The Romans, and Roman Britain
We've been studying the Romans generally, and the Romans in Britain, during February and March 2006. I like the idea of studying history through good literature, so the fictional books on this page have been very important. History has always been my weakest area academically, so it's been great to find that, despite the best efforts of my school lessons to hide the fact, it's actually full of wonderful stories. I decided to immerse myself in the topic while the kids were studying it, so I have been reading lots of adults' books on it too.
Here are some resources and ideas which we have used, or plan to use:-
TV Programmes:
Books: Historical Fiction for Children
Eagle of the Ninth series, by Rosemary Sutcliff
Classic historical novels, which are probably best suited to age 10 and over, and are also a good read for any adult. Brilliantly written and cover very difficult subject matter. You can tell how much I liked them when I say that I've read:
The Eagle of the Ninth, the Silver Branch, the Lantern Bearers, The Outcast, and the Capricorn Bracelet
Roman Mysteries Series, by Caroline Lawrence.
Adventure stories for children aged 7-12, set in Ancient Rome. Fun and exciting, and packed with background details about how people might have lived then. My only criticism is that the characters strike me more as modern children dropped into an Ancient Roman setting, so it might be worth discussing with your children how children in Ancient Rome might have thought differently. Could be a good springboard for all sorts of discussions about enlightenment and changing attitudes. The heroes of these stories are very PC, for instance, but I doubt that a real Roman child would have been shocked by slavery, however horrible it was. Anyway, the author is a former teacher, so she has lots of educational resources on her website.
See http://www.romanmysteries.com/characters/resource1.htm
and Resources for Teachers: http://www.romanmysteries.com/characters/resource1.htm . One page we liked was tips for writers, where the author encourages children to write their own stories.
Novels for adults and teenagers:
I Claudius by Robert Graves, and sequel Claudius the God - famous, scholarly historical novels which were very well researched.
The Course of Honour, by Lindsay Davies (sp?) - Roman bodice-ripper.
There is a whole genre of Roman mystery stories for adults, apparently, which I'm about to investigate.
Other books we found useful:
Our Island Story, by HE Marshall - we started off by me reading the relevant chapters from this book to the lads.
Britannia - 100 Great Stories from British History - ditto.
Usborne Roman Soldier's Handbook, by Lesley Sims http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0746056281/qid=1142965066/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_0_1/202-0039433-1576652 Lovely colour drawings, fun, and very informative.
Roman Activity Book (Crafty History Series) Sue Weatherill, Steve Weatherill http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1902915348/202-0039433-1576652 Brill resource - informative and gives a multi-sensory aspect to history. We loved this. activities include making a fort out of cereal packets, cooking Roman food, making a water clock, and making a wax tabula.
Rotten Romans, by Terry Deary (Horrible Histories series) - in our family we have mixed feelings about Horrible Histories. I think they can be flippant, and unnecessarily gruesome for our most sensitive child. Just because something horriffic happened a long time ago, it doesn't mean it's suddenly funny. OTOH kids seem to like them, and they are certainly packed with info. I'd like references for some of it, as there's no way to check the veracity. There is also a Rotten Romans sticker/activity book in this series, with wordsearches etc.. Bits of this were just horriffic, eg find stickers of dogs chopped in half in Carthage...
Asterix stories are, of course, set in Roman times... could be fun background reading.
