Date Posted: 19/11/2024Current News
Category / School News Posted on: 28/03/2024
A Roman invasion for Year 4!
Our Sports Hall field was transformed into a Roman Army camp for the Year 4 children. A Roman centurion named Ganaius Marcellus arrived, complete with tent, fire and battle equipment, to turn our uncultured Celts into fully trained Romans!
In the morning, the children introduced themselves to him in Latin and learnt about the Roman invasion of Britain. They found out about the life of a Roman soldier, naming the different parts of his armour and weapons. Lucky Mila got to wear the full armour! They found out about battle tactics and why the Romans were able to defeat the Celts in battle. Ganaius Marcellus then demonstrated how to light a fire and started to cook a Roman stew made of barley and lentils. The children then experienced some of these things for themselves, as they got to try on parts of the armour and polish it with olive oil. They also played some of the games the Roman soldiers would have played using tiles and dice, ground flour, made mosaics with tiny tesserae and fired balls from models of ballista and onagers to knock down a wooden wall. Tasting the stew and a Roman biscuit led to mixed reactions!
After lunch, the children worked in groups to handle Roman artefacts and to play detective to try and work out what the artefacts might have been used for. They had to identify one item in each box that was not from Roman Britain, using the clues they were given. They ended the day by learning Latin battle commands, practising marching, and then 4AB (the wolves) and 4CD (the eagles) took it in turns to create the famous 'testudo' or 'tortoise' battle formation with shields and to hurl soft balls at each other! Despite having a lot of fun, most children agreed that their lives are easier in 2024 than they would have been if they'd been a Roman soldier!
