Are you a primary school teacher in Scotland looking for an author-led classroom visit that’s a little bit different? Do you want a workshop about Scotland’s castles that will combine Scottish history, reading comprehension, practical demonstrations and out-door learning?
If so, then this might just be the classroom visit you are looking for! For more information, read on, and to enquire about booking a class visit, or if you need any additional information, simply fill in the contact form below.
Based around the recently published factual children’s book titled Draw Your Own Encyclopaedia Scotland’s Castles by Colin M. Drysdale, these classroom visits are best suited to children in Primary Two to Primary Six (although they can be successfully done for children as young as Primary One and as old as Primary Seven).
Lasting approximately one hour (depending on the time slot available), and costing £50 for each class visited (plus the cost of travelling to the school), these classroom visits start by introducing students to the different types of castles found in Scotland. This leads on to an interactive introduction to how people decided where to build a castle, what defences can be found in Scotland’s castles and how you could attack a castle and successfully get round these defences. The workshop ends with the students helping to build a one metre tall model trebuchet (a large catapult use to fling massive rocks to break through the defences of castles before cannons were invented), and then use it to fling water balloons across the playground to demonstrate how this weapon was used to reduce beseiged castles to rubble (as happened to Stirling Castle during the Wars of Scottish Independence in the 13th Century).
The visits are led by Dr Colin M. Drysdale (the author of Draw Your Own Encyclopaedia Scotland’s Castles), who has spent over twenty years working as a research scientist.
Note: If you wish, we can also provide copies of Draw Your Own Encyclopaedia Scotland’s Castles for each student in the class at a 50% reduction on the RRP. This means that each copy would cost £3.74, rather than the usual £6.99. This allows these interactive books to be used in follow-up activities to help develop and embed the knowledge the students have gained during the visit itself.
Contact Form
If you would like to book a class visit, or if you would like any further information, simply fill in the contact form below using the subject Scotland’s Castles Book Classroom Visit Enquiry and we will get back to you as soon as possible. Alternatively, you can email us directly at info[at]pictishbeastpublications.com.
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