Medieval Times & The Renaissance

“Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it.”

-Leonardo da Vinci

Welcome to our Medieval times & the Renaissance homeschool unit! This page should serve as a guide for you, if you are teaching your 2nd-6th grade students or children all about knights, castles, and renaissance artists! If you are unfamiliar with what a unit study is, or how it works, I recommend you read my post about it here.

This homeschool unit encompasses a bit of knights and castles and the following Renaissance period of art and creativity. Before studying the Renaissance, we spent some time studying the European Vikings and the Middle ages. Some of these topics to overlap, so I recommend looking at that unit as well and picking out that activities that you would like to do!

I designed this unit for my homeschool children, however many of the activities could be adapted to a school environment as well. At the bottom of the page, you can find a find a suggested schedule and list of supplies. So, let’s dive into the unit.

Books

First, locate some books. I definitely recommend getting one of the project books. These are great for coming up with ideas of fun rabbit trails about Medieval times. Then, you can choose one of the chapter books. If you have younger students, please consider doing one of the books as a read-aloud. There are also a few shorter books at the bottom of the list. Some of the books have Youtube video links if I could locate them.

• Great Medieval Projects by Kris Bordessa – by far my favorite book to use while studying medieval history. It is filled with information as well as projects to complete on different topics
• Medieval projects you can do by Marsha Groves – if you can’t find the first book, this one is a great substitute.
• Robin Hood – Howard Pyle – there are a variety of versions of this book, choose the one that best suits your student’s age and grade level
• Adam of the Road – by Elizabeth Janet Gray – Follows the story of an 11 year old boy in 13th century England.
• The Inquisitor’s Tale – Adam Gidwitz – This is a medieval tale set in France and tells the story of three children on a journey involving magic and some absurdity. Please screen this book in advance of reading.
• Tangled in Time: The portal – by Kathryn Lansky – This book is is set in 16th century England and is both historical fiction and fantasy, great for those who enjoy that genre. This is a middle grade book and the first of a seven in a series.
• Daughter of the White Rose – by Diane Zahler – A middle grades chapter book (grades 4-6) about life and times in England in the 1400’s. A historical fiction mystery murder book. View our packet with companion activities here.

Shorter Books

• Step into Reading Joan of Arc – by Shana Corey
• The Apple & The Arrow – by Conrad Buff & Mary Buff
• The Kitchen Knight – by Margaret Hodges

Videos

In addition to the books, I enjoy using videos in our homeschool to reinforce and explain topics. If you’d like to incorporate a video in your study of medieval times, you can use one of the ones below. We focused a lot on the life of Da Vinci in this unit, so several of the videos relate to him:

• What was Feudalism?
• Parts of a Castle
• Leonardo da Vinci Short Biography
• Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man
• Da Vinci’s Drawings

Castles & Feudalism

First up, we studied the purpose and structure of a castle. We watched several videos on the topic, but the one listed above is the best description of the different areas of a castle. I used the worksheet to the left to reinforce the vocabulary associated with a castle. You can find this in my Tpt store, or listed here on my website.

In addition, my 9 year old created a PowerPoint slideshow with the parts of a castle. If you’d like to use her presentation, you can download it below for free –

During the next part of studying a castle, we created one! Clay or Legos make great tools for creating a castle. So do recycled materials! If you live close to the ocean as we do, you can create a model of a castle in the sand. This was the route we chose, because it also gave us an excuse to head out to the beach!

During this section of our unit, we also studied the feudal system, and how the different classes of people lived during that time. We created a pyramid depicting the various roles in society back in those days. To reinforce this topic, we played a card game. This card game is free to download, and it shows the main roles in the feudal system. If you have a bigger crowd, there is a fun and also free classroom or co-op game which involved explaining the feudal system with M&M’s!

Medieval Times Recipe

Cooking recipes is one of my children’s favorite hands on projects to complete with any unit, and the Renaissance unit was no exception!

When we made this recipe, we were actually creating Swedish pretzels. The inspiration for the pretzels came from learning about medieval times and researching the origins of the pretzel.

You can find the recipe and instructions at my link here. But the bottom line is – rolling pretzels with kids is super fun! You don’t have to coat them with sugar as we did. The process of making the dough and the various ways to shape a pretzel was entertainment enough. Link here on how to ways to shape!

