Year 3 - Colchester Castle

This week Year 3 enjoyed a very exciting trip to Colchester Castle. Before the trip, we found out that when the Romans invaded Britain in 49AD they built a city at Colchester (then known as Camulodunum). This city included a temple called the Temple of Claudius, and it was on the foundations of this temple that the Normans built the castle much later on. The castle was used as a prison for many years before becoming a museum. Now it holds a very important collection of Roman artefacts.

The children enjoyed looking at all the amazing artefacts on display, which included tools that an Iron Age doctor would have used, gold coins, a real Roman mosaic and artefacts that survived the burning of Colchester city by the Celtic Queen, Boudicca. The children worked really well in teams to build replicas of an Iron Age roundhouse and a Roman villa. We found out that whilst the Celts had a fire in the middle of their roundhouse to heat it, the Romans had under-floor heating! One of the children's favourite activities was dressing up in a variety of outfits including those of an Iron Age farmer, Roman soldier and Saxon. Lastly, we heard the story of how the Romans came to Britain and settled in Colchester during our story tour in the vaults under the castle. The children were very engaged and asked lots of questions, and are looking forward to finding out more about the Romans in the coming weeks.