When the Romans invaded in AD43, they really liked Ancient Britain, but they weren't too impressed with the Ancient Britons.
The Romans pretty much thought they were better at everything; they built big brick and stone buildings with central heating.
They built sewage systems and paved, straight roads that stretched right across the country to connect up all their new Roman towns.
Before long they'd built so much that Britain didn't look too different from Rome itself, apart from the weather of course.
The Romans even brought animals, like rabbits to Britain.
And stinging nettles too!
The Romans also built temples to worship their many gods - like Mars, Jupiter, Mercury and Venus.
You've probably heard of them, because we've named our planets after them.
Later on, the Romans decided to believe in just one god and introduced Christianity to Britain too.
Before the Romans arrived there was no written language in Britain.
They changed all that by teaching important Britons how to read and write and how to speak the Roman language - Latin.
And even today, two thousand years later, a lot of our words come from Latin, like 'enormous' and 'victory' and 'lavatory'!
The ways we measure distances miles feet and inches - that's all Roman.
We've got Roman numerals, which you can still see in a lot of places, like clocks.
And coins too, the Romans made using coins to buy things popular throughout the whole of Roman Britain, rather than just swapping one thing for another like a sheep for a sword for example.
All in all we owe a lot to the Romans - but don't tell them that - they're smug enough as it is.
Video summary
A humorous short animation showing just how much of today’s Britain has been influenced by the Romans.
Many of our buildings and how they are heated, the way we get rid of our sewage, the roads we use, some of our wild animals, religion, the words and language we speak, how we calculate distances, numbers and why we use money to pay for goods were all introduced by the Romans.
Teacher Notes
Pupils could research an area from the animation, before presenting their findings to the class.
An end of term topic assembly could include all the groups' findings to celebrate their learning to parents.
The class could compare imperial measurements with those used by the Romans.
Pupils could research words that have Roman origins. For a challenge, the pupils could write a story which includes as many of these as possible, or even try to write a sentence in Latin with its translation.
Roman architecture could be researched to create junk models of Roman buildings.
This short film is relevant for teaching History at KS2 in England and Wales, KS2 in Northern Ireland and second level in Scotland.
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