Arts & Activities

General

  • Do art critiquing the way the "pros" do!  This site includes elements of art, principles of design, an art timeline, art vocabulary, and activities as well.  Although Dialectic and Rhetoric students will gain the most benefit, Upper Grammar students could benefit with parental guidance.

  • One of our users, has made a webpage full of great helps for this year-plan.  Check it out!  Thanks to Tamra for all of the neat forms you have at Highland Heritage!

  • Use this site for great pictures when making lap books.  Contributed by Sue.

  • Here's real help with Feast Nights: food timeline and recipes galore!  Enjoy!

  • Visit our Gallery page for Year 2 Hands-on and Writing projects and see what others have done!

  • Art History Time Line:  All ages can benefit.

  • "This time line site is a bit of a pain to get around, but once you do, you'll glean great time line information on classical music."  --from Christina, a Tapestry user.

  • Walk through Time:  Great interactive web site with LOTS of extra games and activities (ready made!) for GRAMMAR students.

  • Brenda, another user, wrote: I wanted to pass along a great site to everyone: www.puzzlemaker.com   You can put in a list of words, etc, and it will generate puzzles....everything from word searches, to crossword  puzzles...codes, etc!!!  They also have some really cool mazes which my younger ones love!!  I have used it a lot for something fun to go along with what we are studying.....

  • Barb shared a great alternative to salt maps:  cookie dough maps!  Materials: dough recipe, waxed paper, blue icing, green sprinkles, clear sprinkles, small chocolate chips, red candy strips (licorice strings), M&Ms.

    Use these symbols:
    blue icing - lakes and oceans
    green sprinkles - plains
    clear sprinkles - deserts
    chocolate chips - mountains
    red candy strips - rivers
    M&Ms - capitals

    Dough Recipe:
    2 c. smooth peanut butter
    2 1/2 c. powdered milk
    2 1/2 c. powdered sugar
    2 c. white corn syrup
    Mix all ingredients together and put small portions on waxed paper. Makes about 25 small
    maps. 

Here's a relatively new product that we just discovered: Crayola's Model Magic:

This great, lightweight, soft modeling substance comes in four colors, or you can just buy buckets of white.  It air-dries quickly, and after it's dry, it can be sanded, painted, or decorated.  Kinesthetic learners can use this in place of clay to make models of all sorts, as well as jewelry, diorama furniture, puppets--the list is endless!  Model magic can replace FimoTM for most projects suggested in Tapestry. 

Want to suggest a resource or link? Email Dana.


Unit 1

Week 1: Twilight of the Western Roman Empire

Week 2: Byzantine Empire and the Eastern Orthodox Church

Week 3: Byzantine Empire and Rise of Islam

Week 4: The Making of Medieval Europe: Charlemagne

  • "Free software for kids to make their own shields (coats of arms).  Learn about the Middle Ages, feudalism, knights and chivalry while making a coat of arms."  Click here.  (Recommended by our users.)
    "Free on-line heraldry game - learn about Shields, Knights and Heraldry. Role-play as a young aristocrat, recognizing friends and enemies." Click here. (Recommended by our users.)

  • Origami Viking Helmet Folds

  • Make a Viking Longboat, or click here for a different pattern.  These were contributed by Tamra M.  Thanks!

  • Virtual tour of a Viking building

  • Learn about heraldry. Link contributed by Linda

Week 5: Developments During the Viking Age

Week 6: Medieval Life: Feudalism

Week 7: The High Middle Ages

Week 8: The Mongols, Marco Polo, and the Far East

Week 9: The Reshaping of Medieval Europe

  • Robbin was gracious to share this idea:  This week we were all feeling a little stressed, so one day we did math, music, watched Cathedral, and painted. I read somewhere (?) about an easy way to make stained glass paintings: take an almost-empty bottle of glue and add black tempera paint to it. Use the glue to outline a drawing, so that it looks like the lead in stained glass. Then use watercolor paints to fill in the design.

