1. CASTLES AND CASTLE LESSON PLANSBY
CAROLYN BROOKS
ST. STEPHEN MARTYR SCHOOL
LOUISVILLE, KY

2. Castle Terminology Glossary
INDEX
Click on the topic you want to read.
To return to the Index, click on the castle
PARTS OF THE CASTLE:
MOAT
DRAWBRIDGE
CURTAIN
KITCHEN
GATEHOUSE
TOWERS
GREAT HALL
KEEP
DUNGEONS
Lesson Plan 1: POP-UP 3-D CASTLE
Lesson Plan 2: CARDBOARD BOX CASTLE
Lesson Plan 3: Architecture:"Castles/Rubbings"
Castle Terminology Glossary

4. The first thing that distinguished a castle was the moat or ditch
The first thing that distinguished a castle was the moat or ditch. Most were filled with deep water to prevent enemies from coming in, but even those without water stopped intruders because the deep, steep walls prevented the enemy from entering.

5. The only way to cross a moat was on the drawbridge
The only way to cross a moat was on the drawbridge. These wooden structures could be raised or lowered depending on whether or not the people in the castles wanted you to come in. Ropes or chains were attached to the end of the bridge and then rigged to a pulley so that guards were able to quickly raise it.

7. (That's as wide as the height of a 2-story building!)
Upon crossing the drawbridge, you would reach the curtain, or wall. This wall surrounding the castle was strong enough to survive a battering ram (a common weapon) and could be anywhere between 8 and 20 feet thick.
(That's as wide as the height of a 2-story building!)

8. A gatehouse was built into the curtain
A gatehouse was built into the curtain. At first it was just a simple door by which to go in and out of the castle, but over time that changed.

9. Because enemy armies often came to this area, an iron grate was added that could be put down to block the entrance, in addition to heavy wooden doors.

10. Small holes, called murder holes, were added to the ceiling above the main entrance to pour boiling liquid down on entering enemies.

11. Towers were also a part of the curtain
Towers were also a part of the curtain. They allowed people to look about and keep watch outside the castles walls. In addition, at times they kept prisoners.

12. The Keep of the castle was the highest point and the center of defense, the strongest and most secure place in a castle.

13. Inside the castles walls were many things
Inside the castles walls were many things. There was a kitchen where the cooks made meals. The great hall was where everybody ate and the servants slept. Court jesters often sang, juggled, and told stories here to amuse the lord and his family.

14. The chapel sometimes served as a private church for the lord and his family even when there was another church in a nearby town. Castles also had one or more houses built in for people to stay. Often there was a lord's house and then one or two others, depending on how many people were living at that particular castle.

15. Castle Architecture
More Castle Architecture Pages Stone, mortar, wood-these were the simple components used to construct some of the most heavily fortified structures ever created.
Early castles relied on the surrounding landscape to provide much of the protection. Early castles were made of wood and built on hills of "mottes". Surrounded by a high, wooden palisade, motte and bailey castles were used widely until the Norman invasion of These fortifications proved too easy to burn, and stone was then used more frequently.
Castles were rarely the most comfortable place to live, with only the lord and his family given adequate heat and other amenities. Medieval castles were built for safety, not comfort. Windows were little more than slits in the wall. Cold, stone floors and walls rarely kept in heat, and water had to be brought by the bucketful throughout the castle. Walls were built high to protect from advancing armies, and to provide needed lookout positions.
The simple stone and mortar architecture made repairs fairly easy to make. It was not uncommon for stones to be used over and over with each successive castle built on the same location. Cannons and gunpowder made the castle ineffective and these large structures evolved in the later Middle Ages and Renaissance to become manor homes and palaces.
More Castle Architecture Pages

