Year 4: Roman Rulers

Year 4 are coming to the end of their History topic on ‘Roman Britain’. They have been reflecting on what they think is the most significant Roman legacy for people in Britain today. We discussed how the Romans pioneered important aspects of road building, introduced roman numerals and the shared language of Latin, as well as influenced artistic movements and techniques. The children presented arguments for each legacy and we compared the positive and negative impacts of the Roman invasion. Over the last six weeks, the children have developed a strong understanding of how intelligent, organised and resourceful the Romans must have been to invade and occupy Britain for so long, and change things so radically.

This week we also organised a Roman march, a practical opportunity for the children to apply their knowledge of the Romans in a fun way. They investigated how the Roman army was organised, before role playing a reconstruction of a Roman army drill with Latin instructions. They had great fun marching through the playground and creating their own testudo to protect themselves.

Over the past few weeks, the children have also been presenting their Roman home projects to their peers. This is a brilliant opportunity for them to recall and share all the information they have been researching.

In Science, we have been continuing our learning about Sound. Today we explored how sound travels to our ears through a medium. We carried out two tests to find out how sound can travel. First, the children stood apart and spoke to each other, finding that it was difficult to hear. Then, they made their own string telephones and used these to communicate. The children discovered that their voices were louder when they used the string telephones because the sound energy was able to travel faster through the tightly packed particles in the solids.