A Roman Banquet in Year 4

Year 4 looked fantastic as they kicked-started their topic of ‘The Roman’s’ with a fun and exciting day in character.  

The day began when each child answered their name in the register with their chosen Roman name, addressing their teachers as Miss Varticus and Mr Kirkpatrimus.  The children loved learning about how the rich Roman emperors would feast and how their table manners were quite different to what we would regard as polite today.  

After lunch the children were divided into slaves and emperors. The Emperors lay in our very own triclinium, remembering to rest their head on their left arm so that they could eat with their right hand, just as the Romans did. They were then served their Roman feast by the slaves who were not allowed to eat a bite until the emperors cast off their leftovers (if they were lucky!)  The children then swapped and and played the opposite role. Dojos were awarded to children who were in character the entire time and who remembered to reenact the strange Roman dining customs such as tickling the back of their throat with a feather so that they could vomit in order to fit in even more food!

We finished the day with a Roman dining facts quiz and impressively every group got over 90% of the questions correct.  It was great to see the year 4 class so enthusiastic about their new topic on their first week in year 4, giving us the rest of the term to learn about several other aspects of Roman life. Afterall, Rome wasn’t built in a day!