16. The Great Hall
Medieval feasts, wedding celebrations, receiving visiting nobles, and holiday festivities would all be celebrated in the castle's great hall. Elaborate tapestries and silks would line the walls and while Middle Age castles could be rather dark, the largest windows would be found here. Small wooden or stone benches were placed underneath these windows so guests could enjoy the view.
Great Hall furnishings could be sparse, but they were very practical. Long wooden tables and benches would be covered with white linen during feasts, but could be taken apart easily for dancing and entertainment. Castle lords and their families would be seated at a table on a raised wooden or stone dais at the far end of the hall.
Stone floors in the castle's Great Hall were rarely covered with carpets, though wealthy lords might cover them with tapestries. Straw and rushes were the usual coverings, but later in the Middle Ages herbs like marjoram, chamomile, basil, sweet fennel, mint, germander and lavender would be added to help with the aroma. These coverings were swept regularly, but new materials would be soon added to cover up the more nasty fragments on the floor: bone fragments, spittle, animal excrement, beer and grease.
Light for evening feasts and celebrations would be provided by candles and oil lamps. It was not unusual for guests to sleep in the hall after a night of merrymaking.

17. Castle Dungeons
"Dungeon" is a corruption of donjon, the French term for tower. Contrary to popular belief of the dank, dark basement pit, most prisoners were held in the castle's highest tower, passage to which was guarded by soldiers. Basement or pit dungeons did exist with famous prisoners immortalized in literature.

18. Castle Kitchens
Medieval kitchens were placed outside the Great Hall to fire safety. Spits roasting meat and large, iron cauldrons bubbling with soups and stews were all part of the kitchen's daily routine. Lambs, cattle, pigs, and fowl were tethered or penned nearby, some castles kept a pond stocked with fish, and cooking herbs would be grown in nearby gardens. Castle kitchens could be large enough to roast up to three whole oxen at a time!
Water would be supplied by a well, but castles during the later Middle Ages began to pipe water right into the kithcen area. Utensils and whatever dishes the lord might possess would be washed in large stone sinks.
Breakfast in the Middle Ages was usually a simple meal of bread and water. Dinner would be served between 10 a.m. and noon and feature several courses. Dinner, especially for celebratory feasts, would demand large quantities of food be prepared. At the marriage of Henry III's daughter, sixty cattle were slaughtered and prepared as the main course for the meal.

19. Bedrooms, Bathing,
and what did they do without indoor plumbing?Solars and SquintsCastle lords and ladies generally lived in the upper stories of the keep in a room called a solar. These might be divided with partitions, but the main feature of the room would be the bed. The lord's bed would be made with a heavy wooden frame and have a canopy that would be pulled back during daylight hours. Comfort was provided with feather mattresses and springs made from interlaced ropes or staps. These beds would be dismantled taken with the lord when he traveled.Lords and ladies might have kept separate chambers, each accompanied by their attendants who would sleep on palettes, benches, or small mattresses on the floor. Medieval furniture included intricately carved wooden chests for clothing and wall pegs to hang robes. A small stool might have been in the room to be used while dressing. Armchairs became popular in the late Middle Ages.Castle guests, the lord's eldest son and the castle steward would occupy chambers on higher levels. These rooms would be equipped with peepholes calls squints that were used to monitor the activity below.Tubs and the BathmanBathing was done in wooden tubs padded with cloth. Privacy provided by tents or canopies. When the lord traveled, the tub traveled with him, maintained by a bathman who was also responsible for heating the water. In warmer weather the tub might be placed outside near the garden while during the winter the bathing would be done close to a chamber fireplace.Some castles in the late Middle Ages engineered hot and cold running water to certain rooms in the castle, but these were rare. Other castles had permanent "bath rooms" with tiled floors.Medieval Garderobes and Gong FarmersEven the grandest castle didn't have bathroom facilities. Usually latrines or garderobes would be built into a castle wall overhanging the ground or water below. Some garderobes had wooden seats but many were simply carved into the castle stone. These could be quite uncomfortable, especially in the winter! Iron bars were placed on some garderobe chutes to keep invading armies from using them as a point of entry.Garderobes would be placed near bedchambers and other parts of the castle, some partitioned with screens for privacy, but many were rather exposed. Chamber pots were popular throughout the Middle Ages and straw was used as Medieval toilet paper. Larger castles had dedicated latrine towers, and the person with the unsavory job of emptying the latrine was called a gong farmer.  

