Know it! - Castles - Year 1

The educational resources provided by Focus Education introduce Year 1 students to the topic of castles with a variety of interactive and engaging activities. The "Cops and robbers" activity encourages children to work in groups of four, recalling what they know about castles and sharing that knowledge with their peers. Each child has two minutes to jot down their own memories on the topic, followed by a minute to review the contributions of their group members. This allows them to 'steal' information they hadn't remembered themselves, adding to their 'stolen knowledge' section. Points are awarded for each piece of information recorded, making the learning process both fun and competitive.

Subsequent activities include a vocabulary exercise where students, in pairs, identify words related to castles, such as 'portcullis' and 'drawbridge', and circle them for points. Another task, "Give me 3!", prompts pupils to recall three aspects of castles based on given categories, such as parts of a castle or people who lived in one, with points awarded for correct answers. The "Speak like an expert" activity allows children to present what they've learned about castles to a partner, who then scores their presentation. This score is multiplied by a factor based on the topic chosen, such as 'moat' or 'Windsor Castle'. These activities are designed to reinforce learning while also assessing the students' retention and understanding of the historical significance of castles.