Living history activities for 11th Century Scotland?

You guys were all so supremely helpful for helping me find activities for my unit on the Northern Wei Dynasty, that I have come again to beg for your assistance.

Next week my 5 through 12 year old kids are studying Merida. I was so sure I would have thought of great craft ideas by now, because Medieval history is my passion....but I'm so falling short.

I thought about carving runes in soapstone sticks, but they didn't use runes from what I can see. We could just carve designs, as there's some cool stone carving in Scotland. But, my soapstone is super small (it's the welding soapstone sticks), so it might be rather...anti-climatic.

I would love to do something where the kids make small bows. I honestly don't care what they're made of as long as they work and we can make them in one or two 50-minute classes without expensive materials. But, my google searches are not turning up anything.

We could do embroidery, since a big part of the movie is Merida mending the tapestry she cut....but it seems kind of lackluster to do embroidery stuff when Merida hated all those lady-like skills. And what would we embroider in that time that would be cool? Pouched take at least 3 classes to make, and I've only got two classes for each princess.

The movie shows the Highland Games, but I'm not sure how to incorporate that into a class activity without....injury.

Any ideas? Any cool Scottish/celtic activities or crafts that Merida might have done that help teach about Scottish history? Maybe you know how to have kids make tiny bows?

My historically more-accurate Merida drawing

I'm currently watching this video:



I'm rather mad that I've never seen this channel before, because this is the sort of thing I need. Sadly, the first three crafts don't see like things that are feasible the amount of kids I have. But, maybe it'll be helpful for someone else looking for Scottish hand-on crafts for their kids.

The third craft--making a celtic knot--might be nifty, especially if we make it out of copper wire. The jewelry of this time and place are really cool!

Suggest making cords by finger loop braiding and/or using a lucet tool(sub. a carving fork if you trust the students not to poke at each other) or even a short length of woven braid a la inkle  then there's always natural dyes if that hasn't been covered yet.
Do you have access to bamboo - not promising, but that might be flexible enough to make a bow.  Length of linen yarn for the string.  Watch everybody's eye though!
Soap stone - is it square-ended - if so it could make a nice stamp with initials or a small design carved into it.  plus handmade paper?

Jill Dyer wrote:Suggest making cords by finger loop braiding and/or using a lucet tool(sub. a carving fork if you trust the students not to poke at each other) or even a short length of woven braid a la inkle  then there's always natural dyes if that hasn't been covered yet.
Do you have access to bamboo - not promising, but that might be flexible enough to make a bow.  Length of linen yarn for the string.  Watch everybody's eye though!
Soap stone - is it square-ended - if so it could make a nice stamp with initials or a small design carved into it.  plus handmade paper?

Here's a general list of what I'm thinking of doing for each princess (or already did):

Year	Princess	Craft
400 Northern Wei	Mulan	Hand/Hanging scroll project
400 Northern Wei	Mulan	Finish Scroll
1000 Polynesia	Moana	Make clay canoes
1000 Polynesia	Moana	Make Leis
1000 Scottish Highlands	Merida	???
1000 Scottish Highlands	Merida	???
1410 France	Aurora	Make Spindles & spin wool
1410 France	Aurora	Dye wool pink and blue (and purple) with cochineal
1843 Norway	Anna & Elsa	Make paper heart basket
1843 Norway	Anna & Elsa	Play Charades? or make Froebel paper stars
1550 France or Poland	Rapunzel	Make paint!
1550 France or Poland	Rapunzel	???
1550 Germany	Snow White	Feather dusters
1550 Germany	Snow White	Herbal soap balls
1607 Virginia, USA	Pocahontas	Corn husk doll
1607 Virginia, USA	Pocahantas	Necklace with glass beads and shells
1660 Cicely	Ariel	Learn navigation by making a Mariner's Quadrant
1660 Cicely	Ariel	Make a Compass Rose
1660 Ottoman Empire	Jasmine	??? Weaving a small carpet?
1660 Ottoman Empire	Jasmine	Make a clay lamp? I was thinking of this, but it looks too hard now
1760 France	Belle	Make paper
1760 France	Belle	Bind a book
1880 Belgium	Cinderella	Write a fancy invitation
1880 Belgium	Cinderella	???
1926 New Orleans, USA	Tiana	Mardi Gras mask
1926 New Orleans, USA	Tiana	Make your own restaurant menu
1950's Columbia	Mirabelle	Dip candles

Jill Dyer wrote: Do you have access to bamboo - not promising, but that might be flexible enough to make a bow.  Length of linen yarn for the string.  Watch everybody's eye though!