20. Medieval Castle Chapels
Mass was held every morning for the castle lord and his family in a small chapel built off the Great Hall. Services for the rest of the castle inhabitants would be held in chapels built on the bailey.

21. Castle Defense Architecture
The medieval castle was used as a weapon unto itself and its defending garrison of soldiers exploited every possible advantage. The castle's main weapon was obvious in its medieval architecture. Stone curtain walls that were constructed anywhere between 20 and 40 feet high and 7 to 20 feet thick were made more formidable with protecting. Curtain walls were raised even higher as improvements were made in medieval siege engines, but enemy miners could then attack the castle's foundation.
Medieval engineers were used during castle construction to design the stronghold to better prevent attacks from any blind angles or potential flanking positions. Attacking armies liked cover, so the surrounding land near the castle would often be cleared, and vulnerable approaches would be heavily fortified.
Most castles had unique designs and exploited their natural surroundings, and most Middle Age fortifications used a variety of architecture devices to improve their defense.
Towers were often the last section of a castle to fall during an attack, and defending garrisons protected them at all cost. Medieval castle towers came in several shapes: circular, semi-circular, and square. In addition to being prime lookout posts and firing positions for archers, these towers were used in other capacities, such as storehouses and prisons. Medieval towers were often constructed to include merlons, which are hollow spaces through which archers could fire arrows. Other weapons of choice included stones and Greek fire (which was a generic name for any burning liquid made from molten metal or oil), all of which could also be dropped on attackers. Returning crusaders brought back designs influenced by Moorish architecture, and by the late 1100s towers incorporated curved, Arab-like features. This curved architecture made it more difficult for miners to sabotage the foundation.
Castle moats could either be wet or dry. There were times when the unavailability of water or persistent droughts forced castle architects to build dry moats. Moats were used defensively from the earliest medieval castles throughout the Middle Ages. Using strategic moats were often the castle's first way of defending against an attacking army.
The castle's most vulnerable point was often the front door. Portcullises and castle drawbridges were used to provide defense. Made almost exclusively of wood, drawbridges could be removed by hand before an attack or pulled up by soldiers using either ropes or chains.
Gatehouses were impressive, and often rose several stories high. They also contained both living quarters for soldiers and the devices that controlled heavy, protective, grilled gates called portcullises. These sliding doors were usually made of thick timber, and when available, covered with some kind of iron plating. Defending armies were able to shoot arrows through the holes. Larger castles might feature several of these doors that would be used to trap attacking soldiers in narrow, winding hallways. From atop these passageways, the defending army would be poised to drop stones or Greek Fire, and launch arrows through hard to see "murder holes" carved in the ceiling.

22. LESSON PLAN 1
After the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, Europe underwent a series of cultural changes that lasted a thousand years. This period of time has come be known as "Medieval" or the "Middle Ages." It was time of knights, battles, and castles. The romanticism of the period is manifest in the literature, the history, and the number and variety of castles that sprung up like wild flowers in a field all across Europe. Castles, and the remains of them, still dot the European landscape and remind us of a time when chivalry , gallantry, and courage were the order of the day.

23. Elementary through Junior High Time Required Two to five class periods
Grade Level
Elementary through Junior High
Time Required
Two to five class periods
(50 minutes a period) 

24. To develop and promote an awareness of history and geometry.
Objective
To develop and promote an awareness of history and geometry.
The PowerPoint provides a background for the project and is a great way to get students interested in history.
The skills developed in creating the castles will help build an appreciation of spatial relationships.

25. Procedure
Discuss castle construction. As examples, use an assortment of visual images from books or pictures collected from the school library. Some items of castle construction include battlements, towers, gates, projections, flags, banners, arrow slits, and landscaping. Details include brick, stone, and wood. The finished castles will form a Medieval diorama.

26. PROCEDURE Fold one sheet of construction paper in half horizontally.
Sketch a series of battlements (open spaces at the top of a wall) horizontally from the fold about half way across the folded sheet. Then cut along the sketched lines.
Bend back and crease the paper from the end of the cut line to the bottom of the sheet.
Open the sheet and lay it flat. Pull the "castle" upward reversing the folds. The castle should protrude from the sheet forming a central tower.
Other details can be added by closing the sheet and cutting more towers along the new folds of the central tower.

