Anglo-Saxon Village
History · Year 3–Year 6
Tap round the village: hall, thatch, well, loom, fields, pen.
About the saxon village
An Anglo-Saxon village with eight things in it to name. Tap the great hall and the board says its walls were woven sticks and mud; tap a roof and it says reeds laid thick, hanging out past the wall to throw the rain clear. Nothing is typed and nothing is dragged.
The scene is laid out in depth on purpose: the fields and the boundary fence at the horizon, the hall and a house standing in front of them, and the well, the loom and the animal pen in the foreground. That is how a village looks, and it is also what keeps eight tap targets far enough apart to be tapped separately on a board.
The roofs are one part rather than one each, because the question a class asks is what the roofs were made of and the answer is the same for every building. The walls are then wattle and daub, which is the other material worth naming.
The labels are off to begin with, so the picture is a question. Show puts all eight up at once, and Next walks round the village in order, from the fields at the back to the animal pen at the front.
How to use it on your whiteboard
- 1Tap something in the village. Its name appears at the side and what it was for is written underneath.
- 2Tap it again to take the label off, or tap Clear to start over.
- 3Tap Next to work round the village in order, back to front.
- 4Tap Show to put every label up at once, for reading rather than testing.
Questions
- What is wattle and daub?
- Sticks woven together like a basket, then covered in a mix of mud, straw and dung. It dried hard and kept the weather out, and the timber frame held it all up.
- Why is there no chimney?
- There was not one. The fire sat in the middle of the floor and the smoke found its way out through the thatch, which is also what kept the roof dry and the insects out of it.
- What is the loom for?
- Weaving wool into cloth. It leans against a frame and the clay weights along the bottom keep the threads taut, which is why archaeologists dig up so many of them.