LKS2: Topic: The Romans in BritainBlock A: An Introduction to the Romans

Session 3 The Expansion of the Roman Empire
National Curriculum / History:Develop a chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of world history, establishing clear narratives within the periods they study, (the significance of the Roman Empire); Devise historically valid questions about change, cause, similarity and difference and significance.
Teaching Objectives / To examine how the Roman Empire changed areas over time and begin to ask why.
National Curriculum / Geography: Locate countries, using maps to focus on Europe; Understand key aspects of human geography including types of settlement and land use.
Teaching Objectives / To locate countries arising in historical study of world label them using maps and atlases.
Resources
Atlases; Maps of the Roman Empire. / Weblinks
A map showing the growth of the Roman Empire over time.
Whole class: Show chn how the Roman Empire expanded, using the link here. Discuss how the area changes and what is the general pattern – it gets bigger and bigger. Why do you think this is?The Roman army became stronger and stronger; they gained more power and people, etc. Discuss reasons. Relate the dates to our timeline from sessions 1 and 2, marking these dates on it. Look at the different ruling systems – what effect do these have on the expansion of the Empire? Under the Emperors the e
Empire expanded to its largest size. Eventually it was so large it was split into two Empires, East and West in 165CE. The last map(session resources) shows the Roman Empire shrinking, why was this?
Easy
Give chn the first map (session resource) and a simple map of Europe – use a good chn’s atlas. Help chn to find Italy and Rome and label these on the map. They can colour Italy.
Teacher to support as required. / Medium/Hard
Let chn work in pairs to use an atlas and identify the countries that were under Roman rule during the height of the Empire (session resource). They should label the countries with today’s names on their maps, using a good chn’s atlas for this work.
Plenary / Look at the chn’s maps and identify the different countries under Roman rule at different stages of the Empire. At the height of the Empire how many countries were under Roman rule? Check these on a map of the world/globe to show what a large area this was.
Outcomes / Children will
  • Understand the significance and size of the Roman Empire
  • Locate countries in Europe
  • Understand why and how the Roman Empire became so large

Hamilton Trust. This activity may be adapted for use by a teacher in his/her own class. It may not be reproduced for any other purpose.
We refer you to our warning, at the foot of the block overview, about links to other websites.