Enrichment Unit – Medieval Feast
Title: Medieval Feast
Grade level- 1-6
Brief course description: Many people think of the Middle Ages as a romantic time when gallant knights
rescued lovely damsels in distress and everyone lived in castles. In this unit, students will learn that's only
one small facet of the picture as they explore lifestyle of the wealthy elite and explore the lives of the
peasants, craftsmen based on the story Medieval Feast (Aliki). Learn about life in the middle ages
through research and art.
Standards:
At least 3-5 reading and/or math MN state standards the are supported in this unit of study based on
grade level in addition to other disciplines:
Literacy Focus Benchmarks
 Use a variety of strategies to expand reading, listening and speaking vocabularies.
 Generate and answer literal, inferential, interpretive and evaluative questions to demonstrate
understanding about what is read.
 Understand the meaning of texts using a variety of comprehension strategies and will
demonstrate literal, interpretive and evaluative comprehension.
 Actively engage in the reading process and read, understand, respond to, analyze, interpret,
evaluate and appreciate a wide variety of fiction, poetry and nonfiction texts.
 Identify, respond to, and compare and contrast the literary elements of characterization, plot,
setting, theme and tone.
 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are
appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
 Write narratives and other creative texts to develop real or imagined experiences or events
using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
 Distinguish, understand, and use different types of print, digital, and multimodal media
Math Focus Benchmarks
 Compute fluently and make reasonable estimates with whole numbers in real-world and
mathematical problems.
 Understand the meanings of arithmetic operations and how they relate to one another.
 Represent and interpret data in real-world and mathematical problems.
 Represent data and use various measures associated with data to draw conclusions and
identify trends.
 Build new mathematical knowledge through problem solving.
 Apply and adapt a variety of appropriate strategies to solve problems.
Describe how you will integrate math and/or literacy skills for at least 20% of unit study (see proposal
description for requirements):
Math Integration:
There are many opportunities for math
integration—measurement and geometry in the
architecture study, cutting for the rose windows,
arches and flying buttresses.
We will see that “Imperial” liquid measurement we
use in the USA is from the middle ages, compare
and contrast metric measurements during cooking
projects.
Literacy Integration:
Reading and writing will be a daily component of
the unit as we read several books, and and look up
information on the internet on every topic studied.
Required Resources:
A Medieval Feast by Aliki
Knights & Castles 50 Activities by Avery Hart & Paul Mantell
Days of Knights & Damsels Activty guide by Laurie Carlson
Weekly Layout: (see ALC Wiki site for lesson plans and downloads)
Week 1-4: Life in Medieval Times
1. Learn the time frame and geography of the Middle Ages
 Who, When and Where- Create a time line
 Art/Architecture
 Food and Games
Lesson Plans: “Intro to Middles Ages” “Who Did What?”
2. Teacher read-aloud (see resources) and students do research (using books and the internet) and
develop a Middle Ages character-Royalty or Peasant or Serf. Use Knights & Castles (K&C) has
much background and anecdotes
 Puppet making – make a puppet of a sample medieval character pg 87-94 Knights &
Damsels (K&D)
3. Participate in activities that took place in Medieval times
 Weaving Cloths or Knitting (Pg 140-1 in K&D)
 Making and writing a “Book of Days” and practice Calligraphy (Pg. 78-79 K&C) or writing
in book with a quill.
Week 5-9: Art & Architecture
 Learn about the art of the medieval world by making/ simulating the art and architecture of the
time (castles, cathedrals, rose windows, gargoyles, coat of arms)
Power Point: “Medieval Art & Architecture”
Medieval Castles
 Slides of castle:
 Medieval Castles--Study images of castle each unique, built for defense-cold, dark, musty
compare to the media version of castle life
 Lesson Plan: “Medieval Castle Building”
 See K&C, pg. 44-45
Stain Glass
Churches-cathedral an architecture revolution. Flying buttress Allowed large windows to be used, and the
art of stain glass became iconic and gargoyles.
