Medieval times come alive for Linderman students
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Polson fourth-graders are just finishing studying medieval times, which means middle ages according to Reed Harbin, a student in Mrs. Morrison’s class.
Each student in each class was given a medieval job to research, and kids and their families also made costumes to suit their characters.
Harbin was a blacksmith, as was Josh Young. Both boys said the blacksmith job was to make, clean and repair armor.
“You couldn’t go out to war with no armor or dinged-up armor,” Young said.
Today, Young said, the closest thing to a blacksmith’s job would be a mechanic.
Giving land away to his knights was Seth Russell’s job as a nobleman.
Bentley Stinger’s medieval occupation was a spinster. She would have made woolen yarn and then woven it into cloth to make clothing and all the textiles needed in a castle.
A medieval queen, whose whole purpose was to get married and have a son, was Gwen Seeley’s assignment.
“I wouldn’t have wanted to be a queen,” Seeley said. “I’d rather be a knight.”
Olivia Jensen’s job as a scribe would have entailed writing letters for the king and the queen, many of whom were “rather stupid,” since they couldn’t read or write.
To show the medieval system in action, the class learned that peasants, workmen, cooks, scribes and blacksmiths had to wait until the nobility arrived before they could be seated at all events. The same thing went for dining; the nobles ate first and best, and the workers got what was left, usually not the elaborate fruit bowls, desserts and suckling pigs.
As a troubadour, Kedrick Baker would have sung about brave knights and love, he said, rolling his eyes.
But as medieval jobs went, troubadour was a pretty good one. In today’s world, Baker said the closest occupation to a troubadour would be a musician.
As a medieval monk, Omar Medina said he would have sat in the chapel praying and reading the Bible, which wasn’t his favorite.
Elias Adams’s job as a jester was to entertain the king and queen while they were eating. Since a jester was a peasant, he wouldn’t have been paid for the job.
As well as a medieval job and a costume, fourth- graders had to construct a castle. In Mrs. Morrison’s room, the castle parts, such as drawbridge, portcullis, moat, etc., had to be identified. The largest the whole structure could be was 18 by 24 by 24 inches, according to Chuck Salois. Salois and his daughter Josie built her castle over a couple of weekends.
Teacher Mark Brookman required his students to find a real castle, research it, recreate it and give a report on the building.
Retired teacher Carolyn Heinz began the medieval and castle study when she taught gifted and talented students in the 90s and later when she taught fourth grade.
Fourth-graders like castles, knights and archers, Heinz said, because it’s like fantasy to them.
As a teacher, Heinz said, “You can tie in so much—math, puppet shows, poetry.”
The kids held a grand march, where each classroom’s medieval society was introduced. Then on May 4, the unit culminated with a noon feast and a medieval market outside at 1 p.m.
