pancakes group pictures!!

This is our castle, brochure and pictures of our finished project.

Day 6

Last day!
So today there was only Aurelie, Amy and Mieke finishing the castle! I(the Blogger) was absent due to being sick. Now Mieke, Amy and Aurelie was taking a video shot of the Castle when they decided to paint not just the castle, but started to paint there face. See what happen's when i'm not there?
But besides that they made an absolutley amazing castle! Too bad I wasn't there to help.
We are all getting a slight bit nervous because it's the last lesson to get EVERYTHING finished. But everything turned out the way we wanted it too! The castle is finished, the video is amazing! And everything is complete. So well done everyone for making such a great job of this project! All we have to do is wait now. All 4 fingers crossed!

Blogger -Rosie

Day 5

Today's lesson is all about getting the castle PAINTED. The castle is SUPER big so it's going to take this lesson and next lesson to finish. Whilst painting the castle Amy is shooting the castle being painted and this is going to be shown in a fast movement which is going to be very intresting to watch! Amy is not showing anyone in our group the video until the presentation day which is quite scary, but we all trust her to make an outstanding job of it! It ws hard painting the castle because we weren't aloud to make a lot of noise due to GCSE exams going on further down the corrider. It was hard for Aurelie to tell us what to do but we managed and made very good progress to the castle.
Only 1 more lesson!

Blogger -Rosie

The Caerlaverock Castle

CastleKingBlog:

The Caerlaverock Castle

What’s our task?

Well what can I say; a task to complete given by Mr. OatesSoSimple, was never an easy task to complete. And our task was to form a group of 4 or even more, and create a model of a castle using materials they would bring, or what was given to them. And to even make this much better, we had to base this model of a castle, on a real castle that has been used in The United Kingdom in the past. And just because Mr. OatesSoSimple is him, he has to make the task even harder! Yay, what a joy. Since we were making castles that had been alive centuries ago, we had to be like the people who created it. So there was a Baron, a handful of Knights, and obviously The King. The perfect castle came to mind for our group, and this was the Caerlaverock Castle.

Our Initial aim for the project:

·         To create a replica of the Caerlaverock castle, to show as a model.

·          To produce a blog, to keep you posted.

·         To make posters, to try and persuade people our castle is great and why.

·         To film ourselves, this will be evidence to show that we created the castle.

·         To compose a brochure, to tell information to guests who visit our castle.

·         To score as much points as possible, obviously to win, J

·         To try to not lose any points, for any particular reason.

·         Teamwork, we need this so we can produce the project.

·         To not speak to the King, I wish I could, but it’s all here in black and white.

Why did we choose this castle?

We chose this castle due to its unique characteristics. The first time we saw it, we were already completely in LOVE. For example, the Caerlaverock castle had been in the unique shape oddly of a triangle. This was actually quite better, because as you would know, many of years ago, when attackers had stormed castles, they usually had the tactic of knocking down the corners of a castle, which was usually square. This led all or most of the 4 walls down. Whereas, if you were to knock down one of the corners of the castle, only 1 would fall down, this is because it had been the shape it was. Other reasons for our choice towards this castle vary for many reasons, and these reasons are:

·         It had a triangular moat around it, which makes it harder for attackers to storm into the castle itself.

·         It takes fewer materials, rather than making a square castle. This meant it had a much lower budget.

·         It had very tall turret towers; this meant that the people inside the keep would be able to scope out the area, to know if there is danger.

·         It had important sentimental value to the Scottish race. This was good because the castle had meant something, and was loyally respected.

·         It had rumored to actually be haunted. This gave the castle strength, and had intimidated people who dared to attack.

·         It had been on low land, this made it easier for attacking, because it would be easier to shoot straight forward.

What is the Caerlaverock Castle?

