Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photographs by George Sakkestad

Heather Payne and Natasha Buxton adorn themselves with flower garlands during a workshop on making medieval headpieces.

Living History

Seventh-graders enjoy revelry in the Kingdom of Fisher By Shari Kaplan

As the sun shone brightly down from the midday sky, a fresh spring breeze ruffled the fanciful clothing and flower-adorned hair of the royalty, nobility and peasantry gathered at the Kingdom of Fisher May 1 to act, learn, eat, drink and make merry.

May Day revelry in medieval Europe? Not quite.

The event was actually the culmination of a unit on the medieval period that all seventh-graders study at Fisher Middle School in their history classes. The faire, however, was not limited to the history department.

The school's three seventh-grade interdisciplinary teams--which consist of three core teachers in each team teaching English, history and math--organized the faire to bring the study areas together while letting students have hands-on fun in the process.

"This was like an outreach of the history unit. We tried to create an interdisciplinary approach to the [English and math] units," says Carolyn O'Donnell, the faire's publicity coordinator and one of three seventh-grade math teachers.

While the history classes delved into the historical aspects of the Middle Ages, English classes learned about the language of the time and sampled literary tales of King Arthur and other traditional subjects. The mathematical connections to the time period included the study of scale and proportion used in the construction of castles.

History department chairman Barry Siebenthal recalls his team talking about the idea of a faire at the beginning of this school year, but that's all it was initially--talk.

"We really had no idea what we'd do at first. We just kept coming up with ideas and brainstormed," Siebenthal said. Through months of meetings, brainstorming sessions, email conversations and other ways of pooling ideas, the seventh-grade teachers began to finalize the faire and make specific plans.

The plans for the May 1 revelry began with the Grand Assembly, in which three color-coded teams--The Grand Gates of Goldenshire, The Kingdom of White Water and The Green Glen Kingdom--met in the quad area in front of the media center. Siebenthal, a tall Robin Hood dressed in forest green garb and hat, introduced each team's royal courts, jesters, ladies-in-waiting, knights, squires and noblemen and women. Some students had tried out for parts in the medieval courts, while others were selected by their teachers.

As the medieval master of ceremonies, Siebenthal also offered brief introductions to four playlets--short skits--with dialogue and action created by the students themselves.

"And Justice for All" taught a lesson in honesty and afforded a look at the extreme medieval ways of proving someone's innocence or guilt. "Oh Rats!" examined the causes and consequences of the bubonic plague, or Black Death, that swept through Europe, with actors explaining the rather macabre meaning behind the children's song "Ring Around the Rosies," with its references to the many deaths from the plague.

"Feasts 'R' Us" featured bumbling castle cooks preparing a royal repast, and "Good Knight" followed a young man's heroic path from a young squire to a dashing, bold knight who wins not only a joust but the hand of a fair maiden.

Students then took a break for lunch, which consisted of barbecued chicken, grilled vegetables, potatoes and other viands the students had to eat with their fingers, medieval style, with no silverware.

In the last two periods following lunch, students attended workshops on a variety of topics dealing with the life and times of the Middle Ages. Some students learned how to make coats of arms, while others crafted flowery headpieces, made stained glass or drew murals or illuminated manuscripts.

Other students learned about life in castles or monasteries, took part in a medieval manhunt, told tales, did skits, watched movies about medieval times or competed in outdoor games such as tug-o-war. Toward the end of the school day, costumed members of the Society for Creative Anachronism put on demonstrations of medieval swordfighting.

"The kids said the faire made the whole medieval period come alive; they did the kinds of things you don't get from textbooks. They said it didn't seem like school," history teacher Christine Jenkins said with a chuckle.

After the faire, all seventh-graders wrote evaluations of the event, which the teachers will take into account when planning commences for next year's second annual Fisher Medieval Faire.

"I thought [the faire] was pretty cool. At first it was kind of embarrassing to be all dressed up, but then once you saw all your friends you felt OK, and it was fun. The events you could do were pretty rad, too," said student Carrie Awalt.

"I liked it because it let us live like the people did in the Middle Ages. It was also fun to experience the activities they had," Katherine Kao said.

"I liked this because it involved the whole seventh grade, and there were team competitions and tournaments. The medieval courts were fun, too," Katy Jackson agreed.

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