Medieval Realms: Stand-Alone Resources

The following resources can be used either as Miscellaneous homework / extension activities or as stand-alone lesson units in themselves.

The Origins of the Calendar
Students design their own calendar, designed to illustrate the origins of the names of the months of the year (I usually set this as a Christmas Holiday homework so the calendar is going to be useful for a whole year!)

Design your own Heraldic Coat of Arms
Design your own coat of arms by answering a series of detailed questions about your personality and interests. The computer uses the information to design your shield, choose the colour scheme, and recommend the symbols you should use. A great classroom project which turns into a brilliant display of finished projects!

Crime and Punishment in the Middle Ages
A kinaesthetic history unit! Students start by considering how guilt was determined in the Middle Ages. They then engage in a role-play exercise where the class acts as a "jury" and the defence and prosection teams have to go through trial by water, battle and fire. Once guilt or innocence has been established, the exercise is rounded off with a consideration of which punishment should be inflicted!

"Timeline of my Birthday" - worksheet
Replace [DATE GOES HERE] with the month / day of your birthday (e.g. “November 30th”).
Go to https://www.activehistory.co.uk/birthdayTimeline and input your birthday. It will provide a list of events, births and deaths that took place across a wide range of time on the day you were born.
Select AT LEAST FIVE of these entries to put into your timeline, following these rules:
a. At least one ‘event’, one ‘birth’ and one ‘death’ must be included
b. No more than one entry in each row (=century)
c. Put a picture relating to this entry in a cell next to it, with a caption.
Complete the final row with information about yourself.