Story of the World Year 2, Week 1

I was so excited to start this year because it covers knights and medieval times. How cool is that? We always start with a get to know you kind of activity to kick the year off. Their homework for the first week was to design their own coat of arms. Each symbol or picture on it had to represent something about themselves. Then on the first day they shared them with each other. It was definitely a great way to learn a lot about their families and hobbies.
Then when we actually read about knights in class we colored these awesome cardboard shields I found at Oriental Trading. Our last day of tutorial we always do a dress up review day so my plan is that if they want they can hold onto their shields, swords and other things we make to use in their costume. Again, it was fun to see how they chose to decorate their shield. We looked at several examples on the Internet and in reference books which helped inspire them.