A focus on castles can be fantasy or factual. Many traditional stories feature castles, such as 'Jack and the Beanstalk' and 'Sleeping Beauty'. There is also a good range of factual books that present the historical aspect of castles in ways that will appeal to children.
Books are an obvious starting point for a new focus. They need to be available around the setting, inside and out, so adults can share books and stories on castles individually and in small groups informally as children play.
Shared discussion helps practitioners to gather information about a child's knowledge, understanding and particular fascination around the subject, and a child's current schematic interest will point to appropriate responses in providing experiences that will take them on in their learning.
Nothing compares with a real experience - small-group visits to a local castle or ruins will give children a feel of the size and structure of a castle. Alternatively, CDs or videos can offer a starting point for discussion.
Some children may have already visited a castle, and may have photographs or mementos to lend for a display. Making information available about local castles to parents and carers, along with details of the developing theme, is an effective way of promoting links with home.
Again, informal discussions can reveal what aspects appeal to certain children. It may be the actual walls or enclosures, the moat, or the idea of the drawbridge moving up and down.
Sharing a child's schematic interest with parents opens up a dialogue and allows the learning journey to be extended from home to setting and setting to home. It involves parents and carers in a child's learning, increasing understanding about how children learn (see also Book Box, p22).
OUTDOOR AREA - LARGE CONSTRUCTION
Additional resources and adult role
Alongside the continuous provision, make available as many different shapes as possible: a tub of cylinders in a variety of lengths and widths, rolled-up newspaper spills (easy to bend and join together), a basket of rope and string. Large cardboard boxes can be flattened out to create turrets and drawbridges.
Include a fiction book and images of castles, and plan plenty of time for sharing these and introducing the exciting new vocabulary. The Castle Story by Sheila Sancha is an excellent book, which informs and appeals across the age ranges. Full of written and pictorial information that adults can learn alongside children, it includes plans, diagrams and exciting words that will appeal to a young child's developing schema.
Learning opportunities
PD Developing motor skillsM Problem solving, estimating, measuring, using the language of size and
M shape
PSED Co-operating and collaborating
EAD Representing ideas
C&L Asking questions and talking for a variety of purposes
UW Beginning to explore the idea of past lives
OUTDOORS - ROLE PLAY
Additional resources and adult role
The outdoors is the perfect place for developing different types of role play, leaving the home area available on a daily basis. Build on imaginary aspects of castles using favourite stories. Children who are exploring an interest in enclosure and enveloping will enjoy creating castles, going 'inside' and playing out familiar stories.
Add cloaks, crowns and lengths of material to the dressing-up resources for children to envelop themselves in. Make sure these include a selection of different lengths, textures and patterns. Thoughtful planning enables adults to build in opportunities for introducing descriptive and mathematical language, such as long/longer/smooth/striped/velvet/same/different. Include some special props linked to favourite stories.
Learning opportunities
C&L Using language to recreate roles and experiences
M Using the language of size, shape and pattern
PSED Working as part of a group, co-operating and collaborating
EAD Using imagination in role play
WET SAND
Additional resources and role
Set up a builder's tray with sand. Make sure there is a supply of water nearby and add a selection of buckets and moulds of different shapes, sizes and materials (plastic/cardboard/metal). Have available a book with images of castles and moats. Add a selection of natural materials: sticks, pebbles, leaves, gravel. Allow time and space to experiment and investigate, and guide thinking by asking open-ended questions.
Learning opportunities
C&L Using the language of size and shape
M Problem solving and estimating
UW Exploring the properties of materials, talking about what is seen and
what is happening
L Using books to find out more
PD Handling objects with increasing skill
PHYSICAL AREA
Some of the historical aspects about castle life that will catch some children's interest will involve weapons. Cannons, bows and arrows, and swords all support a common interest in trajectories/straight lines.
Understanding schema as a crucial part of child development gives practitioners an insight into how young children learn. How we use this knowledge in our day-to-day work is the key to 'getting it right'. It helps us to understand the kind of behaviour that could be interpreted as unacceptable, and challenges us to find ways of using current interests to provide acceptable ways of offering exciting experiences linked to those interests.
Once a schema or group of schemas has been identified, we can teach any aspect of the curriculum that is relevant for a child through that schema and it will be remembered. Use the predictable interest in the movement of objects through the air - trajectories - to help children develop an awareness of space and distance.
Additional resources and adult role
Select an area safely away from other activities, with plenty of space to run, jump, roll and throw. Make time initially to share non-fiction books about how castles were defended, discussing the use of cannons and bows and arrows. This is a good opportunity to explore moral questions about weapons and their impact.
Focus on the movement of the arrows and cannonballs through the air, and encourage children to experiment with how this would feel using their whole bodies - running, jumping, rolling. Accompany the movements with appropriate 'whooshing' noises.
Provide objects that can be thrown, perhaps introducing different ones over a period of a few days - for example, large and small balls, bean bags, quoits, rolled-up newspaper spills and wet sponges. Talk about using the resources to imitate the movement of arrows and cannonballs. Emphasise the importance of not hurting each other, establishing rules about boundaries, turn-taking and not throwing if someone is in the way. A wall or fence makes a good aiming point. Mark out positions for throwing from, and perhaps shapes/numbers to aim for. (If no wall or fence is usable, then aim at numbered cardboard boxes.)
Learning opportunities
PD Develop an awareness of space and move in a variety of ways
C&L Explore voice sounds while pretending to move like an arrow
PSED Express and act out their feelings
M Explore ideas about lines and distance
USING A RHYME
Additional resources and adult role
Introduce the familiar rhyme 'There Was a Princess/Prince Long Ago' (see Book Box) to interested children, along with dressing-up clothes and props.
