look at the local features of the land to decide the best location for us to build!
We were interested to know why the Normans tried to invade Wales. So we look at maps and found out about the parts of Wales they managed to invade and those they didn't!
The Welsh people didn't want the Normans to rule their country, especially Princess Gwenllian. We loved hearing her story and created story maps to remember her tale! We then changed the ending to make it a happy one!
After learning lots about why there are castles in Wales, we started to sort out everything we've learnt so far!
When we learnt that the Battle of Hastings took place on the 14th October, we wanted to celebrate the anniversary by re-enacting the battle, 956 years to the day. So we researched the tactics used by both armies and used our new knowledge to create our own 'Battle of Hastings'!
Celebrating the Norman victory in style! Our very own banquet!
We wanted to take our learning further and share everything we have learnt about castles in Wales. So we started making 'Did you know...?' books all about why there are castles in Wales. We plan to send these to Kidwelly Castle so they can put them in their gift shop for visitors to read!
We wrote letters to Kidwelly Castle to try and persuade them to stock our books in their gift shop! Fingers crossed they say YES!