We have been doing some fascinating activities for our Medieval History unit, (Viking Runes, Medieval Illuminations, and our own homemade Medieval Subtleties) but this craft or "craftivity" turned out the most beautiful of all. We created our own stained glass windows! This is an easy activity, especially if you purchase our premade Medieval Window packet which includes 4 possible designs for your students to choose from to make their window. You will also need a transparency sheet (or some recycled flat plastic), a sharpie, food coloring and glue. And some Q-tips. Because we always fall back on Q-tips as an easy go-to paintbrush for these kinds of activities. After drawing the designs on the transparencies with black sharpies, we cut out our window shapes. And we began to fill in the window shapes with our glue paint. To make it easier, we cut out our paper design and taped it, along with the transparency to the table. It kept our image stable while the kids filled in the colors. After the colored glue had dried, we cut out our window edging and glued it over the glass. An optional idea is to go over the top of the sharpie with black puffy paint. This raised black edging makes the stained glass really pop. It feels just like the leaded glass stained windows you might see in an old church or heraldic window. The finished product is tacked to the window so that the light can stream through, just like it streamed through Medieval stained glass windows, many years ago. A beautiful finished product! Check out our packet that includes everything you need to create this craft, here in our store. Reviews "My students were completely engaged and created a great deal of stained glass with this project. We researched how stained glass was made with Medieval techniques (the V&A Museum has a fantastic video!) and then we got to work, having unearthed a box of old transparencies, which I think really makes this project. We also were creating them for our Medieval Faire for our K-3rd graders and they found the stained glass captivating. I would have never guessed they would have looked so good! Excellent lesson!" --- Anne C. "Loved the informational text. It was so helpful. The activity wasn't as engaging as I'd hoped, but it was still worth the purchase." --- Get Schooled "We a learning about the role of churches during the Medieval time period so this is a great supplemental for us and a nice break from the heavy reading and material. The students enjoyed creating these." --- Pham-tastic Teaching "One of the better stained-glass projects I've seen. Worked greatly for my A&H class!" --- Eli Edwards "We used the patterns to make our own stained glass. We used sharpies instead of glue and they came out beautifully." --- Tippecanoe "I used this resource to supplement what we were learning in class. My students loved the activity?" --- Wendy E. "This was a fun activity to do in my summer program during medieval week." --- Karen C. "My students really enjoyed making them, and were so proud of the outcome. We did what someone else suggested and just used permanent sharpies. They look awesome!" --- Randy Bland "My students loved this activity! We completed it in the middle of our Middle Ages reading unit. To make them even more stained glass in appearance, they lightly used a cotton ball to spread vegetable oil on the back to make them translucent." --- Dayna K. Check out our packet that includes everything you need to create this craft, here in our store.

Examining and explaining some of the intriguing details of this masterpiece. Does it make any sense?

Something Beautiful is a 2013 self-imposed initiative to find a visual feast for each day of the year. In seventh grade, I received two gifts that changed my life. I had Sister Rose Therese for my …

Learn who Aethelflaed was and what the different kingdoms were in Anglo-Saxon Britain. Read how the country was ruled by different tribes in this BBC history guide.

I had one of the pages from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales appear in my feed, so it's compelled me to go off and do more research as the artwork is truly stunning. It's odd; I remember being in class reading through it all in 11th Grade AP English, being actually quite bored by it, but I think that part of the problem was that we were focusing solely on the stories, not the art or the social importance of the piece. I'm a bit sad that I decided that "Mr. Cliff and his notes" would be an awesome shortcut, but then again, what do you know when you're 16, you're in High School, and your love of your life has just broken up with you after three months? How times change... Anyhow, here are some awesome pictures I've dug up from various places online. The first page of the tales is quite gorgeous and actually, very readable given it's in archaic English: "Ere begynneth the book of tales of Canterburye compiled by Geffraie Chaucer of Brytayne chef poete" Although Chaucer wrote his tales between 1387 and 1400, this is a copy of his tales made around 1450. Sadly, according to the British Library, no copies exist today that Chaucer wrote himself. However, the fact that at least 80 copies from the 15th century do still exist points to his works being incredibly popular. They were popular for many reasons. Firstly, he wrote about a cross-section of society from dyers to nuns and it was a work of social commentary, which always grabs attention. He also chose to write the stories in English, which was pretty rare in England at that time. The ruling classes spoke French seeing as the Normans had invaded a few centuries before, with the normal, everyday classes speaking English. This is probably another reason it was popular -- it was actually the language many people spoke. A picture of Chaucer as a pilgrim from the Ellesmere Manuscript. "Heere Bigynneth Chaucers Tale of Melibee" That's not to say that people were particularly literate, but that is to say that English was a popular spoken language in England (who'd've thought it?). As this was one of the first times that the English language had been written down for this purpose post-invasion, Chaucer also got a chance to sculpt it and capture it, showing that different classes spoke in different manners. What I really like though is the portraits of some of the people telling the tales. The Prioress, for example is really quite a beautiful illumination: I also like the Ellesmere version of the Man of Law, however it's smudged now, sadly: I still find it beautiful. I think I'm going to end up doing a few posts about this one...

Vita Quotidiana Do you ever wonder how a person lived in the middle ages? This site is dedicated to revealing tidbits of life in the period of time we label the Middle Ages (1100-1450) and Renaissa…

A new study posits the woman was licking brushes covered with pigments of lapis lazuli, a rare and expensive stone used to decorate illuminated manuscripts

Playing cards arrived in Europe from Asia sometime in the 14th century, and by 1367 they had their first citywide ban in Bern, Switzerland.