Middle Ages Castle Courtyard

This scene is set in the courtyard of an imaginary Castle, built in the style of the European Middle Ages. There are tall walls surrounding the inner courtyard, which contains several buildings giving clues as to what life in the Castle would have been like. flags with imaginary sigils hang from the walls and fly from the battlements, which can be climbed buy a set of stairs from the inner courtyard. Students will look at both the defences of the Castle walls and clues into what life inside a Castle would have been like.

# Learning objectives

1: Understand what was needed for daily life within the castle walls in the Middle Ages{.info}

2: Identify some of the different ways that castles were designed to be defended, keeping out attacking enemies. {.info}

# Why were castles built? {.objective .objective1}

The first section in the scene looks at the reasoning behind castles in the Middle Ages, going into some detail about when they were built and the threats they were designed to protect against. The activity for Section 1 asks students to look at the outside walls of the Castle and think about why they were the designed this way, including the flags and banners as well as the towers and walls.

# Life in a Castle {.objective .objective2}

This section looks specifically at the inner courtyard and the buildings contained here, including food storage blacksmith and a stable. This task asks the students to look for evidence of different jobs that may have been done here and what life was like inside the walls.

# Defending a castle {.objective .objective3}

The third section focuses on the top of the walls and how they were designed to defend against attack. There are details about some of the external features including windows, battlements, the portcullis and the drawbridge. The task in this section asks students to identify these features and think about their purpose using evidence in the scene.

# Teacher Resources

### Download Teacher Notes

[](https://data.avncloud.com/activities/792923/files/Castle%20Courtyard+Teacher+Notes+1.pdf?date=1676630420&size=865024&md5=287de41582dcbce721b7cb3ae5631285)

### Student Quiz Answers Document

[](https://data.avncloud.com/activities/792924/files/Castle%20Courtyard+Teacher+Notes+2.pdf?date=1676630555&size=454353&md5=6d70600d140bcb363aa068f3b1b3d567)

### Download Student Quiz Document

[](https://data.avncloud.com/activities/792925/files/Castle%20Courtyard+Teacher+Notes+3.pdf?date=1676630776&size=96055&md5=b3cc89394903bb17d51d84ace14c271d)