Places to visit:
Museum of London - We went here in Feb 2006. Recreation of several Roman rooms and shops, and front of Temple of Mithras. Small models of Roman London. Quite a few artefacts, and you could get your hands on some items like reconstruction of shopkeeper's scales. Seemed reasonably child-friendly. Very few annoying button-pushing display items, which is a VERY good thing in my book.
http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/learning/features_facts/roman.html
British Museum: Their exhibits don't look very exciting - at least, not for children as, with most of the British Museum stuff, it's just your old artefacts behind glass and keep your grubby fingers off sort of approach. It has a free Eye Openers tour on prehistory and Roman Britain: http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/tours/eyeopeners.html
Roman Baths in the City of Bath: I still remember our school trip there when I was in primary school, so probably about 25 years ago. I was very disappointed that we couldn't swim in them. As with most school trips, it was too rushed for us to be able to linger over exhibits or really satisfy our curiosity, so I'd love to go back here as a grownup. http://www.romanbaths.co.uk/
Arbeia Roman Fort - South Shields. I've seen it twice on TV now and it looks absolutely fab. Not like your average Roman ruin - they've reconstructed a fort that you can actually go into, with 'soldiers' in Roman costume there & you can apparently try on the clothes and go in the rooms and have a simulated archaeological dig. I'd love to go here!
http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/arbeia/
Segedunum Roman Fort, Baths & Museum "combines the excavated remains of the fort with spectacular reconstructions and exciting, hands-on museum displays to show what life was like in Roman Britain". I wish museums down here were like the ones in Tyne and Wear!
http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/segedunum/index.php
Craft ideas:
Mosaic pictures, of course!
Making a Bulla pouch, to be worn round the neck. Very simple sewing - threading string or ribbon through holes cut in a circle of fabric. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/romans/activities/bulla.html
Wax Tabula (writing slab) - cardboard frame with plasticine or, more authentically, wax to scribe in with a stylus (old ballpoint pen). We liked this one.
Make Togas out of old sheets (to do it properly you need to cut one up into a semi-circle, but improvising with entire sheets seems to go down well, too). We discussed how most people in Rome would not have actually worn togas - only 'important' people. Could go on to discuss citizens, and how women, slaves and freedmen had different rights from citizens.
Roman Fort - easy to make out of cardboard, and to slot together. As they followed similar plans (a bit like a supermarket!), we can at least justify copying a template out of a book!
Roman Meal - recipe for sweet bread in Crafty History book - cut cubes of white bread, soak in milk and fry, then dip in honey to serve.
There is a recipe for Roman Wine Cakes in the "Help your child discover.." leaflet (mentioned above). No need to waste your plonk on this - just grape juice. Also mentions other things which would have been eaten and which you can probably get hold of easily, like bread and olives.
http://www.parentscentre.gov.uk/discover/index.cfm?menu=download&main=romans/down&on=romans
Some of these and more in Roman Activity Book (Crafty History Series) as above.
Computer Games
There are plenty of computer games which are set in, or prominently feature, the Roman Empire. We only use computer games in a very limited way in our family, so I'm not able to vouch for the educational value of any of these!
Age of Empires - our older boys (5 and 8) enjoy this.
Reviews of war games, with comments on historical accuracy: http://www.wargamer.com/articles/article-results.asp?articletypes=Roman%20Empire
Websites:
BBC Schools Romans page
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/romans/
Fab resource. Includes craft activity printouts, lots of info pages which are far more detailed than most, and some interactive sections. Would be brill, except the site is slow and unreliable for some reason. Activities and printouts seem to work better if I open them in a new window.
Help Your Child Discover Roman Britain - from the DfES (UK Government) . Some good resources and a nice downloadable leaflet which schools are supposed to give out, I think. Has recipes and Roman children's games and activities on it. Highly recommended.
http://www.parentscentre.gov.uk/discover/index.cfm?menu=download&main=romans/down&on=romans
National Grid for Learning - search for Romans. Many results look promising, but I haven't been able to work through so won't list sites individually here until I've checked them personally. See http://www.ngfl.gov.uk/about_ngfl/background.jsp
Museum of London site looks v. good - virtual object handling and some topics not seen elsewhere.
