Lesson Plan for Kindergarten
These lesson plans usually cover a three week time frame
for a portion of each day. |
GENERAL GROUP DISCUSSION AND ACTIVITIES
Day 1 - 6: Materials Needed - 4ftx4ft sheets of bulletin board
paper (or other large paper, maybe newsprint). Markers.
Books from the bibliography. With a marker, put the following headings
(one per sheet):
KING, QUEEN, PRINCE, PRINCESS, KNIGHT, CASTLE. |
Procedures - Each day I use one of the pages from the stack and ask the
children to tell what they know about
the day's topic. All answers are acceptable and I write everything
down. This leads to some
interesting discussions as opinions and ideas vary and are sometims strongly
held even at this age.
Meanwhile, the next day I read a non-fiction description/descriptions of
the previous day's topic
and we compare the description with the list from the previous day.
We also look at pictures and
I tell the children what other books in the stack might have pictures of
the day's topic. |
Day 7 - 10: Materials needed - as above and individual pages for each
child. Also pencils, crayons, markers for each
child. |
Procedures - Each day the child may choose a new topic from the sheets
displayed to illustrate and write about
(according to individual abilities). One one day the topic for writing
is: "If I were King, I
would...". |
| Day 11 - 15: Materials needed - Paper to make the class book.
Writing and drawing implements for each child. |
Procedures - Through group discussion, we choose whether to write a fictional
or non-ficitonal class book
about the Middle Ages. Last year, the students chose to do a Non-fiction
book, and our topic was
"A Middle Ages Kindergarten Alphabet". Through much discussion and
poring through the books
in the classroom, we came up with at least one idea for every letter of
the alphabet. On two
separate days, each child chose one idea to write about and illustrate.
The children used the books
in the classroom for ideas. We edited the descriptions individually and
read their pages aloud
before binding them for the class to use.
This year we did a fictional book called "Knight's Tales". Each child
made up and illustrated
their own one page story featuring themself in the middle ages. We
combined these pages into a
book and the children enjoyed reading them over and over.
This year we also made up a class story, "The Queen's Quilt". The
children all participated in
making up the group story and each child made a quilt square using 25 of
1" squares which they
glued in a pattern onto a 5"x5" backing paper. These were all atttached
to a large sheet of bulletin
board paper to make the "quilt" and the story was printed and hung next
to it on our hall wall.
CULMINATING ACTIVITY - THE TOURNAMENT
During the last week of class we prepare for a tournament with another
Kindergarten class that has also been studying the Middle Ages. Some
of the activities for preparation and for the tournament follow:
Hats - For the girls
we use a sheet of tagboard and cut a quarter-circle and stapling to form
a cone shaped hat.
We get two hats from a regular sheet of tagboard and at the top attach
streamers of crepe paper or fabric
scraps.
For the boys I made one two inch wide strip of tagboard long enough to
go around the child's head over their
brow. I then cut two 1 inch strips and attached them from front to back
and side to side. The strips were
covered in aluminum foil to make them look more helmet-like.
Castle - A teacher
made castle is a great addition to this activity! Take a refrigerator
box and lay it on the side. In
the middle on one side cut out a door that is rounded at the top and still
attached to the box at the bottom. You
can use a rope attached from the top of the door and through the castle
box wall to make a kind of drawbridge.
To either side of the castle attach an upright washer or stove box that
you have cut the top off of. You can cut
out the top sides in the rectangular up and down shape of castle towers.
Cut an opening between the
refrigerator box side and the appliance box side large enough for the children
to move between the sections.
Shields - Our class
used shields that they had each made for the joust. They had made
the shields at the beginning of
the unit and we had actually hung them on the wall in the hall. I
explained to the children that in many halls the
shields were displayed on the walls of the great room of the castle until
they were actually needed for battle.
The day we took the shields down and passed them out for the joust the
feeling was very "medieval"! Hand
grips for the shields can be made from strips of tagboard attached in a
hand sized loop on the back or the
handle part of a plastic milk jug hot-glued to the center of the back.
Pennant - We made
a class pennant out of tagboard, felt and a yardstick. This represented
our castle and we carried it
to the tournament.
The Tournament - Our
tournament consisted of three activities. The first activity
was a tug-o-war with one class on
each side of the rope. Our second activity was jousting and this
was done as a relay race. The children in
each class found a partner and got in line next to their partner.
One was the knight who carried the lance (a
foam pool floating stick) and held the hula hoop that was the "bridle".
The other student was inside the hula
hoop and was the "horse". At the signal, each pair "galloped" around
the course, returned and handed off the
gear to the next pair. The winning class finished all pairs first.
The second activity was "Storming the
Castle". For this we used the cardboard castle and scrunched up pieces
of newspaper. The children took
turns storming and defending.
Because this was the first year we had a tournament, this is just a beginning.
It is also possible to add a
medieval type playlet and some stalls with some medieval items for barter. |
|
CENTER IDEAS
|
BLOCK CENTER - The children used the bibliography books to get ideas
and cooperated within their small groups to
build a castle with wooden blocks. This would also work with Legos
or Duplo blocks. |
ART CENTER - Use tagboard or manila folders to cut out heraldic shield
shapes. The children can use
crayons/markers/paints and the information from the heraldic site that
has been put in simplified form on
large sheets of paper to make their own shields. This activity can
be extended by making a simple fill-in
the blank page for each child as follows:
|
| Name_________________________________________________________________________________________
CAN YOU FIND MY SHIELD?
My shield has________________ sections. The sections are:___________,
___________, _____________,
______________ colors.
The designs on my shield are:
______________________________________________________________________________________
|
|
This activity makes a great visual discrimination activity that can be
discplayed on a bulletin board/wall. |
|
The children can paint/color their varoite Middle Ages topic. |
|
The children can also use bulletin board sheets and tagboard to prepare
costumes. |
| MATH ACTIVITY - How many blocks did you use to build your castle? |
Trace around each shpae you used and count how many of that shape your
used in your building
activity.
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| Bibliography for Teachers |
Knights and Castles: 50 hands on Activities, Avery
Hart, 1998.
A Coloring Book of the Middle Ages,Bellerophon Books, Santa
Barbara, Ca., 1998. |
|
| Bibliography for the Classroom |
Medieval Castles, Lynne Chapman, 2000.
Castle, Mark Bergin, 1999.
The Medieval Castle, Don Nardo, 1998.
Castle at War, Andrew Langley, 1998.
Battle For the Castle, Elizabeth Winthrop, 1993 (cassette, 1999)
The World of Castles and Forts, Malcolm Day, 1996.
Medieval Castle, Jim Pipe, 1996.
Castles, Philip Steele, 1995.
Castles, Christopher Granett, 1994.
A Medieval Castle, Fiona Macdonald, 1998.
See Inside a Castle, R.J. Unstead, 1986.
Castle, David Macaulay.
St. George and The Dragon,Margaret Hodges, 1984.
The Dragon Takes A Wife,Walter Dean Myers, 1972.
Be sure to check your school and
local public library for other sources. |
| Extras |
Medieval Knight Floor Puzzle (very realistic!)
Consonant Castle Floor Puzzle
Fairy Tale Castle Inside and Outside Floor Puzzle
All available
from Frank Schaffer Company
Medieval plastic figures (these can be ordered from school supply stores) |
Medieval Maps Bulletin Board Border from Teacher's Creative Press.
Medieval Times Stickers from Teacher Created Materials.
These can be used for patterning activities or as storystarters.
They can also be mounted individually on
cards for a "concentration" type game. |
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