Death, Despair, and Easter Eggs?

For history today the unit was called "The 1300s - The Age of Despair."  Sounds fun huh?  The video introduced such topics as The Black Plague, The Hundred Years War, The Battle of Agincourt, and Joan of Arc.  So, how do you make topics about death and despair interesting for a young audience?  We used Easter Eggs.  We got the idea from the Story of the World Activity book.  We hid eggs filled with a few chocolate chips out in the yard.  Then we talked about the Plague and how it was spread.  As a reminder that it was the fleas on rats that spread the disease, the kids had to go out into the yard to look for "rats" and find all the "fleas" inside and "get rid" of them. 

 Here's the crew with their rats and fleas, they look pretty happy to be in the depths of despair.  Another thing they remembered from this unit was the origin of the song "Ring Around the Rosies" and the fact that "we all fall down" is in reference to the Plague.  We also learned that 1/4 of the people in the country died of the plague, while 1/2 of the people in the village died from disease and 8/10 of the clergy died from exposure while tending to the sick and giving last rights to the dying.  Hey! Did that count as math for the day?

 For lunch we ate currant buns, lenten pea soup (no meat, in honor of lent) and a green salad which we learned people started eating around this time period. 

Here's the crew enjoying their lunch and time spent together. 

On Friday the 24th, we watched Shakespeare's Henry the V and enjoyed learning a little about the reasons for the Hundred Years War and the amazing outcome of the Battle of Agincourt, which we later compared to the Stripling Warriors in the Book of Mormon as in both cases, those who fought on the outnumbered side of the battle were protected by God.