Pretioles for everyone!

Hear Ye!  Hear Ye!  All citizens and friends of Hey, Kids!  Today we begin preparations in earnest for our Medieval Fair, an event to commence with great fanfare!  Let it be known throughout the land that from this day forward, until the 20th of November, the town crier will bring news of these days and times to all in the kingdom.

Today the subjects of our fair land enjoyed Pretioles, a treat introduced by monks in the early middle ages.  Baked in the shape of children with their arms crossed over their chests in prayer, pretioles, Latin for “little reward”, were given to children when they had learned a prayer.  The three holes in the middle represented the three persons of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Our modern word pretzel comes from the Latin, pretiole.

What do you know about life in the Middle Ages?

Join us on our journey as we read Crispin and Beowulf, and as we prepare for our Medieval Fair.  Huzzah and Good Speed!

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12 thoughts on “Pretioles for everyone!

  1. Excellent My Lady! we shall stay busy at the jousting and longbow events until the Fair is nearer. We will watch the sundial as well. Now we are off to try and tame the fire breathing dragon at the nearby castle!

    • I wish you strength and courage in your battle with the dragon. My knights are ready to assist if you but ask. Good speed to you on your quest!

  2. Hi Ms. Donofrio,
    I’m Cole from Huzzah, the Medieval fair looks really cool! I did something like that in grade 5 where I had to build a model of a castle. I made my castle out of cardboard and spray painted it! What is there to do at the medieval fair?
    -Cole

    • Hi Cole,
      There is a lot to do at our fair! We open with a parade (music, flags, “horses”, and all the people of town), and then the town crier explains the order of the day, the plays, and the shopping. Then the kids get 10 pennies each, and they walk around our courtyard which has banners, flags and tents, and they buy medieval wares such as material, soap, small dolls, crowns, jewelry, and spices. They can play games like 9 Man’s Morris, Chess, or Mancala. They joust and practice jousting with a quintain. We present mystery, miracle, and morality plays. For food we sell is ginger ale, grape juice “wine”, walking tarts, pop tarts, pickles, prencils and white bread. It’s a fun day! I’ll have lots of pictures when it is all over.
      ~Mrs. Donofrio

  3. Huzzah!! Huzzah!! I can’t wait to do medieval plays, make medieval crafts, dress in costumes, and to feel like we live in a medieval town! It is so much fun to see all the little kids joust and have fun. It is getting closer and closer every day! Woo Hoo!! See you later!

    Brooke

    • It is getting closer, Brooke. You are right! I think this will be the best year ever, too. I can’t wait to see the fencing games that SMA are bringing.

      ~Mrs. Donofrio

  4. Hi Mrs.Donofrio my name is Jonathan and I am in Mr.Miller’s classroom.That fair you guys are going to have sounds awesome!I wish I could go.The pretzels sound and look good.Are they going to be big pretzels or small pretzels.I hope you guys have fun in the fair.I have to go,but I’ll talk to you later.
    P.S if you want to go to my site here is the linkhttp://mrmillersstudent206.edublogs.org/

    -Jonathan

    • Hi Jonathan,
      Thanks so much for visiting our blog. We can’t wait for our fair. I am excited to put some videos of our preparations and of the Medieval Fair itself on our blog.
      My 8th graders are reading an adaptation of Beowulf, which was written during the Middle Ages. They want to act out a scene and put it on the blog this week. I thought that was a great idea, so we are going to do that on Tuesday. I just got an iPad to use in my classroom. I’m not too familiar with it, but my students are, and they said they will help me use it to video the scene and then transfer it to our blog. That’s a great part of teaching; they learn about Beowulf from me, and I learn about iPads from them!
      We will check out your class blog again tomorrow. I hope you can visit us again later this week and see our Beowulf video.
      ~Mrs. Donofrio

  5. Hey my name is Maribel and I am from Mr. Millers Classroom. Our medieval fair is not until at the end of the school year. I am looking forward to it though. Our medieval fair only lasts for 1 day. So does your medieval fair is like a month ?

    • Hi Maribel,
      Our Medieval Fair also lasts only one day, but we prepare for it for about a month. First my 6th and 7th graders read a novel and its sequel called Crispin which takes place in the year 1377. My 8th graders are reading an adaptation of Beowulf which was written in the 8th century. After we read and study about the middle ages, we begin to prepare for the Fair by making all sorts of items to sell at the fair. We also rehearse three short plays which we perform at the fair. We also organize the games, food, and music. It is a lot of work, but also a lot of fun! What is your fair like?

  6. Hello my name is Cheyenne I am from Mr.Miller class. I love pretzels they are so good. I wonder how long ago pretzels were made and who made them. They are great for parties, do you ever have any parties? Kay Kay Bye

    Here is the link to my blog
    URL:http://pirate32.edublogs.org/

    • Hi Cheyenne,
      Pretzels were introduced around the year 610 A.D. by some monks who were using them as rewards when kids learned their prayers. I think they are great for parties, too! We do have parties on occasion. We had a Blogging Party a couple of weeks ago to celebrate reaching 500 visitors on our blog. We are almost up to 1000 now! We will visit your blog tomorrow when we go to the computer lab.
      Thanks for stopping by and writing to us,
      ~Mrs. Donofrio

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