A Castle Feast

with Mrs. Starko's Kindergarten

Castles is an area of interest that seems to naturally surface each year in my kindergarten classroom.  This year one child in particular would draw knights in a variety of his pictures since September.  Then, with the introduction of the story The Hungry Giant and many Fairy Tales, their interest in castles grew.  I have tried to focus in on the extension of the castle interest as it developed around the creation of our castle feast.  The feast idea began with the introduction of the story A Medieval Feast by Aliki.  In documenting a part of our feast project, I hope to make more visible the children's learning, both social and academic, as our community of teachers and learners( parents, children, and teachers) make our castle feast a reality.

We began by asking the children to draw their ideas about castles.  What do you think a castle looks like?  By asking the children to draw or build a castle, the adult will be able to see a glimpse of their current understanding of castles.  Each time the children design a castle they must reflect first and then represent their ideas.  When working in groups we say they must co-construct their representations.  It is during this co-construction that the children will share their ideas and even argue as each child discovers other perceptions and points of view.  "No, we need the drawbridge first, then the portcullis."

Building A Variety Of Castles

Weapons and sieges were also mentioned during our study.  The children build a catapult and experiment with it, firing Unifix cubes at their creations.

Parents come in and share their time and expertise with the children in helping them to build a cardboard castle and thrones.  The children also want thrones for the king, queen, and princesses.  The boys insisted on a dungeon as well.  Now the play consists of the boys capturing and containing bad knights, while the girls stories have princesses getting lost and then found in the dungeon area, while the king and queen sit on their thrones.

The children listen to the story A Medieval Feast by Aliki and we decide to put on our own castle feast. Food was the first big issue and we record what we would like to eat at the castle feast. 

Here the children are preparing for the castle feast.  The language 'tools' that your children have learned allow them to successfully make a list of food items for the feast using phonetic spelling.  The class helps provide the letters for each of the sounds that the children hear in the word they are trying to spell.

The decoration committee was responsible for making and creating or bringing in decorations. 

A variety of decorations were created.  Sean brought in streamers and balloons which the children made good use of.

Planning The Entertainment

We explore the genre of Fairy Tales which fits in perfectly with our look at castles.  We write and perform a number of plays. 'The End' become important words along with 'Once Upon A Time".  Queens, kings, princesses, giants and dragons also join in our stories.  We discover the exclamation mark, and quotation marks in our favorite story The Hungry Giant.  The children also learn The Three Billy Goats Gruff rap.  Costumes were made and then several groups of children acted out the rap.

The AM class decided to write and produce a play.  A group of 6 children came up with the following story.  They created costumes and a stage.  You can also see how well the children have understood what parts belong in a fairy tale.  There is the Once upon a time, the introduction of characters, a problem to be solved, and a happily ever after ending.  The boys insisted they were not going to get married at the end of this story.  Their story:

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess with a beautiful dress and a beautiful shiny crown which helped her see in the dark.  Princess Periwinkle lived in a castle with her father, King Parker, and her mother Queen Sarah.

Princess Periwinkle was very kind and friendly.  She loved to go on long walks by herself in the woods.  Unknown to the king and queen there lived a bad princess dragon in the woods.  She was once a beautiful princess but she was turned into a dragon.

One day princess Periwinkle was walking in the woods.  She was chasing butterflies and went further into the woods then ever before.  The dragon was also walking in the woods and the two met each other.  The dragon took Princess Periwinkle away and tied her up.  Luckily Prince Eric and Prince Lance were riding in the forest.  They heard princess Periwinkle calling for help.  Just as the dragon was going to eat the princess, Prince Eric comes to slay the dragon.  With drawn sword he begins to swing at the dragon but Princess Periwinkle commands him not to kill the dragon.  The prince then promises the dragon that he will not harm her.  Meanwhile prince Lance sneaks in to untie princess Periwinkle.  Princess Periwinkle's kindness melt the dragons heart and she becomes Princess Amanda.

They all return to the castle and celebrate.  Princess Amanda, Princess Periwinkle, Prince Eric and Prince Lance all become best friends and live happily ever after.  THE END

Our  players working out costumes and the story.  They have internalized the parts of the fairy tale as evidenced by their story.

The PM class writes to one of our student's brothers, to see if they will come in and play the violin.  He agrees.

The day of the feast finally arrives. 

We combine our medieval feast with our Valentine's Day party.  The children have mailboxes they set out so that an exchange can be made.  It is a long process but an opportunity is provided for the children to read each other's names. Teachers and parents help them out.

We dress up for the feast.  Some children make costumes at home and bring them to school, while others use the classroom costumes.  We have made paper bag costumes that we can use to wipe our hands.  Scented water is provided for the children to wash their hands in, lights are turned out, candles are lit and the food is ready to go.

N created his own crown at home, especially for the feast.  Connections from school to home and from home to school are very important to the children.  We had read about how fancy some of the pastry and cakes were. Karen and Val worked together at the children's request and made our castle cakes.  Both cakes were beautiful and delicious.  We truly loved them! 

Bread plates called trenchers are used to hold our food.  We serve and eat with our fingers but we are allowed some spoons.  Lady T is serving and even siblings join us for the feast.

Here we are then, enjoying our feast. It truly was a feast.  We tried bird, beast, and fish.  We had fruits, vegetables, cheese and crackers, and dessert thanks to our parents.  The children really enjoyed the feast, all the more because they helped to design it. A spirit of camaraderie grows, the closeness is expressed by the hugs and the conversation heard as the children leave.  These memories last a long time.  They are important to your children as it is these experiences that contribute, so very much, to your child's learning. As you can see, language arts, science, social studies and art are integrated into our exploration of castles.  Thank you everyone!

From castles to dinosaurs.  A direct link really from our look at the dragon myths.