  • Another idea, shared by Kristen in NH, is to make window cling paints to make stained glass looking rosettes. The special black paint outlines (looks like leading) are filled in with special thick colored paints. When dry one can peel the picture off the flexible plastic sheet and apply to a window or mirror as a "cling" that is repositional. The paints are sold separately at craft stores for about $1.50 each and come in many beautiful, rich, vibrant colors with plenty of paint for several projects. The brand we use is "DecoArt Liquid Rainbow Paint, Peel and Stick-On Transparent Paint."   "Window Art" By Barbara Kane (Klutz) is another window cling kit option available at craft stores and many book stores.

Week 10: Early Lights of the Reformation

  •   Finish all hands-on projects.

Unit Celebration: Medieval Feast

  • Medieval Feast recipes:  Click here, or here.

  • Medieval costumes

  • Another site about medieval costumes

  • General information about Medieval Feasts

  • A user shared: "We are getting ready for our feast on Saturday, and I went shopping for material to attempt to make costumes. Then I came across something even better, and I just had to share my idea.  Check out the Halloween costume clearance sales. While we don't celebrate Halloween at our home, I found some great things for next to nothing. For instance, I found a dress for myself for only $4.99, girl's dresses for $2.49, a king's cape for $2.49 and swords for the knights for only $.74. Some of the costumes will be altered a bit...one of my sons is using a dress as a tunic (it is plain black). I am simply going to cut it off.  I will still have to make a thing or two, but I cut my work dramatically. I wish I had thought of this sooner when the selection may have been better!  Happy Feasting! -- Marsha in WI

  • Wassail Song

Want to suggest a resource or link? Email Dana.


Unit 2

Week 11: Introduction to the Southern Renaissance

Week 12: The Southern Renaissance and the Early Explorers

  • Leonardo da Vinci - 13 pages of Davinci’s works - Some works include classical nudity

  • Another page of Leonardo da Vinci drawings

  • How to use a compass

Week 13: The Southern Renaissance and the Age of Exploration

Week 14: Spanish Dominion and the New World: Aztecs and Incas

Week 15: The Northern Renaissance and Its Scholars

Week 16: The Reformation: Martin Luther and the German States

Week 17: The Reformation in Switzerland, England, and Scandinavia

Week 18: The Counter Reformation, French Huguenots, and the Netherlands

Week 19: Elizabethan England and the Scottish Reformation

Want to suggest a resource or link? Email Dana.


Unit 3

Week 20: Early New World Colonies and Eastern Europe

Week 21: Puritans in New England

Week 22: Charters, Creeds, and the English Civil War

Week 23: Restoration Colonies and the Age of Louis XIV

Week 24: Dissenters in America and the Age of Reason

Week 25: Colonists and Native Americans

Week 26: Empires at Odds

Week 27: Thirteen Established Colonies

Want to suggest a resource or link? Email Dana.


Unit 4

General Resources for this unit:

  • Two websites that offer colonial recipes: recipes only, or follow links at this site. Recommended by Sharie in Maine.

  • SUPER site: all kinds of interactive activities for young students to play and learn about Native Americans. Highly recommended!

  • Incredible site: more here than you'll ever need: games, recipes, weaving--all about Native American life from all over the country.  Well written, well designed, and many sections are interactive.  Two thumbs up: all ages!

  • 18th Century Men's Fashion Link contributed by Angie

Week 28: Shaping Influences on Colonial Culture

Week 29: French and Indian War

Week 30: Give Me Liberty!

Week 31: First Battles for Independence

Week 32: Waging the Revolutionary War

Week 33: America under the Articles of the Confederation

  • Wig making resource.  This site includes step by step instructions for how to make a variety of wigs and the information on it can be adapted for making colonial wigs.

  • This site on Paul Revere is full of activities and resources that match many of our objectives. Be sure to enter the site and on the following page click through each of the "halls" to see all there is. There are patterns for the crafts they suggest that work wonderfully for doing group hands on activities.  Recommended by Susan M.

Week 34: Writing the Constitution

Week 35: Federal Republic & French Revolution

Week 36: Perilous Times: The Adams Administration

Want to suggest a resource or link? Email Dana.