Castles for 2013

1.

Castle Dallas, 2. Castle Trenton, 3. Castle Paige, 4. Castle Michael, 5. Castle Mady, 6. Castle Lainee, 7. Castle Kaytlin, 8. Castle Justice, 9. Castle Jeremiah, 10. Castle Jacob, 11. Castle Hunter, 12. Castle Gwenyth, 13. Castle Gracie, 14. Castle Ethan, 15. Castle Ella, 16. Castle Devan, 17. Castle Denny, 18. Castle Dani, 19. Castle Caleb2, 20. Castle Anthony2, 21. Castle Jessie2, 22. Castle Cameron, 23. Castle Betsy, 24. Castle Noni, 25. Castle Harvick

We have finished our Medieval History unit and our Castle project for 2013.  Once again, they were fantastic!

Castle Project for 2012

We have been studying Medieval Europe since early April.  Our castles were due last Wednesday, May 2, just in time for Core Knowledge Night.  We had lots of visitors in on Wednesday and Thursday during the day so see our wonderful castles.  Here are the castles for 2012!

Castles from Past Years

We have begun our castle project for 2012.  I have done this project with students for more than ten years.  Here are just a few of the castles from the past few years.

Photo #128/365: A Castle Animoto

We wrapped up our study of the middle ages this week, along with our celebration of Core Knowledge. My photo for today is actually more than a hundred photos of all of our castles along with many of the guests that came to see them. I have 28 students in my room. Everyone completed a castle, and none of them look alike. I hope you enjoy them!

Photo #125/365: Core Knowledge Night

Tonight was Core Knowledge Night at Phillips! This is the night we celebrate all the great things we have done and learned about as part of our Core Knowledge Curriculum. If you're not familiar with Core Knowledge, it's based on the book Cultural Literacy by E.D. Hirsch.




Since we are a public school, we also teach the regular school district curriculum, and now days we have Iowa Core and Common Core in there too. It's getting a little confusing, but as part of Core Knowledge we learn some great things. We study the American Revolution, Medieval History, we learn about world geography. Earlier this year we learned about Mountain Systems of the world. This month we've been learning about countries around the world.





We had lots of visitors in our room today. During the day students and teachers from other classes came to see our castles. Tonight we had families come to see our castles and our Glogs. We just finished our Glogs today. We embedded them into our Kidblogs, and I created as wiki called Explore Earth. This is the first time we ever made glogs.





The kids performed a reader's theater about Sojourner Truth, and the choir sang for parents. It was a really exciting day! The pictures here are of some of our castles, and the room as I waited for families to arrive.

Photo #124/365: The Castles

Our castles were due today. Phillips is a Core Knowledge school, and in fourth grade we study Medieval History. The highlight of this unit is our castle project. Students come into fourth grade on the first day of the school year asking when they get to make castles. We spend about three weeks on this project, and the kids and their families always amaze me.




We invite other classes into see them, and we will display them tomorrow night at Core Knowledge Night. Here are just a few of their castles.

Photo #128: A Motte and Bailey Castle

I'm heading out of town today, with my mom and Jacci, to celebrate my Aunt Barbara's graduation. She is graduating with her Masters in Psychology. I'm sure I will be taking lots of pictures while I'm there. Since I will probably not have internet access later today, I'm posting these pictures I took on Thursday of one of my student's castles. This is Bryony's Motte and Bailey Castle. This is the first time anyone has made a Motte and Bailey Castle for our castle project, and it is fantastic!

Motte and Bailey castles were the earliest castles made, and they look a lot like our early American forts. The drawback was that because they were made of wood, the enemy could set fire to them, which is why they began building castles out of stone. Fantastic job, Bryony!

Photo #125: Castles Galore

This is the way my classroom looked today. It was a wild and crazy day. Our castle project was due today, and as always the kids and their families just knock my socks off with their creativity. Every year that we do this, the kids come up with something I have never seen before.

We devoted our entire day to talking about our castles. We interview each member of the class about their project. We also invite kids from other classes to come in to see them. Tomorrow night is Core Knowledge Night, and the castles and our other projects will be on display for everyone to see.

If you're interested in learning more about our castle project, you can read more about it on my professional blog, Prospecting For Treasure.