The Renaissance Projects

We completed two different projects during our study of the Renaissance, both relating to Leonardo da Vinci. The first project involved some stem and creativity. The mission: create one of the many inventions da Vinci drew but never put into action. Some examples: a parachute, a diving suit, a flying machine, or a helicopter. Above you can view my younger daughter rendition of a parachute. Provide a variety of supplies for your child including:

• paper, cardboard, tissue paper, and fabric
• plastic or paper cups
• straws, pipe cleaners, toothpicks, popsicle sticks
• glue scissors, hole punchers
• recycled materials from around the house

For the second project, you may be better of with a group of at least 4-5 children to complete. If you are doing the project on your own, expect to spend some time creating the “puzzle” pieces the Mona Lisa. Here is a link to a pdf of the Mona Lisa divided as a grid. Each student is given a section to re-create with their own tastes. They can color any way they wish. When each student has finished their section, the pieces are put together to make a mosaic! The version that my kids came up with in our co-op was extremely abstract (this picture was taken a few years ago).

Renaissance Homeschool Unit Projects & Art

Lastly, each child was to choose a Renaissance artist to write a biographical report, and to practice using one of that artist’s stylistic techniques. Since the girls had enjoyed learning about Leonardo da Vinci so much, they both chose to write their report on his life. For the art project, I gave a choice between sketching with red and black charcoals or creating their own tempera paints with egg whites. My kids love to sketch, so they chose that option. (I personally would have enjoyed the tempera paints!). For sketching, all you need are black and white charcoals and some paper. One of the videos listed above shows the art style of Da Vince, which gave them some inspiration.

If you’d like to try your hand at creating those, you can do so by following this link. For the “pigments” we recommend food coloring. Here are the ingredients that you would need.

• Eggs
• water
• Food coloring or other pigment
• oil (they recommend linseed)
• a small container

If writing a biographical paper isn’t your family’s style, another way to learn about the Renaissance is to practice reading comprehension. I created two different reading comprehension activities in my TpT store that can be used by students in 3rd up to about 5th grade. The most applicable age is 3rd and 4th grade. On the left, is a packet about the Renaissance in general. On the right, is an art history reading comprehension packet on Leonard da Vinci.

Renaissance Homeschool Unit Wrap Up

That wraps it up for our Renaissance homeschool unit! See below for suggested schedule and supplies. If you have a local Renaissance fair, I highly suggest checking it out! Or even a medieval feast tourist attraction would work nicely as a field trip. For my kids, they need to see the costumes and the atmosphere to really get a feel for this time period in history. To the right is the picture of us in costume as out local fair.

For more middle ages activities, don’t miss our previous unit on Vikings and the Middle Ages. This unit has a few projects that relate to medieval times as well.

Suggested Medieval Times & the Renaissance unit Schedule

Week 1

• Monday: Read one of the chapter books, watch a video about castles, and complete parts of a castle worksheet
• Tuesday: Watch a documentary about castles and create a model of a castle
• Wednesday: Continue reading and learn about the feudal system. Create a pyramid of the feudal system.
• Thursday: Continue to read and cook a recipe from Medieval times.
• Friday: Watch video & take notes about feudalism. Play feudalism card game or candy game.

Week 2

• Monday: Read about renaissance artists
• Tuesday: Pick an artist to learn about, read about them, and write a paragraph or paper
• Wednesday: Watch videos on Leonardo da Vinci, draw a Vitruvian Man, Create a puzzle Mona Lisa
• Thursday: Create an invention inspired by Leonardo da Vinci, draw or paint with tempera paint
• Friday: Visit a Renaissance fair, medieval feast, or a castle!

Suggested Supply List:

• Eggs
• water
• Food coloring or other pigment
• oil (they recommend linseed)
• a small container
• thick paper – cardstock or watercolor
• black and red charcoals
• sand, clay, cardboard, or legos for castle model
• 1/2 cup warm milk
• 1 packet of dry yeast (1 tbsp)
• 1 cup plus 1 tsp sugar
• 1 stick unsalted room temperature butter, diced into small cubes
• 1 table spoon baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 large egg
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp all spice
• plastic wrap and a bowl to let the dough rise
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 Tbsp of melted butter
• paper, cardboard, tissue paper, and fabric
• plastic or paper cups
• straws, pipe cleaners, toothpicks, popsicle sticks
• glue scissors, hole punchers
• recycled materials from around the house
• colored pencils or markers