Unit Outline ~ This unit involves the following:

• visit to the Royal Ontario Museum for a gallery tour and hands on lab with real Medieval artifacts
• reading and note taking from the textbook: Medieval Times
• watching the video Castle by David Macauley
• drawing diagrams of villages, castles, clothing, artifacts & writing appropriate captions
• art - creating illuminated letters
• music - listening to and singing Christmas carols
• researching what life would be like if one were a lord, lady, serf, soldier, nun etc. and making a Historical Presentation in costume to the class
• role playing - drama - create a costume to wear during presentation and for the feast
• listening to a talking book  The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman, a story about life in the 14th century - or - listening to A Company of Fools by Deborah Ellis
• learning to play chess or checkers by joining the Chess & Checkers club
• take part in a Medieval Feast while dressed in costume
• bring a platter of food to the feast that would be typical of what would have been eaten at that time
• Entertain at the feast by singing as well as performing one other activity - either alone or as part of a group
• notebook is expected to be neat and complete
• quizzes & a test will be given

Medieval Times ~ Presentation Guildeline

The Life of a ......
Roles in Society:
Students will be assigned a role (clergy, nobility, merchant or peasant). by lucky draw. See Roles for full listing of possibilities. It is expected that they will find out how that person lived.

• Length of presentation - about 3 minutes 
  • You need to time one of your practices
• Date of Presentation (The last week of school before the Christmas Holidays) (1 or 2 days before the Feast)
• Additional items for the presentation:
  • costume
  • picture in a book (text) tagged & ready to show
  • artifacts (real or pretend) related to your role in society
• Cue Card - you may use 1 cue card - see details below

Evaluation Guideline for Presentation
Use this guideline to help you prepare for your presentation. You should practice with your cue card at home. Have someone time you. Do not write out full sentences on your cue cards. Do not read from your cue cards. Do not memorize your information. Know your information so that you can comfortably talk in front of the class. Use your cue card to remind you of what to talk about next.

Information - Tell us about the life of the person you studied. Use the following questions to guide your research.

• What did they do? How did they learn this?
• Why is this job important? Who did it help?
• What was everyday life like? What was the house like? Food? Clothing?
• What was the family life like? Children?
• Was life easy or hard? Was this person important?
• Tell about any interesting facts you may have learned through your research.

Presentation style - You can present this information either in

• 1st person narrative e.g. I am a serf and .......  - or -
• 3rd person descriptive e.g.  The serfs had a very hard life ......

Notes - You are expected to make point form notes in your Social Studies notebook.

Cue Card - You need to write your presentation outline out on your cue card. An outline tells you the topics you are going to talk about & the order. You will have room to put some point form notes on the cue card. You may only use 1 cue card. You may use the front & back of the card. You may not write the information out in sentences nor may you read from your cue card. You are expected to know your topic and may use your cue card to remind you about what you will talk about next.

Vocabulary - You need to use specific words that relate to the Middle Ages and avoid the use of such words as "stuff" and "things like that".

Costume - Your costume should not be purchased. You are to study how people of your station in Medieval Society dressed and make imaginative use of clothing and materials available in your home to make a costume. You will wear the costume during the presentation. It would be good to explain why people dressed the way you do in the Middle Ages.

Pictures - Find informative pictures in books you are using for research or the textbook. During the presentation show these pictures to the class and explain what information the picture gives us about what your life was like. Tag the pictures with "stickies" beforehand to make finding them easier during your presentation.

Artifacts - Bring in items (or pretend items) that would be used by the person you are portraying & explain why and how you use it

Medieval Feast ~ Entertainment

Students will be evaluated:

• Social Studies - knowledge about the life & times
• Drama - acting in character, dressing the part
• Music / Drama - performing for an audience

Costume

For the class Medieval Feast (held the last Thursday before the December Holidays), each student is expected to wear a costume representative of their station in life. 

Entertainment:

At the feast, students will be expected to entertain the other students. Performances are expected to be practiced, polished and entertaining. This will contribute to their Drama & Dance and Music mark.

Drama & Dance

• story telling
• dramatic reading of a short story or fable
• poetry recital
• puppet show
• magic tricks
• juggling & jesting
• dancing

Music

• singing - solo or with a group
• whistling a tune
• playing a musical instrument such as a piano, guitar, keyboard, bells, recorder, harmonica
  • music notes may be used - the piece does not need to be memorized

Food:

Each student is also expected to bring a platter of food for the feast to be shared with the class on the Feast Day. Food needs to relate to the type or style of food eaten in Europe during the Middle Ages.

Drinks People drank water but not as much as today. Water was often polluted, so many of the drinks were fermented drinks - even for children. For the sake of the feast, we will substitute kid-appropriate drinks of course! People shared goblets at feasts - we will not. People drank :
ale (ginger ale), beer (root beer), wine (grape juice), cider (apple juice, cider)

Meat  Wild game was a common source of meat - especially for feasts. Some common meats were wild boar (pork), venison, rabbit, partridge, swan and pheasant.
Domesticated animals such as chickens and ducks were eaten. Turkeys were not yet known as they came from North America.
Lamb, beef, and goat meat was also eaten.
Chicken, meat pies and meatballs seem to be the easiest meats for students to bring.

Fish Fresh water or salt water fish were eaten.
Sardines and herrings would be appropriate fish for the feast.
Tuna was not known.

Bread Bread was a main food. Slices of thick dark rye bread were used as plates and were called trenchers. For our feast, we will use small paper plates or pita bread.
Whole wheat, rye bread and rolls are good items for the feast.

Vegetables The vegetables that were eaten were the ones that could be kept in storage for a long time:
. beans, leeks, cabbage, turnips, carrots, parsnips
Porridge, soup and stews were the most common way of eating vegetables & cereals.
Lettuce did not keep so was not served in the middle of winter.
Tomatoes & potatoes were not yet known since they came from South America.
Rice was not known as it was grown in the Orient.
Pasta had not yet been brought to Europe by explorers who traveled to China.

Fruits & Nuts Fruits that can be grown here in Canada and kept into the winter are like the ones available in Europe in the Middle Ages:
. apples, raisins (dried grapes), pine nuts, almonds
Dried fruit like figs and prunes were available from traders who traveled to the Middle East.
Tropical fruits like mangoes, oranges, bananas were not available.

Sweets & Baked Goods Pies, cakes and puddings were popular. Honey, cookies, marzipan were sweets that were eaten.
Chocolate was not known since the coco bean comes from South America.

Boar's Head brought to the feast by the parents of one of the FabFour students.