Help the children to act out the story, adapting the roles to ensure that girls and boys have the chance to be, for example, a brave princess riding by or a prince sleeping for a hundred years. Model the actions and support children in turn-taking and working in a group.
Learning opportunities
EAD Singing and acting out a rhyme
PSED Co-operation and collaboration
PD Developing motor skills
SMALL-WORLD PLAY INDOORS
Additional resources and adult role
A well-positioned interactive table in or adjacent to this area will 'catch' children as they move about. It offers practitioners the chance to observe, listen and interact sensitively to move children on in their thinking.
Borrow a small-world castle, or build one using a small construction set and display it on a table. Try to include a working drawbridge, moat, portcullis. Display images of castles and aspects such as a drawbridge, moat and gatehouse. Add a selection of small-world people and domestic animals, a favourite story and a good finding-out book.
Children may choose to use the resources in the small-world area to create their own castles. Clipboards and mark-making materials will be available as part of continuous provision for ideas to be represented on paper, if children wish. These can be added to the display and then kept in the resource box to refer back to. These examples, along with a collection of children's thoughts and discussions as they explore castles, will be invaluable in helping them to reflect on the theme and make connections in their learning whenever the subject is revisited. It will also be important evidence of development to be included in profiles and shared with parents.
Learning opportunities
C&L Extending vocabulary
L Using marks to represent their ideas
PSED Asking questions and taking turns in conversations
M Using language of size and position
M Sequencing and ordering
UW Beginning to explore the idea of a sense of time and past lives
CREATIVE WORKSHOP
Additional resources and adult role
Add a book about castles and some images to the area. Children may choose to use the continuous provision to represent their ideas about certain aspects of castles. This will often be linked to their current schematic interest, so practitioners need to observe and listen carefully in order to support appropriately. This is where a knowledge of a child's schematic interests is really important. For example, a child may have been observed over a period of time exploring ideas of up and down (trajectories) in different areas of the setting. They may have been using their whole body to climb up and down, been fascinated by pulleys and parachutes, shown an interest in rain coming down and umbrellas going up. Discussions with parents and carers will reveal how this interest is being explored at home.
Thinking about how the schema can be supported to extend a child's learning at home and in the setting involves everyone in this exciting process. It also provides parents with valuable information about what is an appropriate curriculum for young children. A child with this repeated pattern flowing through their play will be drawn towards the idea of a drawbridge, steps and ladders leading up to towers and down to dungeons, a portcullis running up and down grooves.
New vocabulary can be introduced to describe the different ways a drawbridge might operate, such as 'hinged', 'pivoted', and 'drawn back'. Exploring ways of making working models offers adults the opportunity to develop mathematical and scientific ideas, if this is appropriate for the child. Teaching through a schematic interest is a powerful learning tool.
Learning opportunities
UW Exploring and constructing with a wide range of resources
C&L Talking about what they are doing
M Solving problems, measuring and estimating
PD Developing fine motor skills
BOOK AREA
Additional resources and adult role
Put together a selection of books linked to the focus on castles that can be easily accessed during the session. Set up a story table with interested children around a traditional story or rhyme that includes a castle.
Introduce the story and castle- related books at small group times, and to individual children during the session. Try to make a mental note of any particular aspects that catch a child's interest. This can then be incorporated into the 'what next' aspect of planning for individual or groups of children.
Learning opportunities
C&L Retelling a familiar story
PSED Working together as part of a group
EAD Using imagination in stories
RESOURCE BOX
A resource box to support a focus on castles could include:
- fiction and non-fiction books (see Book Box)
- images of real and imaginary castles
- crowns, cloaks, lengths of 'special' fabric
- small-world figures of the period
- simple map of England that shows where castles remain
- images of particular aspects of castles - for example, portcullis, moat, gatehouse, cannon, a knight in armour
- information about real castles to visit
- flags (for large construction, and small seaside flags which can be laminated for sand areas)
- role-play props linked to specific stories - for example, wands, fairy wings, broomstick
- story table props and puppets.
BOOK BOX
I Wonder Why Castles Have Moats (Wonder Why series, Kingfisher)
What Were Castles For? by Phil Roxbee Cox (Starting Point History series, Usborne)
See Inside Castles by Katie Daynes (flap book, Usborne)
In The Castle by Anna Milbourne & Benji Davies (Usborne Picture Books)
The Castle Story by Sheila Sancha (Collins)
Castle and Knight (Eye Wonder series, Dorling Kindersley)
Jack and the Beanstalk by Josephine Poole (Hodder Children's Books)
The Barefoot Book of Princesses - Includes The Princess and The Pea as well as other less familiar stories from around the world (Barefoot Books)
The Princess Handbook by Stella Gurney (Templar Publishing)
The Prince's Bedtime by Joanna Oppenheim (Barefoot Books)
Good Knight Sleep Tight by David Melling (Hodder Children's Books)
Small Knight and George by Ronda Armitage and Arthur Robins (Orchard Books)
This Little Puffin compiled by Elizabeth Matterson (Puffin Books) - see page 66
Professional books
Extending Thought In Young Children by Chris Athey (Paul Chapman)
Threads of Thinking by Cathy Nutbrown (Paul Chapman)
Observing Harry - Child Development and Learning 0-5 by Cath Arnold (Open University Press)
We Don't Play with Guns Here: War, weapon and superhero play in the early years by Penny Holland (Debating Play series, Open University Press).