Rose windows
 See Lesson Plan: “Stain Glass Windows, Gr. 3-6”
Gargoyles
 See Lesson Plan: “Clay Sculpture-Gargoyles” for brief history and directions for project.
Heraldry evolved as a form of identification during jousting and battle; can include a tournament piece as
an insight for conflict resolution lessons.
 Lesson Plans: “Designing a Medieval Shield”, and/or “Design a Coat of Arms & Shield “
Week 10-12: What They Ate
Make food and drink, and games of the middle ages and participate in a medieval feast

See K&D Pg. 39-64 for simple recipes and explanations of the historical information on food and
pg. 73-86 for game information.
Culminating Activities:
A Medieval feast (based on the story by Aliki), role play different medieval social roles (using what
they’ve learned about their character) that show what the society of the Middle ages consisted of and
make food, drink and games and learn dances of the middle ages and participate in a medieval feast.
(Optional idea: invite other classes to feast and present puppet show)
Plan ideas: “The Feast Menu”
Supporting Materials (books, websites, etc):
Reading:
Read Aloud (depending on age and reading level):
The Making of a Knight: How Sir James Earned His Armor by Patrick O-Brien
Castle Diary: The Journal of Tobias Burgess by Richard Platt
The Sword in the Tree Clyde Robert Bulla
The Door in the Wall Marguerite De Angeli
A Year in a Castle by Rachel Coombs
The Bravest Knight by Mercer Mayer
Other books that support the theme:
Castle Under Attack (Lego)
The Middle Ages (Shuter)
Gargoyles and Medieval Monsters (Smith)
Celtic Design Coloring Book (Sibbett)
Night of the Gargoyle (Bunting)
Survive the Middle Ages (McDonald)
Cathedrals of the World (Green)
Knights and Armor (Smith)
Bard of Avon (Stanley and Vennema)
Everyday Life in Medieval Europe (Grant)
The Medieval Messenger (Fleming)
Knights and Castles (Williamson)
Medieval Celebrations (Diehl and Donelly)
The Knight and the Dragon (Tomie dePaola)
Math- Comic Strip Math and Problem Solving by Dan Greenberg
http://mixinginmath.terc.edu/
By building on the math around us, Mixing in Math helps children and caregivers become more confident, comfortable
and competent in math. Math is in the things we do, the objects we use, the games we play, and the questions we
ask.
Web resources:
The Middle Ages for Kids - Many links to learn more about this dangerous but exciting time.
http://www.kathimitchell.com/middleages.htm
Make your own model medieval castle -- a learning activity that teaches about history, feudalism and life
in the Middle Ages.
http://www.yourchildlearns.com/castle.htm
Gargoyles
http://www.stonecarver.com/gargoyle.html
http://www2.goshen.edu/~marvinpb/lessons/gargoyle.html
Teacher Web Resources:
Pics4Learning is a copyright-friendly image library for teachers and students. The Pics4Learning
collection consists of thousands of images that have been donated by students, teachers, and amateur
photographers. Unlike many Internet sites, permission has been granted for teachers and students to use
all of the images donated to the Pics4Learning collection
http://www.pics4learning.com/
The companion Web site to the NOVA program "Medieval Siege," scheduled for broadcast on January
24, 2006. In the film, which is a part of the NOVA series Secrets of Lost Empires, a team of timber
framers and other specialists design, build, and fire a pair of trebuchets, a devastating engine of war
popular in the Middle Ages. Here's what you'll find online: Medieval Arms Race, Life in the Castle, Build a
Trebuchet, and Destroy the Castle. The trebuchet was one of the most devastating weapons of the
Middle Ages. During medieval sieges, this destruction machine crushed castle walls. Using trial and error,
medieval engineers adjusted the trebuchet to make sure its missile hit the castle wall—and destroyed it.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lostempires/trebuchet/