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Rachel May
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My kids (6 and under) are requesting a unit on castles. Does anyone have any good brainstorms on this topic? For some reason I couldn't get anything to come up on the search engine. 
I'd like to do at least one (bigger?) project and hit as many subjects as possible (to appease the State  ).
Thanks!
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Rachel
Thomas and Anthony (10), Maria (8), Charles (6), Cecilia (5), James (3), and Joseph (1)
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lapazfarm
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Cool! I am getting together a medieval study for ds (10) soon and have some ideas, but not so many for that age group.
The "Sir Cumference" books for math are the first to come to mind.
Design your own coat of arms.(art, soc. studies)
Art attack has a couple of castle crafts.(art)
Do an illuminated letter for their first name.(lang arts, history)
Make a castle out of sugar cubes with icing as the mortar.(soc studies)
I think there is a magic school bus castle book/video.(history)
Have a jousting tournament on bikes with foam rubber lances.(PE)
Get pictures of castles around the world (google) and paste them on a world map.(Soc. Studies)
Acrostic poem using the words castle, knight, or other medieval word.(Lang arts)
Eyewitness book, "Knight" has awesome pictures,info, etc. (History)
Magic Treehouse series has a book, I forget the title I think "The Knight at Dawn"(reading).
King Arthur stories (lit).
Make crowns or knight's helmet and have them call each other Lord, Lady, and Sir all day. (fun)
I'll try to think of more.
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
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lapazfarm
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For science they could make simple catapults out of popsicle sticks and rubber bands and have a contest. They could experiment with the effects of using different length sticks, weight missile, placement of fulcrum, etc. Build a castle of foam blocks and see if they can knock it down.
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
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Courtney
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We're doing a medieval history study right now. It started due to ds's fascination with knights, castles, etc. There are many good books at our library. Here are some book suggestions that we're given to me on another list:
Time Traveler’s Guide to the Middle Ages
Kingfisher Knights and Castles
Medeival Feast Aliki
Brother Francis and the Friendly Beasts
St. George and the Dragon
Castle (book and video) David McCauley
Sword in the Stone video Disney (fun to compare to historical fiction and non fiction)
Francis, Poor Man of Assisi Tomie DePaola
St. Jerome and the Lion Rumer Goddin
Sword in the Tree Clyde Bulla (we love all his books)
The Beasts of Lor Clyde Bulla
What Were Castles For Usborne
A Child’s History of the World Chapters 48-58 Hillyer
Knights and Castles- Magic Tree Houst Research Guide #2 Osborne
Joan of Arc Diane Stanley
Castle and Knight sticker book- DK
Praise of Created Things – Poem by St. Francis of Assisi
In addition to these, we've read The Whipping Boy and have started Redwall. We're going to make a castle out of boxes and paper towel rolls. Both dd and ds have made their own coat of arms. We've talked about chivalry and what that means. My ds has a castle that he got for Christmas. We've talked about he different parts of the castle. He had been wanting a Playmobil dragon attack cannon, but once we read that there was no such thing as guns or gun powder back then, he doesn't want it anymore b/c it's not historically accurate!
We spent much of Monday making various catapults from spoons, boxes, sticks and rubber bands.
One more idea: here's a website for medieval history for kids.
Hope these ideas give you a starting point.
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Courtney in Texas
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Jen L.
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Here's a couple of things that I found. I haven't gotten a chance to take a good look at them yet...
KINGS, QUEENS and CASTLES (free)
Castle Unit Study (can get using "free trial")
About.com
Cute idea: Construct castles from paper towel and toilet paper tubes and small boxes. Decorate.
Lesson Plan from Canada
Lesson Plan from Louisiana
Enchanted Learning! (I did a search on castle at this site.) LOTS of matches!!!
Books:
Castle by David Macaulay
The Enchanted Castle (found on MacBeth's site)
There is a book from Usbourne:
Castles: Usborne Beginners
Who lived in a castle, and what was it like? In this book you'll find the answers and lots more about the wonderful world of castles. The easy-to-read text has been specially written with the help of a reading expert. Suggested Web sites add to the adventure.
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dh Klete,ds (8/95),dd (12/97), dd (11/00), and ^2^ in heaven
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lapazfarm
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Fairy tales are also a natural tie-in literature-wise.
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Theresa
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MaryM
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There was a pretty thorough thread last year on the topic of doing a medieval unit study - it included info on castles. Martha posted some great links. These castle oriented ones we found to be fun resources.
Castles for Kids
Kids' Castle
Knight In Armour
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Mary M. in Denver
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Mary Chris
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Wow! Talk about timing, I just came home with a bag full of books about castles and knights. The kiddos want to study Europe.
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Blessings, Mary Chris Beardsley
mom to MacKenzie3/95, Carter 12/97 Ronan 3/00 and wife to Jim since 1/92
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Rachel May
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Hooray! Thanks, I'll keep checking as I plan.
