Unit 25: Preparing

History: MEDIEVAL TIMES!!! We are still in the Middle ages, but this week we started learning about Medieval England. What an interesting time period, castles, monks, knights, nobility. Most people especially commoners were poor during this time period, food was hard to come by. The story of Robin hood comes right out of this time (stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.)

I wish so badly that we lived near a Medieval Times dinner show, because it would have made the perfect field trip this week. Steve and I went to one on our honeymoon and it was so much fun watching the jostling and eating with our fingers.

Our history project this week was the next best thing. It had two parts first we researched medieval trenchers. These were hard flat pieces of bread that the common folk used as plates because they didn't have real ones. These trenchers were sometimes eaten after the meal or were given as alms to the poor. The first part of the project was to make trenchers, well we ended up not having all the ingredients (poor planning) so we baked "Flat-Out bread" in the oven until they were hard and crispy. Since they are flat they made the perfect trenchers. Here's Sis with her trencher (I still couldn't bring myself to eat our meal with our trenchers directly on the table like a plate, so I put pieces of foil under them!) They still thought their "plates" were cool.

The second part was to plan a simple medieval feast that included any of the following a meat, a soup, beans or peas, cheeses, and fruit tossed with cinnamon. We wrote out our menu. Here's what it looked like : sliced cheeses, chicken, red beans (not a huge fan), and baked cinnamon apples. The food was eaten on our trenchers without silverware! We were allowed to have a spoon for the apples. this was suppose to be a meal that a commoner would have eaten. nobility had fancier food and utensils. After the meal we had to each taste our trenchers. It was actually good. For medieval entertainment the girls took turns juggling, singing songs, and reciting poems while we ate. It was probably one of the strangest meals we've had together, but they all agreed it was fun.

We learned about medieval castles. Here is a link to a fun interactive page for kids about medieval castles...http://www.dkfindout.com/uk/history/castles/  

At the end of the week we watched Disney's Robin hood for fun. There were actually details in this movie that we've never noticed before studying the time period.


Reading: This week we started reading "The Door in the Wall." A story that takes place in medieval England about a young boy who is suppose to learn to become a knight, but plans change when he falls ill and has to go stay at a monastery with a monk.

Sis is also read "A Little Princess" Junior classics on her own for her quiet reading time this week.





Science: Sis finished her model of the heart this week that we have been making out of painted cardboard and marshmallows. Along with our model we have learned all about blood flowing to and from the heart and the names of the different parts. We also looked at heart health, symptoms of heart attacks, and what causes them.