Middle Ages

 Alyssa is in 6th grade and I've been told that at our school, 6th grade is a year of projects ... so when the first project came home the first week of school, I was prepared but not excited.  A report, a bunch of in-school learning worksheets/projects and 6 projects of their choice at home. Alyssa chose creating a menu, dressing up for the class activity, making armor which she gets to do at school, building a castle, making a catapault and a tapestry.  So, that means 4 big projects plus her report at home in one month. 

Project 1 ... the menu.  She researched items they ate in the middle ages online and found some interesting things ... 26 boiled eggs, currant cake, pickled veggies, spiced beef, vealed chicken, smoked fish, spit roasted pigeon.  She found all her items and then wrote it up and we burned the edges to make it look old.  She did a great job on it.

Project 2 ... the castle.  Big sheets of styrofoam cut into bricks, spray paint gray and then build the castle, add the towers, spray again with a "stone" texture spray.  About 6 hours so far ...

She still needs to build a big wall all the way around the castle, spray again, make a draw bridge and then add final touches.  It will probably take another 45 min or so.  Wow....  I'll post pics when it is done... hopefully tomorrow since it is due on Thursday!  But it is COOL already!

Project 3 ... the catapault.  We found instructions online for a popsicle stick and masking tape catapault.  She followed the instructions and did great. 

The instructions called for a box made out of paper as the "basket" to hold the item being launched.  But Alyssa came up with the idea to use a medicine cup instead.   She learned that when you don't have enough tension on the rubber band, it doesn't work... so she had to re-tape the rubber band and then it did realy well.  She launched her foil bed all the way across my room.  



Project 4 ... the tapestry.  We knew there was no way that she'd have the time and focus to finish it in time so we decided to do something a little different.  My mom and sister came up with the idea of using scraps of fabric and sticking the edges of each piece of fabric into a piece of styrofoam so it looks like it is almost sewn down into the styrofoam...  Here is the ALMOST finished project.  Pretty impressive, I think.  I had to help with the black edges - it was a pain to get it cut right and keep it smooth.  But she did the sheild and swords and roses on the corners 100% on her own! 

She drew some shapes that she wanted to add on the sheild, cut those out and we glued them on. 

It looks GREAT!  And I think it will probably be pretty original too. 

I hope she has learned but after all the hours spent, part of me wonders isn't there an easier way to learn?  Something that requires less busy work?  But I think she learned a lot and hopefully, it will be something she remembers.  And if nothing else, I hope she learns that when you do something, you should do it well.  That's the one thing I keep telling her, if you are going to do it, do it well.  Don't give it a half effort. 

I will be so glad when this middle ages project is all turned in and done!  I know that there are more projects to come!