We have a friend who is a bow hunter, so I think we're going to have him come over and do some archery lessons. He promised the boys his bow from when he was little. 
I was telling DH last night that I need to write a child's book of manners based on chivalry, then I could call that Health. 
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Rachel
Thomas and Anthony (10), Maria (8), Charles (6), Cecilia (5), James (3), and Joseph (1)
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MacBeth
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The Enchanted Castle is possibly my favorite read-aloud of all time.
Rachel, if you lived nearby, you could visit the castles we have here on Long Island. Here is the link to photos of the castles...a real treat to visit. When Mr. and Mrs. "Netsmith" were here, we hiked the preserve where the castles are found. Fun, right guys?
They even have a Medieval Faire every year, with jousting, archery, etc. Tons of photos of the Faire here.
Come visit?? 
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MacBeth in NY
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MacBeth
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Oh, and the gardens at Old Westbury Gardens have statues just like the ones in The Enchanted Castle (but no dinosaurs!) Here is a link to someone's personal photo album with lots of photos (Warning: Some of the statues are scantily clad  )
Again, come visit?
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MacBeth in NY
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momwise
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MacBeth wrote:
| Again, come visit? |
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I wish! The idea of reading Enchanted Castle and visiting a real castle is super.
Here's a listing of Castles around America. We have a castle here . I haven't been yet but I'm putting it on Maureen's list of things to do while she's here for the Denver conference (very shameless plug ).
You can find free paper models by googling but your kids might enjoy making one out of boxes and tubes, etc. This free software looks good. This Castle Unit looks great!
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Gwen...wife for 30 years, mom of 7, grandma of 3.....
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cathhomeschool
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MacBeth wrote:
| When Mr. and Mrs. "Netsmith" were here, we hiked the preserve where the castles are found. Fun, right guys? |
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Extremely! I was actually scrapbooking that a week ago! (I am not a scrapbooker, but trying to become one, sloooooowly.)
We have this Easy-to-Make Castle from Dover that I'm saving for when we study castles.
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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Rachel May
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MacBeth wrote:
They even have a Medieval Faire every year, with jousting, archery, etc. Tons of photos of the Faire here.
Come visit?? |
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Be careful what you wish for.... My in-laws live in Newark! Not a bad drive from here.
I was having the blahs about school, especially after Bill announced that he thinks we should "do" school all summer since we don't really "do anything anyway"  , but now I'm getting excited again. And it was the last rabbit trail that really made him think that homeschoolers do something. I guess I'd better print this out and get planning. Maybe I'll put it in my hospital bag so I can plan when I have a few days of quiet.
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Rachel
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Rachel May
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Oops, forgot to ask, does anyone have good resources for talking about the Armor of God from Eph 6:10-18? We bought it from Catholic Child.com a few years ago, but I don't know what I did with the teaching papers that came with it.
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Rachel
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MaryM
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Rachel May wrote:
| Oops, forgot to ask, does anyone have good resources for talking about the Armor of God from Eph 6:10-18? We bought it from Catholic Child.com a few years ago, but I don't know what I did with the teaching papers that came with it. |
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Rachel, do you have the plastic armor of God or the large poster they sell? If you have the poster, there are worksheets on the back of the poster that you can reproduce. The poster is made by Ascension Press but lots of places carry it.
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Mary M. in Denver
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MacBeth
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Rachel May wrote:
Be careful what you wish for.... My in-laws live in Newark! Not a bad drive from here.
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Any time, Rachel! We'll show Bill what homeschooling really looks like ! 
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MacBeth in NY
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Patty
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The PBS program NOVA has a series of videos called Secrets of Lost Empires. We watched the one titled "Medieval Siege" where a team tries building a trebuchet...they have to make changes in their design in order to get the trebuchet to work properly. We got it from the library and by boys LOVED it! So did the girls and so did I. The video from this series about building a Roman bath was fascinating as well. We haven't seen the others though.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lostempires/
Patty
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Katie
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I have very little to add except to say how great all the ideas are, and to add that I grew up in Harlech, home of the Harlech Castle featured heavily in McCauley's "Castle" video. There are several famous castles in the North Wales area - a google search on Caernarfon or Harlech or Conwy would bring up some interesting info.
Did anyone mention "The Duchess bakes a Cake" as a FIAR book that is often used as a springboard into castles and medieval studies?
Have fun. I might have to put together a little unit for the crew here before we next go home to castle country.
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Rachel May
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Katie wrote:
| Did anyone mention "The Duchess bakes a Cake" as a FIAR book that is often used as a springboard into castles and medieval studies? |
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I had forgotten about that one. We have Plum Pudding for Christmas with the same characters, and the kids love it.
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Rachel
Thomas and Anthony (10), Maria (8), Charles (6), Cecilia (5), James (3), and Joseph (1)
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4Real Forums : Across Time and Place
Topic: Castles