27. Assessment
Teacher reviews each student's work to verify that each project meets with the minimum lesson requirements.
The castle opens up correctly.
The folding and placement of windows, walls, and doors makes sense.
Check craftsmanship, quality and neatness of construction.

28. Extended Lesson
At this point, elementary students can decorate the castles with markers. Students can imply stone, brick, or block construction on the surface of the central tower and background details on the area behind.
Junior high students can develop more detailed designs. Increase the level of difficulty and challenge by having them cut the castles from the background paper. Leave a flange along the sides of each tower that will be folded under and used to glue the castle onto another color of folded contruction paper. Details can me added with colored markers and cut out colored paper shapes. Colored paper pennants wrapped around tooth picks form banners. Background details can include trees, hills, mountains, sky, clouds, etc.
The finished castles are displayed standing upright. Ground details in front of the castles can enhance the presentation (stone walks, draw bridges, moats ,etc.).

29. LESSON PLAN 2
Cardboard Box Castle Turn a plain cardboard box into an enchanted castle. The cutting in this project is heavy-duty and should be done by an adult. The child can help by supervising and by designing where the towers and turrets should go. Supplies needed:
a box - any size will do
heavy duty scissors or a craft knife
string
crayons, paint, and/or markers

30. Find a box and cut off the top flaps
Find a box and cut off the top flaps. Any type of box will do: a large cardboard box makes a large castle, a shoebox makes a fine, small castle. To cut thick cardboard, try a craft knife. Poultry shears work well for thinner cardboard.
Cut out a wide rectangle along the front, sides, and the back to form towers (turrets) at the corners.
Cut out rectangular crenellations along the entire top (the battlement) of the castle.
Draw a drawbridge at the front of the castle. Using the point of a scissors, poke 2 small holes in the sides of the drawbridge and on both sides of the wall next to it. Cut out the drawbridge.
Attach a string to each side of the drawbridge and the adjoining wall.
Decorate the castle with paint, markers, crayons, or decoupage (pictures that are cut from magazines and pasted onto the castle).

31. LESSON PLAN 3 Architecture:"Castles/Rubbings"
Grades:  K-5
MATERIALS: 12"x 18" newsprint
(cut to 9"x 15" or 10"x 16") 12"x 18" construction paper glue black markers naked crayons texture boards visuals
OBJECTIVES: Students will... learn about castles as historical architecture. learn about castle construction. design and draw castles using overlapping perspective. use texture rubbings to add color to castles.
VOCABULARY:
motte and bailey
moat
drawbridge
curtain wall
gatehouse
bailey
keep
merlon
crenel
texture

32. LESSON PLAN 3 Architecture:" Castles/Rubbings"
DISCUSSION: Show examples of castles.  Discuss development of castle architecture as defense against attack:  motte and bailey, moat, drawbridge, curtain wall, gatehouse, bailey, keep, merlon and crenel, etc.
ACTIVITY: Castle may be drawn either horizontally or vertically on newsprint.  Begin with a ground line, add moat, drawbridge, gate with bars or door, gatehouse, merlon and crenel curtain wall, towers, keep, etc.  Add landscape, trees, vines, bushes, flags, clouds, people, etc. to complete drawing.  Use texture boards and naked crayons to fill in different areas with texture.  Glue newsprint to construction paper backing.

