OPENING DAY
COMPONENT: JEANNE D'ARC
TOPIC: MAIDEN WARRIOR
VISITOR: JEANNE D'ARC
At the end of this day, one mother wrote, "We don't call it an EPIC Adventure for nothing!"
Giselle planned and worked for months on her project as the visitor, Joan of Arc. Many of our school families traveled from far away to be there. We were dressed in medieval garb and did some medieval dancing, and then waited for Joan's arrival. In the distance rode a woman on horseback carrying a banner!
Giselle rode in on a horse shouting, "Je suis Jehanne La Pucelle! I am Joan The Maid!"
After dismounting, Giselle spoke about herself, Joan the Maid, in French. She went on to tell her story in first-person English, keeping students spellbound for 30 minutes without notes.
She was really impressive. I thought 30 minutes would too long for the little ones, but that day Amanda's 8 year old son said that his favorite part was hearing Joan tell her story!
Giselle practiced in front of Hal III and me a few days before the presentation, and I thought she spoke for about 20 minutes, which was more than plenty. But between Sunday night and Wednesday morning she added more tidbits to her story.
She explained the markings on her standard, the only thing Joan carried into battle. "I asked my Lord's messengers what I should do. And they answered me, saying, Take up the banner of your Lord. And thereupon I had a banner made." (In Her Own Words, p. 26)
This 10 year old young man guarded her standard. He made his chain mail suit himself.
She was a passionate Joan of Arc!
Afterwards we all took pictures with Joan. She had to stand on a wooden box while holding her standard.
This day took a lot of preparation as a student visitor. But it was worth it.
Frosty was Giselle's mentor and host for our group. He taught Giselle how to ride horses and take care of them for a few months. We could not have done this without him.
After photos, Joan recruited us all into her army. Students did inquiries in three groups:
1st Station
Giselle taught how a squire took care of his knight's horse. It was fun and safer to let the children be around this miniature horse, Skittles.
The students learned how to curry the horse,
and clean hooves.
They also took turns feeding him.
Some children got to sit on Skittles too.
2nd Station
The students painted standards like Joan's, complete with gold fleur-de-lis. Some wonderful moms put together yard-long dowels, plastic fleur-de-lis finials, and made white pennants.
The students stenciled 5 gold fleur de lis on their standards.
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These were so fun to paint and take home. I even did one.
Karen made Giselle's standard, copied from Joan's description of hers. Karen originally made it the same size as Joan's, 3 feet by 12 feet.
It was a masterpiece! Unfortunately the material was heavy and doubled so that both sides could be painted. When we got it, Giselle realized it was too heavy to carry one-handed while she rode a horse. I cut the standard down, and resewed the fringe on. I made the standard holder out of sturdy PVC pipe, but it still bent with the weight of the reduced standard.
3rd Station
Joan's new army recruits roasted their lunch of meat and biscuits over the fire.
At the end of the day each family went home with a 3rd class Joan of Arc relic.
- 1st class relic is an actual part of the saint's body
- 2nd class relic is something the saint touched, such as the letters Joan signed
- 3rd class relic can be something that touched a saint's relic, such as a handkerchief
This relic card had a tiny, round piece of cloth that had touched one of Joan's relics.
The students also received Saint Joan of Arc medals to hang from their journals of discovery.
The momentos hanging on our journals of discovery were getting heavy!
Just before this day I found a blurry photo of old Joan of Arc paper dolls. I told Sadie that it would be fun to have Joan paper dolls with Giselle's armor. She thought so too. I gave Sadie a photo of the paper dolls and of Giselle in her armor. Sadie asked Brittany to draw this, and she got it done in a few days.
There is a front and back page. We printed these on cardstock, and cut and glued them together, except the legs. The legs had to be free so that one could go on either side of the horse. What a great action figure of Giselle as Joan of Arc!
By the end of our Joan of Arc day, Giselle had no voice. She not only told her story for 30 minutes, but did three horse maintenance rotations in a row without a break. It was a long, but satisfying day. We had a wonderful time talking about it on the drive home. (see Student Visitors)
It was all we had envisioned back in October when we first talked about what she would do as a visitor. Back then I had said to Giselle, "What if you could ride up on a horse with your banner flying?" And she did! She was a wonderful Joan of Arc!
"To live without faith is more terrible than dying, even more terrible than dying young."
Jeanne d'Arc
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