See http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/learning/features_facts/roman.html
Arbeia Roman Fort - see above for info about the fort, but they also have some interactive games on their site which look good, eg "Battle the Celts on your way to Segedunum and see if you can beat other challengers in the Roman hall of fame."
http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/fun.php
Romans In Britain - lots of info from an enthusiastic historian. Aimed at grownups rather than kids I think. http://www.romans-in-britain.org.uk/
Early British Kingdoms for Kids - simple and fun. http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/kids/people_roman.html
Brims: Romans in Britain: family educational website aimed at kids: http://www.brims.co.uk/romans/index.html
Romans project from a college: http://ireland.iol.ie/~coolmine/typ/romans/intro.html
Ancient Rome clipart: http://www.phillipmartin.info/clipart/rome.htm
British Museum Romans section, with booklist: http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/education/romanbritain/further3.html
Life in Roman Times, by Nettlesworth Primary School : fun and a surprisingly good resource, but shame about the annoying music on homepage! http://www.nettlesworth.durham.sch.uk/time/romans.html
Roman Cyberhunt: site by a teacher, where users have to follow links to different sites to find answers to questions. http://www.icteachers.co.uk/children/cyberhunts/romans/romehunt.htm
Roman Britain: http://www.roman-britain.org/
Boudicca's Revolt: an interactive site aimed at kids, from the Birmingham Grid for Learning http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/history/boudicca/index.htm
National Curriculum in Action - example of school work for KS2 on Romans http://www.ncaction.org.uk/search/entry.htm?id=1006 and Boudicca's Revolt: http://www.ncaction.org.uk/search/comment.htm?id=1675 http://www.ncaction.org.uk/search/comment.htm?id=157 http://www.ncaction.org.uk/search/comment.htm?id=158
We've been studying the Romans generally, and the Romans in Britain, during February and March 2006. I like the idea of studying history through good literature, so the fictional books on this page have been very important. History has always been my weakest area academically, so it's been great to find that, despite the best efforts of my school lessons to hide the fact, it's actually full of wonderful stories. I decided to immerse myself in the topic while the kids were studying it, so I have been reading lots of adults' books on it too.
Here are some resources and ideas which we have used, or plan to use:-
TV Programmes:
- BBC Class TV ZigZag Invaders part 2. (20 minutes) Fairly awful acting and relatively feeble attempt at costume, but still not bad for explicitly educational TV as it does have a bit of a plot. It held my boys' interest, anyway.
- 'Rome' historical soap 0pera shown on BBC autumn/winter 2005 - lots of adult content here - most episodes not suitable for kids - but about as fun as TV history for grownups can be., so good homework for adults!
- Timeblazers on Discovery Kids is a fun US history programme. Their Romans episode looks at why the army was so successful, and profiles Julius Caesar and several prominent emperors. The episode on Soldiers has a lot on what it was like to be a Roman legionary, too.
- Tony Robinson's Romans - shown on Discovery Channel. For adults and teenagers - well researched documentaries which compare the reliability of different sources and discuss how accounts might not be accurate for various reasons.
See the BBC Schools programme guide to find out if Zig Zag, or anything similar, are coming on soon: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/
Books: Historical Fiction for Children
Eagle of the Ninth series, by Rosemary Sutcliff
Classic historical novels, which are probably best suited to age 10 and over, and are also a good read for any adult. Brilliantly written and cover very difficult subject matter. You can tell how much I liked them when I say that I've read:
The Eagle of the Ninth, the Silver Branch, the Lantern Bearers, The Outcast, and the Capricorn Bracelet
Roman Mysteries Series, by Caroline Lawrence.
Adventure stories for children aged 7-12, set in Ancient Rome. Fun and exciting, and packed with background details about how people might have lived then. My only criticism is that the characters strike me more as modern children dropped into an Ancient Roman setting, so it might be worth discussing with your children how children in Ancient Rome might have thought differently. Could be a good springboard for all sorts of discussions about enlightenment and changing attitudes. The heroes of these stories are very PC, for instance, but I doubt that a real Roman child would have been shocked by slavery, however horrible it was. Anyway, the author is a former teacher, so she has lots of educational resources on her website.
