Magic Tree House Tie-Ins - The Knight at Dawn

David went through a short time when he was fanatical about knights. I think it started with Scooby-Doo. He loved the episode with the black knight. It did, however, confuse him when we later read a version of Ivanhoe where the Black Knight was King Richard the Lionheart. And then, we discovered that nearly every book about knights included some knight dressed all in black. It sort of made me wish that authors would get more creative with medieval colors… how about a chartreuse knight for a change?

Knights, Castles and Medieval Times

Reading:
There are sooo many great books about knights and castles out there for kids, there’s no way I could list them all. I can’t even list all the ones David has in his library. But, I can list a few of my favorites:

• Knight: A Noble Guide for Young Squires (Genuine & Moste Authentic Gdes) — In a letter to his son Hector, Sir Geoffrey de Lance explains that he is being held captive by a French knight and is writing this book to instruct the boy in the ways of knighthood in hopes that he will someday come to his rescue. A fun ‘authentic’ looking book with lots of flaps, envelopes and doo-dads to keep kids engaged.
• Castle: Medieval Days and Knights (A Sabuda & Reinhart Pop-up Book) — I’m a huge fan of pop-up books, and this one (though not as awe-inspiring as the Dinosaurs popup I linked to for the Dinosaurs before Dark book) is still awesome to pop open and explore.
• Knights And Castles (Magic Tree House Research Guide, paper) — This is the research book companion to the Magic Treehouse book, and it’s written in the same engaging, kid-friendly way as the chapter book. The illustrations are great, and it’s fun to read.

Printables:

• The Knight at Dawn Word Search from the Magic Treehouse official website.
• The Parts of Armor from About.com Homeschooling site.
• Skipton Castle – Coloring pages of castle interiors, knights and more
• Great-Castles.com — Color pictures of real castles
• Knights and Castles Crossword (PDF Format)

Games and Online Activities:

• Destroy the Castle — The trebuchet was one of the most devastating weapons of the Middle Ages. During medieval sieges, this destruction machine crushed castle walls. Using trial and error, medieval engineers adjusted the trebuchet to make sure its missile hit the castle wall—and destroyed it.
• Castle Conquest – Man the battlements! Crush the enemy castle and become lord of the land.
• Castle Wars is an online card game where your goal is to be the first to build a 100 storey castle, you also win by destroying your opponents castle.
• Create a castle/medieval city — from City Creator. Careful moms and dads. This one can hoover your time quickly if you get into it.

Other Stuff

• Book Unit - Vocabulary, Questions and Activities for each chapter of The Knight at Dawn

Tags: mary pope osborne, magic treehouse, children\'s books, homeschool, home school, reading, knights, castles, medieval

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This entry was posted on Friday, June 8th, 2007 at 2:28 pm and is filed under Books and Literature, History, Reading. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.