Celtic Britain: the land the Romans conquered

Lesson Plan

By Jon Nichol, published 3rd December 2010

Please note: this lesson was produced as part of the Nuffield Primary History project (1991-2009) and pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum. It is part of a full sequence of lessons available here.

Literacy was addressed throughout these lessons: introducing the text and the materials about the island, then working on the production of the travel brochure and other materials. We focused very sharply upon the idea of the travel brochure genre to communicate knowledge and understanding.

These were the first two lessons in a sequence of three whole morning sessions introducing the year 3 class to Roman Britain.

(These resources are attached below)

The first lesson introduced the mystery holiday topic, and ended with an investigation of two pictures showing Celtic life. The teaching revolved around the idea of a mystery holiday, and finding out about it. This led into the creation of an understanding of Celtic Britain on the eve of Roman invasion and settlement.

The second lesson concentrated on reading a contemporary description of Britain during the Celtic period, extracting information and preparing to produce a travel brochure / poster to advertise the mystery holiday on the island. 

A sequence of lessons

First we did
* Mystery suitcase

Then a sequence of lessons on Caesar's invasion of Britain.
*Celtic Britain: the land the Romans conquered
* The Roman army: Spy!
* Caesar lands

Primary teaching methods (including sections on reading books; the visual image; drama and role play; questions and questioning)

Also using the idea of a holiday
The Aztec experience

Background information for teachers