School Collaboration

In 2005, children from Year 3 Earnshaw College in Brisbane joined the McAuley Medieval Fayre for the first time. Earnshaw College is one of our closest schools and it is part of our Mission to explore ways the community can be part of our teaching and learning. We are thrilled that Earnshaw now joins us every year for this special event and we thank them for their efforts to make the day a medieval celebration. The presence of the Year 3 children at our Fayre is a true educational celebration of the Arts highlighting the way University and primary school students can come together in learning and it is a relationship that we continue to foster.

The relationship between ACU National in Brisbane and Earnshaw College began when Earnshaw Curriculum Co-coordinator Carol Cochrane agreed to bring the children over to join in the Fayre. The children were told they had to make their own costumes and they managed to do this in a matter of days. Using household materials and pure ingenuity, the children arrived at the Fayre looking like true Knights Ladies and townsfolk of the medieval times. They were all extremely excited at the prospect of this interactive learning experience.

After the Fayre was over, Carol explored the children's experiences with them back at school by making a book on their responses. Photographs helped frame the children's participation and deepened their reflections on what happened on the day with the University students. Their outstanding efforts were entered into a national competition held by Pearson Education publishers in Australia and won first prize! The book 'Earnshaw Goes Medieval' was published for the School in 2005 and features the University Fayre in full living colour! We were thrilled with their efforts. In 2006, Year 3 again came to our Fayre and this time, performed a medieval dance and song for the University community. It was a wonderful day! We await our next Fayre, always in May of the calendar year.

How can you integrate the idea of a Medieval Fayre into your classroom?

In any school, in almost every country throughout the world, children learn about history and society and it is here that learning about the medieval period is most significant. However, the idea of medieval can be integrated into almost every other curriculum area for an exciting and dynamic learning experience. Choosing a Medieval theme gives the teacher of any age group a rich and diverse learning framework. The culmination of the theme in a Medieval Fayre brings the whole school community together and teachers can enlist the talents and resources of parents and medieval groups in the community. The Fayre itself can be a celebration of the Arts and could include the selling of art and craft by the school community.

Here are some ideas for integrating the medieval theme into the primary classroom:

• Look at the history of different medieval periods – the medieval period is about 1000 years in length approx so there are many opportunities for learning here.
• Ask a medieval enactment group to come and present a play from the medieval period and have the children respond to the performance as a piece of theatre.
• Have the children write their own plays looking at medieval Guilds, dragons, knights, kings and queens etc.
• Do a process drama with teacher in role elements (see teacher resources) that can span over a period of days or weeks. Have children move in and out of role during this process and have them document their drama journey in diaries, journals and class storyboards.
• Write stories for class publishing of great fantasy from the medieval period – have children research the work of medieval guilds and have them write about one particular's boy's journey from apprentice to master. (Older grades)
• Have children paint and draw pictures of medieval life/castles and set up a gallery in the school library with an official opening. Frame the work for display.
• Construct Medieval castles in groups with children researching design elements. Display in school library.
• Design heraldic banners which can be hung everywhere for the Medieval Fayre.
• Explore design of medieval costumes and have children design their own for their participation in the Fayre.
• Learn about medieval food and prepare the banquet for the Fayre day.
• Create puppets for a medieval puppet show to be performed at the Fayre.
• Watch suitable DVD/Video excerpts of Medieval life.
• Learn about medieval music and instruments and have children perform/play a song at the Fayre.
• Learn medieval dances to be presented at the Fayre. Find appropriate medieval music to suit the dances.
• Learn about the plays of the time: Mystery and Morality plays are particularly interesting.
• Make the classroom into a medieval castle with turrets etc.
• Do Maths based on medieval ideas – how many knights, horses etc? Measure castle construction design etc.
• Discuss the feudal system of the time and the fact that illiteracy was high in medieval communities.
• Explore public health in medieval times: the Black Plague etc. Have children do health charts of 'then' and 'now'.
• Design a safe but challenging 'gauntlet' for physical education games. Have teams compete against each other. e.g. the dragon versus the knights.
• Write a newspaper 'Ye Old Medieval Times'. Have the children write interesting and funny headlines and stories. Look into how newspapers are produced and have children 'sell' their own medieval newspaper at school.
• Write advertising jingles for a medieval product. Have children present to each other as part of media studies.
• Video the 'day in the life of a medieval marketplace' with children miming the actions. Learn about the elements of mime.
• Make dragon masks for visual arts and display.
• Set up a class library of medieval books both fictional and non-fictional.

These ideas are not comprehensive and you are only limited by your imagination. This is such a rich theme to pursue in the primary classroom – you will need to allow yourself at least a term to integrate all the strands of the Arts successfully. Send us any of your ideas on curriculum planning and we will add them to the web site. Happy learning!