Chapter 16 describes England after the Norman Conquest. I thoroughly enjoyed this chapter and, for the first time ever, we did all the crafts and activities suggested. How can I NOT build an edible castle? How could we NOT work with Play-Doh in different colors to illustrate the blending of languages into English? How could we NOT play a medieval game of Fox and Geese?
Coin purses – a rare cloth craft we put together for history
I even shocked myself by summoning enough courage to do a textile craft… after I told you guys I do not enjoy them and I draw a line there… But there was absolutely no sewing involved, not even fabric glue… So we made two almoners (coin purses).
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- Step 1
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- Step 2
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- Step 3
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- Step 4
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- Step 4
The chapter is rather long, with three stories, so we finished the map and coloring page (a castle) in one day and left the crafts for the next day.
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- Melting marshmallows for edible castle
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- Our best attempt at building an edible castle out of marshmallows and cheerios
After we made the castle, my son got really inspired (there’s no telling what marshmallows can do for one’s mind!) and remembered that he had borrowed a book from the library called Incredible Cross-Sections. What do you know? The first chapter showed a castle and its cross-sections, with short paragraphs that described each section and even the relationships between different classes of society in medieval times.
Blended languages created English
The kids learned the word “feudalism.” It’s neat that in Romanian the spelling is the same, although we pronounce it differently.
Then we worked on the Play-Doh craft to illustrate how all these languages blended together to create the English we speak today.
Fox and Geese beginning position
Last but not least, they played Fox and Geese and loved it. Once was enough and it actually did not take that long. I have to say, it is hard to be a fox and win.
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