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Medieval Realms - Misc.

World History teaching resources for the high school classroom: lesson plans, worksheets, quizzes and simulation games for KS3, IGCSE, IB and A-Level teachers.


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.

 
1. ActiveHistory Mysteries [Interactive]
A series of engaging "Historical Mysteries" designed to develop skills of question formulation, deduction, research, groupwork and essay writing. Using a range of visual and written "clues", students piece together a genuine historical mystery and work towards an independent conclusion. Worksheets and markschemes included.
2. The Peasants' Year: Matching Exercise [Interactive]
A good "stand alone" lesson. Students copy and paste the pictures into the correct spots in the peasants' calendar. Follow-up questions included.
 
3.

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!)

 
4.

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!

Battle of Hastings History Game
5. Creating a Family Tree
Students create their own family tree after analysing that of The Simpsons cartoon characters.
 
6.


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!

 
7. The Worst Jobs in History: Medieval
This activity can be used as a stand-alone lesson, homework assignment or as part of a broader unit on "Was life Good or Bad during this particular period?". The worksheet has basic activities for a 30 minute lesson, and extension tasks that could be followed up later.
worst_jobs_in_history
8.

"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.

 
8. Design a Virtual Museum
During the COVID-19 lockdown period I got my students to collaborate on a "Virtual Museum" containing items from around their homes.
It worked well and is something which I'll now do regularly as a standalone project - you may be interested in trying a similar thing out with your own classes.
 
9. What's in a name? - Researching and presenting the origins of surnames of people in the school
In this activity, students research the origins of surnames of people in the school.
They then narrow this down to the names which originate from occupations, and present each of these in a PowerPoint slide with an accompanying image.
These are then printed off and arranged through discussion into a 'Diamond9' diagram with the most 'high status' jobs towards the top, and the 'low status' jobs towards the bottom.
This adds an interesting dimension to the investigation about "Was Life Good or Bad in the Middle Ages?".
 

 


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