See http://www.romanmysteries.com/characters/resource1.htm
and Resources for Teachers: http://www.romanmysteries.com/characters/resource1.htm . One page we liked was tips for writers, where the author encourages children to write their own stories.
Novels for adults and teenagers:
I Claudius by Robert Graves, and sequel Claudius the God - famous, scholarly historical novels which were very well researched.
The Course of Honour, by Lindsay Davies (sp?) - Roman bodice-ripper.
There is a whole genre of Roman mystery stories for adults, apparently, which I'm about to investigate.
Other books we found useful:
Our Island Story, by HE Marshall - we started off by me reading the relevant chapters from this book to the lads.
Britannia - 100 Great Stories from British History - ditto.
Usborne Roman Soldier's Handbook, by Lesley Sims http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0746056281/qid=1142965066/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_0_1/202-0039433-1576652 Lovely colour drawings, fun, and very informative.
Roman Activity Book (Crafty History Series) Sue Weatherill, Steve Weatherill http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1902915348/202-0039433-1576652 Brill resource - informative and gives a multi-sensory aspect to history. We loved this. activities include making a fort out of cereal packets, cooking Roman food, making a water clock, and making a wax tabula.
Rotten Romans, by Terry Deary (Horrible Histories series) - in our family we have mixed feelings about Horrible Histories. I think they can be flippant, and unnecessarily gruesome for our most sensitive child. Just because something horriffic happened a long time ago, it doesn't mean it's suddenly funny. OTOH kids seem to like them, and they are certainly packed with info. I'd like references for some of it, as there's no way to check the veracity. There is also a Rotten Romans sticker/activity book in this series, with wordsearches etc.. Bits of this were just horriffic, eg find stickers of dogs chopped in half in Carthage...
Asterix stories are, of course, set in Roman times... could be fun background reading.
Places to visit:
Museum of London - We went here in Feb 2006. Recreation of several Roman rooms and shops, and front of Temple of Mithras. Small models of Roman London. Quite a few artefacts, and you could get your hands on some items like reconstruction of shopkeeper's scales. Seemed reasonably child-friendly. Very few annoying button-pushing display items, which is a VERY good thing in my book.
http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/learning/features_facts/roman.html
British Museum: Their exhibits don't look very exciting - at least, not for children as, with most of the British Museum stuff, it's just your old artefacts behind glass and keep your grubby fingers off sort of approach. It has a free Eye Openers tour on prehistory and Roman Britain: http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/tours/eyeopeners.html
Roman Baths in the City of Bath: I still remember our school trip there when I was in primary school, so probably about 25 years ago. I was very disappointed that we couldn't swim in them. As with most school trips, it was too rushed for us to be able to linger over exhibits or really satisfy our curiosity, so I'd love to go back here as a grownup. http://www.romanbaths.co.uk/
Arbeia Roman Fort - South Shields. I've seen it twice on TV now and it looks absolutely fab. Not like your average Roman ruin - they've reconstructed a fort that you can actually go into, with 'soldiers' in Roman costume there & you can apparently try on the clothes and go in the rooms and have a simulated archaeological dig. I'd love to go here!
http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/arbeia/
Segedunum Roman Fort, Baths & Museum "combines the excavated remains of the fort with spectacular reconstructions and exciting, hands-on museum displays to show what life was like in Roman Britain". I wish museums down here were like the ones in Tyne and Wear!
http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/segedunum/index.php
Craft ideas:
Mosaic pictures, of course!
Making a Bulla pouch, to be worn round the neck. Very simple sewing - threading string or ribbon through holes cut in a circle of fabric. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/romans/activities/bulla.html
Wax Tabula (writing slab) - cardboard frame with plasticine or, more authentically, wax to scribe in with a stylus (old ballpoint pen). We liked this one.