The Caerlaverock castle is just basically a castle, in a triangular shape, with a triangular moat that is surrounding the castle. It had been created in the 13^th century in the country area of Dumfries, this had been located Southwestern England, in Scotland, South Coast. This castle was mostly known for its owners. The Maxwell family owned this, and used it as housing in Scotland, back in the day. (It was for them from the 13^th century, to the 17^th century) This obviously meant generations, of generations have passed the castle along the most of their ancestors.   But when they had lived in the castle, the Maxwell family at some point was besieged, thus driving them to neglect their home, and left it, as they had no choice. The castle itself had gone through various reconstructions, and had also been broken down a couple of times. And due to these various physical forms, it was given the title of, quote: “The most ambitious architecture in the whole of Scotland”. This monument had much history behind it, and has such un-believable characteristics regarding the way it’s made, and what it may look like. And now, the castle is known to be a famous tourist attraction for many keen foreigners. Our group share something in common with eager people who wish to visit this life changing castle: it’s that we both obviously like it.

The Downfall

There are always going to be flaws in life and in certain things such as this castle. Nothing and nobody’s perfect anyway. Everything had their share of good and bad, meaning the disadvantages, and the advantages. 

·         It had taken not much land, so it was easier to take down.

·         It had been haunted, thus it would be an intimidation, for even the people who had lived in the castle.

·         It had been on low land, this was bad because it could mean that the enemy would have an easier way of attacking with far range weapons.

·         The castle was created of stone, this meant that it had been very expensive, and was vulnerable to things such as canons and battering rams.

·         Ii was not fully covered; this meant that in the weaker parts of the castle, they were most likely to be attacked.

·         There were fewer walls to break down; this meant that it was less work for people to attack it.

In the works

Our group has spent both night and day trying to make this castle look exceptional for the judges to see. Even though we spent our breaks and lunch times, it was all worth it! We had painted until our hands could not paint, we had gathered materials until we couldn’t anymore, we cut until we couldn’t cut anymore, and we had spent literally, FOREVER. W gathered information to share for everyone, and wrote many many things, but this was actually the thing that had helped us perform as a group together to complete this task, as we did.

The turn out

The turnout for our group’s expectations was as we hoped, fabulous! Our castle looks great and unique with its awesome details and great colour. It had quite looked like the castle we were actually planning to make! The posters were spot on, they had been colourful as can be, eye catching, and was filled with information. Isn’t that something all posters should have? The brochure was great, it had been quite similar to the posters, it was colourful as can be, eye catching, and was filled with information. And the best part was the actual video; it was us in fast forwards making the castle! It literally made me have goose bumps. Our group was definitely prepared.

Comparing to other castles

Our group personally thinks that we have loads of competition surrounding and in the class room’s environment. We have some hard competition. Yes there had been huge castles from other classes, based on real castles, which is quite worrying as it raises the amount of anxiety in the whole of our group. But to be honest, I think ours is actually quit unique, in a sense it’s quite cute and small in a way. Bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better. Our group thinks that we have a chance that we can actually win this, because with the combination of information finding, crafts making, leader, and materials finder, you could already win with all of those many skills.  

But looking back, I think we did a great job.

The Castle King, will be back to write again, don't you worry!

Day 4

Right now Amy is shooting, our blogger is blogging! And Amy(the video maker) is doing a very good job, SO FAR SO GOOD! Barron Aurelie is still doing very well at her job. Her and our main designer are working on the castle it has taken time but is in progress. We all know what we have to do, and we are very organised. The castle is now nearly finished. Except we need to paint it. We had a little bit of trouble about the cans we brought in but we worked with it and made sure it was a brilliant master piece after all. Eventhough we have only 2 lessons left, i'm very sure everything will be done and ready for presenting. Fingers crossed!

Blogger -Rosie

Day 3

Everyone is enjoying the project! In our group everything is going well the castle is being created by all of us in the group. The video is still shooting and its going very well. The only thing we are having problems with is not being able to talk to anyone due to the fact that the Barron (Aurelie) is the only member of the team that is aloud to talk to the king (we are only aloud to talk to our team members).
Today, we has nearly all of the lesson without Barron Aurelie but before she left she made sure that each and everyone of us had a job to do whilst she was gone. And that is exactly what we did!

Blogger -Rosie

Bodiam Castle!!

Our castle is the bodiam castle.