Bring on the battle

A fantastic online resource from the Royal Collection teaching about Windsor Castle and its
knights. PC or iPad per user and Internet. We suggest you run this as a base during a knight/castle evening, maybe with some of our other resources.

https://www.rct.uk/resources/game-bring-on-the-battle-childrens-activity

Castle rescue mission

Resources

• A castle made from card (just symbolic)
• A piece of treasure – which has a hook on it (this is what they need to rescue)
• A moat –a long piece of plastic, a pair of ropes or a large trough of water (if outside) between the castle and the land which the treasure must cross
• Various items which they can use to help in their quest to get across the river. E.g. tape, small sticks,
  cardboard, rubber bands, balloons.

Instructions

• Your team have come to the end of a long battle, however there have been some casualties along the way. (e.g. in a group of 6 – can be adapted depending on the group size)
• One team member has been blinded
• One team member cannot walk (so they have to sit on a chair)
• One has lost one arm (must have it in a sling)
• One cannot talk
• Two are uninjured

The team must construct either a bridge or a raft to pull the treasure across, at no point can the treasure be picked up. It must be in contact with the raft or bridge and be pulled over to the other side. One member of the team can start on the castle side but the rest of the team must stay on the other side for the duration of the activity.

Space Hopper Racing

With acknowledgement to Samantha Hinkley and Davidl Baker who posted this in OSM before we borrowed and re-formatted their content. The young people will joust against each other whilst riding on space hoppers.

Resources

• 2 x Lances made from newspaper and tape
• 2 x Space Hoppers
• 2 x Helmets

Instructions

1. Lay a rope out in a straight line.
2. Two participants put on any supplied protection (helmets, etc...) they then move to opposite ends of the
   rope on opposite sides with their lance and spacehopper.
3. They get on their space hopper and hold their lance in the other hand.
4. When told 'Joust' they ride towards each other on their space hoppers and try and knock each other off.
5. If their opponent falls off before reaching the other end of the rope, they get a point (even if not knocked
   off).
6. Change to new participants and repeat. You could arrange it as a knockout competition with stages.

Jester's Team Juggle

Resources

Soft balls or bean bags

Instructions

1. The group stands in an inward facing circle and are asked to throw juggling balls amongst the group in a specific order.
2. Set up a juggling system that processes juggling balls by throwing them across the circle of team members from one person to the next.
3. When a ball is thrown the thrower must shout the name of the recipient, they catch it and throw to another group member.
4. This continues until each group member has caught & thrown the ball just once (it should have eventually ended back at the start point).
5. Ask each group member to identify who they received the ball from and who they threw it to.
6. Test this out by throwing the ball in the same original order until it arrives back at the start point.
7. The next stage is to introduce more balls and see how many you can get moving round the circle in the original order. As many balls as people is extremely difficult. You can also add another ball to be sent in reverse order to add a bit confusion to the mix.

Balance the Lance

Resources

A long bamboo stick (or several taped together), long enough to fit all participants down both sides.

Instructions

1. Split the group into two and line each half on each side of the stick.
2. All members must balance the stick on their index fingers.
3. They must then try to lower the stick to the ground all at once without dropping the stick and without people losing contact between their fingers and the stick.

Make a shield

Online resource from English heritage to make shields over a couple of evenings

Resources

• A3 or A4 card
• Masking tape
• Scissors
• Acrylic paint
• Downloaded sheet of charges see instructions for how

URL

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/easter/preparing-for-easter-adventure-quests/how-to-make-a-cardboardshield