A few weeks ago we read Knight Before Dawn by Mary Pope Osborne as part of our study of Great Britain (I know…great literature, but the kids love it!). While I was looking for a study guide and some lapbook ideas to go along with our studies I came across a study guide also by Osborne called Knights And Castles (Magic Tree House Research Guide)
Homeschool Share also has several different levels of knight lapbook components that you can pick and choose from depending on your child’s age/level. They also have a unit study along with the lapbook pieces to use as you go along. We used some from Homeschool Share and the bulk from Osborne’s Knights And Castles
Here’s how we broke up our week:
Monday
- Reviewed what we had learned about knights/castles from prior study: Middle Ages, protecting a castle, castle life, and festivals and fairs
- Life of a Knight tab book: stages in how to become a knight: page, squire, knight
- Label the castle: portcullis, tower, parapet, moat, drawbridge, merlon, and crenel
- Colored pieces of our castle we were making (DLTK site)
Tuesday
- Learned about different types of armor and weapons that knights used
- Labeled a knight’s armor: helmet, chest & back plates, arm plates, thigh plates, foot plates, shoulder plates, gloves, and calf plates
- Identified different weapons flapbook: sword, lance, battle axe, flail, crossbow
- Talked about where knights lived and a little about castles and how they were built
- Finished the castle – the below picture shows the fair maiden Polly Pocket in her dwelling
Wednesday
- Talked about battles and seiges
- How to joust and win – i.e. how to score and get the most points
- Learned about the three steeds of a knight: palfrey, destrier, and pack horse
- Vocabulary: page, squire, code of chivalry, moat, merlon, crenel, sentry, armor, serf, pilgrimage, and dubbing ceremony
Thursday
- Lapbook cover
- Wrote about knights and castles (you have to see the pictures below for a good laugh – Laurianna’s involved a fainting man who saw a knight and was surprised)
- Put lapbook together and had fun using Polly Pockets as the castle maidens – you have to use what you have!
A few websites we used this week:
- Hoernersburg Lego Castle…it’s all legos (and I think I have free time….)
- Castles for Kids – talks about the parts of a castle and also has other links to real castles, even some for sale should you be in the market for one
- Kid’s Castle – our girls had fun on this site exploring different areas: dragonsville, the great tower, the guardroom, gatehouse and more
Pictures of our completed lapbooks:
The picture of the fainting man
Some great resources on knights and castles:
The dough took a few days to dry, so on Wednesday we were able to paint it together. I outlined a few areas for the girls and they worked together to paint it to make it look more like a scene/cutaway of a volcano. When they were done with the base painting, they let Mommy drip red paint around the ledge of the volcano to make it look like lava was dripping down the sides of the mountain.
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