33. Books you might like to add to your library:
Castle, by David Macaulay
Eyewitness: Castle (Eyewitness Books) by Christopher Gravett ,Geoff Dann (Photographer) (2000)
Make This Model Medieval Castle (Usborne Cut-Out Models) by Iain Ashman (1997)

34. Bibliography http://www.medieval-castles.net/
You can print out parts of a castle to put together from this one:
Rubbing

35. Glossary of A Castle
Allure or Wall-walk: passage behind the parapet of a castle wall Apse: circular or polygonal end of a tower or chapel Arcading: rows of arches supported on columns, free-standing or attached to a wall (blind arcade) Arrow Loop: A narrow vertical slit cut into a wall through which arrows could be fired from inside Ashlar: blocks of smooth, squared stone of any kind Bailey or Ward: courtyard within the walls of the castle Ballista: engine resembling a crossbow, used in hurling missiles or large arrows Barbican: an outwork or forward extension of a castle gateway Barrel vault: semicircular roof of stone & timber

36. Bartizan: overhanging corner turret Bastion: a small tower at the end of a curtain wall or in the middle of the outside wall Battlement: a narrow wall built along the outer edge of the wall walk to protect soldiers against attack Belfry: tall, movable wooden tower on wheels, used in sieges Brattice: (see hoarding) Buttery: room for the service of beverages Concentric: having two sets of walls, one inside the other Crenelation: a notched battlement made up of alternate crenels (openings) and merlons (square sawteeth) Cross-wall: an internal dividing wall in a great tower

37. Curtain wall: a castle wall enclosing a courtyard Cut: assault tower Corbel: stone bracket projecting from a wall or corner to support a beam Donjon: the inner stronghold (keep) of a castle Drawbridge: a wooden bridge leading to a gateway, capable of being raised or lowered Drum Tower: a round tower built into a wall Dungeon: the jail, usually found in one of the towers Enceinte: an enclosing wall, usually exterior, of a fortified place

38. Embrasure: the low segment of the altering high and low segments of a battlement Escalade: scaling of a castle wall Finial: a slender piece of stone used to decorate the tops of the merlons Forebuilding: a projection in front of a keep or donjon, containing the stairs to the main entrance Garderobe: latrine Gate House: the complex of towers, bridges, and barriers built to protect each entrance through a castle or town wall

39. Hall: principal living quarters of a medieval castle or house Hoarding: covered wooden gallery affixed to the top of the outside of a tower or curtain to defend the castle Inner Ward or Inner Bailey: open area in the center of a castle Keep: the inner stronghold of the castle Loophole: slit in wall for light, air, or shooting through Machicolation: a projection in the battlements of a wall with openings through which missiles could be dropped on besiegers

40. Mangonel: stone:throwing machine worked by torsion, used as a siege weapon against castles Merlon: part of a battlement, the square "sawtooth" between crenels Meurtriere: arrow loop, slit in battlement or wall to permit firing of arrows or for observation Moat: a deep trench usually filled with water that surrounded a castle Motte: an earthwork mound on which a castle was built Murder Holes: a section between the main gate and a inner portcullis where arrows, rocks, and hot oil could be dropped from the roof though holes Oilette: a round opening at the base of a loophole

41. Oriel or Oriel Window: projecting room on an upper floor, later an upper-floor bay window Oubliette: a dungeon reached by a trap door Palisade: a sturdy wooden fence built to enclose a site until a permanent stone wall could be constructed Parapet: protective wall at the top of a fortification, around the outer side of the wall-walk Portcullis: vertical sliding wooden grille shod with iron suspended in front of a gateway designed to protect the gate Postern Gate: a secondary gate or door often located at the rear of the castle. Putlog Hole: a hole intentionally left in the surface of a wall for insertion of a horizontal pole

42. Ram: battering ram Revet: face with a layer of stone, stone slabs etc
Ram: battering ram Revet: face with a layer of stone, stone slabs etc., for more strength. Some earth mottes were revetted with stone. Sapping: undermining, as of a castle wall Screens: wooden partition at the kitchen end of a hall, protecting a passage leading to the buttery, pantry, and kitchen Solar: originally a room above ground level, but commonly applied to the great chamber or a private sitting room off the great hall

43. Springald: war engine of the catapult type, employing tension Trebuchet: war engine developed in the Middle Ages employing counterpoise Turning Bridge: a drawbridge that pivoted in the middle Turret: a small tower rising above and resting on one of the main towers, usually used as a look out point Wall Walk: the area along the tops of the walls from which soldiers could defend the castle Ward: courtyard or bailey

44. A pdf file with patterns for making a castle.