Make Togas out of old sheets (to do it properly you need to cut one up into a semi-circle, but improvising with entire sheets seems to go down well, too). We discussed how most people in Rome would not have actually worn togas - only 'important' people. Could go on to discuss citizens, and how women, slaves and freedmen had different rights from citizens.
Roman Fort - easy to make out of cardboard, and to slot together. As they followed similar plans (a bit like a supermarket!), we can at least justify copying a template out of a book!
Roman Meal - recipe for sweet bread in Crafty History book - cut cubes of white bread, soak in milk and fry, then dip in honey to serve.
There is a recipe for Roman Wine Cakes in the "Help your child discover.." leaflet (mentioned above). No need to waste your plonk on this - just grape juice. Also mentions other things which would have been eaten and which you can probably get hold of easily, like bread and olives.
http://www.parentscentre.gov.uk/discover/index.cfm?menu=download&main=romans/down&on=romans
Some of these and more in Roman Activity Book (Crafty History Series) as above.
Computer Games
There are plenty of computer games which are set in, or prominently feature, the Roman Empire. We only use computer games in a very limited way in our family, so I'm not able to vouch for the educational value of any of these!
Age of Empires - our older boys (5 and 8) enjoy this.
Reviews of war games, with comments on historical accuracy: http://www.wargamer.com/articles/article-results.asp?articletypes=Roman%20Empire
Websites:
BBC Schools Romans page
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/romans/
Fab resource. Includes craft activity printouts, lots of info pages which are far more detailed than most, and some interactive sections. Would be brill, except the site is slow and unreliable for some reason. Activities and printouts seem to work better if I open them in a new window.
Help Your Child Discover Roman Britain - from the DfES (UK Government) . Some good resources and a nice downloadable leaflet which schools are supposed to give out, I think. Has recipes and Roman children's games and activities on it. Highly recommended.
http://www.parentscentre.gov.uk/discover/index.cfm?menu=download&main=romans/down&on=romans
National Grid for Learning - search for Romans. Many results look promising, but I haven't been able to work through so won't list sites individually here until I've checked them personally. See http://www.ngfl.gov.uk/about_ngfl/background.jsp
Museum of London site looks v. good - virtual object handling and some topics not seen elsewhere.
See http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/learning/features_facts/roman.html
Arbeia Roman Fort - see above for info about the fort, but they also have some interactive games on their site which look good, eg "Battle the Celts on your way to Segedunum and see if you can beat other challengers in the Roman hall of fame."
http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/fun.php
Romans In Britain - lots of info from an enthusiastic historian. Aimed at grownups rather than kids I think. http://www.romans-in-britain.org.uk/
Early British Kingdoms for Kids - simple and fun. http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/kids/people_roman.html
Brims: Romans in Britain: family educational website aimed at kids: http://www.brims.co.uk/romans/index.html
Romans project from a college: http://ireland.iol.ie/~coolmine/typ/romans/intro.html
Ancient Rome clipart: http://www.phillipmartin.info/clipart/rome.htm
British Museum Romans section, with booklist: http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/education/romanbritain/further3.html
Life in Roman Times, by Nettlesworth Primary School : fun and a surprisingly good resource, but shame about the annoying music on homepage! http://www.nettlesworth.durham.sch.uk/time/romans.html
Roman Cyberhunt: site by a teacher, where users have to follow links to different sites to find answers to questions. http://www.icteachers.co.uk/children/cyberhunts/romans/romehunt.htm
Roman Britain: http://www.roman-britain.org/
Boudicca's Revolt: an interactive site aimed at kids, from the Birmingham Grid for Learning http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/history/boudicca/index.htm
National Curriculum in Action - example of school work for KS2 on Romans http://www.ncaction.org.uk/search/entry.htm?id=1006 and Boudicca's Revolt: http://www.ncaction.org.uk/search/comment.htm?id=1675 http://www.ncaction.org.uk/search/comment.htm?id=157 http://www.ncaction.org.uk/search/comment.htm?id=158
posted by Angela Horn at 9:47 AM
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