Coats of Arms and Castles:
Lusher Elementary and Middle Schools Meet the Middle Ages

Second through eighth grade members of the Talented in Visual Arts Program at R. M. Lusher School in New Orleans spent the 1998-99 academic on a series of medieval projects. Having spent the previous year studying Native American totems, students were introduced to medieval symbolism in the form of Heraldry. Two professors from local universities came in to talk to students about the Middle Ages and, in particular, about the symbolic colors, shapes, and animals used in making coats of arms. (Click here for “Handout.” Also, for an exhaustive list of heraldic symbols, visit wssiwyg://192/http://members.tripod.com/~Whitehead/heraldry.html). Art Project Director, Susan Holman then had students design their own crests using a combination of traditional medieval shapes, colors, and animals along with any personal symbols that they might wish to include –for example, a family pet or any other object that they felt was special or represented part of their lives and families. Besides the self-descriptive aspect of the assignment, an important part of the project was introducing students to the concept of “symbolism” and, in particular, the distinction between public, shared symbolism which draws from a fixed set or pallet of symbols such the medieval heraldic vocabulary and the private symbol, such as a pet or favorite pastime. The coats of arms were drawn on paper and eventually painted on wooden shields.
 

A second part of the project was the construction of a castle along with its inhabitants, ranging from the Castle “Wizard” to  “Lord of the Keep” to “the stable lads.” (Since not everybody could be a wizard or a lord, lots were drawn.) Relying on a series of books about castle life as well as guest speakers, students wrote short descriptions of their characters’ duties and used “sculptee” clay to model their figures.
 
 
 
 
 

Interested in castles and the people that lived in them? Consult the bibliography at the bottom of the page.

For a tour of castle, see

          Adults' and kids' tours of the Tower of London: http://www.toweroflondontour.com

          Great tours of  Durham Castle:  http://www.dur.ac.uk/~dla0www/c_tour/tour.html

There are many terrific web sites devoted to castles. Enter "castles" in any search engine. (In fact someone might do a great service to this list by collecting and annotating them).  One that I would recommend is "Castles on the web" (http://www.castlesontheweb.com/index.html). It's self-description reads: "Massive resource contains links to castles around the world, a photo archive, and a glossary of terms. Includes castle greeting cards." Additionally there are sections on heraldry and medieval studies.  Best of all, it  includes a special kids' section with activities (http://www.castlesontheweb.com/search/Castle_kids/).
In checking out castles, don't forget to check out those in Africa, especially Mali, and Japan. http://www.castlesontheweb.com/search/Castle_Tours/ allows you to search by country and geographical location. All in all, a great site!
 
 

A Juggler 
A Knight
A Crossbowman
A Lady in Waiting

 
 

A Stableboy with a Horse

 
 

A Squire
A Knight
A Jester 
A Princess

 
 

A Peasant 
A Knight 
A Blacksmith
 A Courtly Lady

 

A Wizard
For books on castles and castle life, especially for younger readers, see

      Biesty, Stephen. Stephen Biesty's Cross-Sections: Castle. New York: Dorling Kindersley,
                    1994

      Gravett, Christopher. Eyewitness Books: Castle. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994.

      Osborne, Will and Mary Pope Osborne. Magic Tree House Research Guide # 2:
                Knights and Castles.  New York: Random House, 2000.

      Steele, Philip. Knights. New York, Kingfisher, 1998.

      What Life was Like in the Age of Chivalry.: Medieval Europe, AD 800-1500.
                Alexandria, VA: Time-Life, ?.
 
 

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