Syllabus for the class so students can plan ahead:
Older group:
Week 1 - Hopefully we will be visited by a "knight in shining armor" who will explain what he's wearing and how it works and/or what knighthood was like in the Middle Ages.
Week 2 - Try on some real armor and watch some videos of re-enactors doing battles and tournaments.
Week 3 - Heraldry - We'll look at examples of why personal and group arms were so important, examples of how heraldry is used in the modern world, and design our own arms to display.
Week 4 - If the weather is good, we'll go outside for some medieval games (some of which are still common today). If the weather is bad, we'll play some board games and you'll get a game or two to take home.
Week 5 - Whichever games we didn't get to last week.
Week 6 - Science and Medicine--Did you know that the "Dark Ages" was a Victorian myth and just how long of a process the "Renaissance" was? They really weren't nearly as stupid as we like to think they were.
Week 7 - Why dancing was so important to a medieval social life. We'll learn as many medieval dances as we have time for.
Week 8 - End of term party. We'll have a jongleur, music and dancing, and food. Your homework for the term will be to find a recipe and bring a medieval snack to the party. I'll post resources as I find them or you can hunt down your own.
Younger group:
Week 1 - Hopefully we will be visited by a "knight in shining armor" who will explain what he's wearing and how it works and/or what knighthood was like in the Middle Ages. There will also be some armor to try on.
Week 2 - Heraldry - We'll look at examples of why personal and group arms were so important, examples of how heraldry is used in the modern world, and design our own arms to display.
Week 3 - If the weather is good, we'll go outside for some medieval games (some of which are still common today). If the weather is bad, we'll play some board games. You'll get a game or two to take home.
Week 4 - End of term party. We'll have a jongleur, music and dancing (We'll learn a medieval dance or two), and food (the teacher will bring a snack or two (Make sure you let me know if you have any allergies to work around.).
