Medieval Food and Festival Feast Lesson Plan

I. Topic: Medieval Food and Festival Feasts

        “Hot, Hot! The cook burned himself on the pot.”  A typical medieval festival feast was a glorious celebration of many parts.  In this lesson, students explore the food eaten in the Middle Ages as well as the presentation traditions of the medieval festival feasts.

II. Grade Level:  6-8

III. Objectives: 

u       Students will use primary sources by looking at first-hand accounts and translations of recipes

u       Students will research the different foods used and prepared in the Middle Ages

u       Students will research the different parts of a medieval festival feast

IV. Links to Standards:

New Jersey CCCS 

Standard 6.1

(Social Studies Skills) All students will utilize historical thinking, problem solving, and research skills to maximize their understanding of civics, history, geography, and economics.

Standard 6.2:
(Civics) All students will know, understand and appreciate the values and principles of American democracy and the rights, responsibilities, and roles of a citizen in the nation and the world.

Standard 6.3:
(World History) All students will demonstrate knowledge of world history in order to understand life and events in the past and how they relate to the present and the future.

Standard 6.6:
(Geography) All students will apply knowledge of spatial relationships and other geographic skills to understand human behavior in relation to the physical and cultural environment.

 

NETS Projects

Performance indicators for technology-literate students grades 6-8:

  1. Use content-specific tools, software, and simulations (e.g., environmental probes, graphing calculators, exploratory environments, Web tools) to support learning and research. 
  2. Apply productivity/multimedia tools and peripherals to support personal productivity, group collaboration, and learning throughout the curriculum.
  3. Design, develop, publish, and present products (e.g., Web pages, videotapes) using technology resources that demonstrate and communicate curriculum concepts to audiences inside and outside the classroom.
  4. Collaborate with peers, experts, and others using telecommunications and collaborative tools to investigate curriculum-related problems, issues, and information, and to develop solutions or products for audiences inside and outside the classroom.
  5. Select and use appropriate tools and technology resources to accomplish a variety of tasks and solve problems.
  6. Demonstrate an understanding of concepts underlying hardware, software, and connectivity, and of practical applications to learning and problem solving.
  7. Research and evaluate the accuracy, relevance, appropriateness, comprehensiveness, and bias of electronic information sources concerning real-world problems.

NCSS  -  National Council for the Social Studies

V. Technology Resources: 

u       Webliography (attached)

u       Computer Lab (This lesson can also be accomplished with 1-2 computers in the classroom in which groups will rotate using the computer(s), with a projector, TV converter, or the website can be printed out for each student.)

VI. Materials: 

u       Student journals

u       CD: New England Christmas by Brentwood Music (or any Christmas CD with the song Here We Come A-Wassailing)

u       Computer with Internet access

u       Chart paper

u       Art supplies for illustrating and making banners

u       Desktop publishing or word processing software

u       Scanner (optional)

VII. Description of Plan:

1.      List the following question on the board:

Do you think the people of the Middle Ages ate worse or better than we do today?  Explain your point of view.

      Have students record their thoughts in their journals and then discuss as class.

2.      Play the song: “Here We Go A-Wassailing” to the class.  Ask the class if they recognize this Christmas carol.  Explain that this was a song originating from the Middle Ages and that the Surveyor of Ceremonies would sing it at the beginning of a festival feast.  Tell the students they will be researching the different roles people played at medieval feasts and the type of food eaten.

3.      Have each student access the website:

Recreational Medievalism

http://www.best.com/~ddfr/Medieval/For_Translation/Ein_Kunstlichs_Kochbuch/Ein_Kunstlichs_Kochbuch.html

Let the students look over these scanned pages of actual cookbooks from the Middle Ages.  Discuss the type of print and the old English language used.  

       4.  Have the students access this website which is a translated article from Cariadoc’s Miscellany:

To Prepare a Most Honorable Feast by Maistre Chiquart (Master Chiquart was chief cook to the Duke of Savoy and in 1420 wrote Du Fait de Cuisine)

http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/most_honorable_feast.html

Read aloud to the class the first six paragraphs of this primary source and have students react to the type and amounts of food.  Construct a classroom-size chart and have a student record amounts and types of foods for the feast.  Keep this an on-going activity throughout the week.  The teacher can read one or two paragraphs at a time, and then have a recorder add it to the classroom list.  The students can watch the list grow and possibly use it in a database or math project.

5.      Have each student access the website:

Medieval Festival Feasts

http://web.archive.org/web/20001204000900/http://www.millersv.edu/~english/homepage/duncan/medfem/feasts.html

                        Review with the class the six courses presented:

w         The Welcoming Ceremony

w         The Presenting of the Salt

w         Cutting the Upper Crust

w         Credence Testing of the Drinks

w         Handwashing with the Aquamanile

w         The Twelve Course Meal

6.      Next have students access this site:

Food and Cooking in the Middle Ages

http://www.asmilan.org/eschool/middle_ages/

Review with the class the following topics presented:

w         Food and Cooking in the home   

w         Food

w         Tools

w         Kitchen

Let the class know that they will work in teams to summarize each course and the four topics listed above.  They will be responsible for 1. making a description and illustration which will be entered in a class published book, 2. making/gathering props to authentically demonstrate their course,  3. making a banner for classroom display, 4. making an oral presentation to the class using information and props , and 5. presenting collectively their information to other classes or parents.           

7.      Divide the class into teams.  The number of students in your class and the number of computers to which you have access will determine the number of teams.     

 

VIII. Assessment:  Students will go back to their journals to answer the question posed to them at the beginning of this project:  “Do you think the people of the Middle Ages ate worse or better than we do today?  Explain your point of view.”  Encourage the students to substantiate their answer with the information that they have acquired in this lesson.  Their answers will reflect whether they understood the essence of this lesson.

IX. Extensions:

1.      Students can prepare recipes using primary sources at http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112728/recipes.html ,  http://www.foodbooks.com/medieval.htm  or http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/food.html (under the Individual Recipes link).  This could be incorporated at the class presentation of the feast.

2.      Students can do independent studies on the different activities that took place at medieval festivals.