I do have bamboo--but I'm also terrified of this result! I'd want something small enough that it can't actually hurt anyone.

Suggest making cords by finger loop braiding and/or using a lucet tool(sub. a carving fork if you trust the students not to poke at each other) or even a short length of woven braid a la inkle  then there's always natural dyes if that hasn't been covered yet.

I'm thinking this might be too hard for some of the younger ones. Even making leis was really hard for many of the kids, and I don't always have parents there to help.

Soap stone - is it square-ended - if so it could make a nice stamp with initials or a small design carved into it.  plus handmade paper?

Sadly, the soapstone isn't square ended. It looks like this:



The paper making and book binding will definitely happen--it'll be with Belle since she loves books so much.

I found this - DIY Kids Bow and Arrow Homemade from Nature

Or how about gathering local dye-plants and dying wool different colours to weave into your very own tartan?

Haggis making might be a step too far for kids. Or their parents...

Pity you've got rug making down already for the ottomon empire, because I found 'clootie rugs' as a possibility.

this chap uses offcuts from the tartan industry so you could add some colour there...) I'm not sure how back the craft would have gone, but a hanging or placemat would be fairly quick.


How about a sporran? It would make the kids giggle at least! Unfortunately heritage crafts uk only date it to the 12th century so that would be 100 years too late perhaps?

The sporran (gaelic for purse) originated as a leather bag worn around the waist which served as a bag/pocket to carry oats. These days it is used for cash/keys/card and anything else you’d usually keep in your pocket.

Medieval castle ladies would have had separate 'pockets' inside the robes for keys and trinkets, so maybe you could do a pre-sporran pocket bag.

celtic reenactment source

Ooh ooh! what about making a clarsach?
https://www.clarsachsociety.co.uk/the-clarsach/what-is-a-clarsach/

The clarsach (Scottish Gaelic clàrsach) is Scotland’s oldest national instrument, having been played throughout the land from very earliest times. Long before the arrival of the bagpipe, it was the mainstay of Gaelic courtly music.

The box gives a resonance to the sound, which makes it more authentic.

so while they didnt use runes, and 11th century may be pushing it a bit, there was another writing system called Ogham script that originated in Ireland but spread and was used in parts of Scotland.
Ogham is also sometimes called edgewords, they were carved into the edges of stones. It can also be written, if you draw a center line. It's sort of hard to explain and a lot easier to just carve into the edge of a board! Scroll down past the history to see the images.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogham
you could conceivably take a deep dive into the names of the letters (mostly tree names), or you could just use them as a "code" for the kids to practice carving.
The edges on your soapstone could conceivably come in handy.

(I studied pre-medieval British English literacy and writing, specifically non-alphabet writing systems, and i think Ogham is my favorite out of the whole mess)

Tereza Okava wrote:you could conceivably take a deep dive into the names of the letters (mostly tree names),

I think the link with tree names is mostly down to Robert Graves' imagination and forcing the narrative to fit his ideas by chopping things up, juggling them around and mis-translating them actually. But even so it's interesting!

Burra Maluca wrote:

Tereza Okava wrote:you could conceivably take a deep dive into the names of the letters (mostly tree names),

I think the link with tree names is mostly down to Robert Graves' imagination and forcing the narrative to fit his ideas by chopping things up, juggling them around and mis-translating them actually. But even so it's interesting!

Ha!! That phenomenon pretty much typifies the entire field, and it repeats historically over several eras so the pile of dreck you need to wade through is pretty much never-ending... but hey, you can sell a lot of Finn's Window fortune-telling kits (just like runes!) to innocent buyers.....
The fun part is that truly, nobody really knows-- anyone who could tell us is long gone, which means we can use it rather 'creatively'....

Burra Maluca wrote:I found this - DIY Kids Bow and Arrow Homemade from Nature

Or how about gathering local dye-plants and dying wool different colours to weave into your very own tartan?

Haggis making might be a step too far for kids. Or their parents...

Oooh, I do have hazel, and if I use smaller branches, we could make small ones that aren't too powerful. I like the idea of using two sticks and tip-to- tail-ing them, because that prevents us from having to carve the sticks.

and back to the soapstone - use a hacksaw and cut the length[s] into smaller oblongs - problematic to use as a stamp [seal] as is, but they'll get the idea, and learn a new skill anyway.
In my next life, can I join your class please?