A Literature-Based Middle Ages Unit Study for the Elementary Years
Studying the Middle Ages is so much fun! Our Middle Ages unit was packed with excitement, from knights and castles to medieval feasts and daily life. My children stayed engaged the entire time! I carefully selected the best hands-on activities from the two reference books below to keep our study to six weeks. With the addition of rich living literature and a meaningful end-of-unit project, we explored medieval life in a way that was both immersive and memorable.
Please keep reading to learn all about our unit study. You’ll find some of our favorite activities, books, and final projects, which brought it all together!
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Middle Ages Unit Study Lesson Ideas
To bring our Middle Ages unit to life with hands-on learning, I relied on a couple of fantastic books filled with creative, engaging activities. These resources provided step-by-step instructions for building medieval-style crafts, cooking period-appropriate foods, and even trying out simple reenactments of daily life. They made it easy to add a hands-on element to our study without overwhelming prep work.
Are you wondering how I organize a unit study using so many materials? This post should help explain my method.
Middle Ages Unit Study Living Books
If you know me, you know living literature played a huge role in our Middle Ages unit. I love using informational books to introduce specific topics, while historical fiction brings the era to life through engaging stories. Some books became family read-alouds, others were perfect for independent reading time, and those with a Bible or character-building theme were woven into our weekly Bible lessons.
Middle Ages Bonus Books: Cindy Neuschwander’s Sir Cumference series is a fantastic collection of math-themed stories set in medieval times. These books added a fun, educational twist to our math lessons while keeping the Middle Ages theme alive!
Informational Books About the Middle Ages
These books are best suited for 3rd grade and up, but many can be enjoyed by younger children depending on their maturity level. They provide engaging and age-appropriate insights into medieval life, making them great additions to your Middle Ages unit!
Middle Ages Historical Fiction
Among these selections, The Door in the Wall and Crispin: The Cross of Lead are excellent choices for elementary students. The other titles are best suited for 5th grade and up, offering deeper themes and more complex storytelling for older readers.
Medieval Books with a Christian Theme
These books hold a special place in my heart—I truly love each one! They beautifully combine faith and medieval history, making them meaningful additions.
The Projects
Of course, my camera decided to stop working right in the middle of our unit! Thankfully, I managed to snap at least one picture of our work. After learning about knights, armor, and heraldry, we created poster board shields—a fun and creative way to bring history to life!
You can see a full list of the other projects we completed listed in the newsletter below.
Writing Project: Medieval Newsletters
Creating newsletters for grandparents is a meaningful, real-world writing project that naturally integrates technology—and it makes a fantastic end-of-unit activity for any study! For this edition of the Westward Gazette, my children collaborated to write stories, share what they learned, and highlight some of their favorite activities from our unit.
As you can see, our study was packed with engaging activities—and we had so much fun along the way! I hope you’ve found a few gems to incorporate into your own Middle Ages unit study.
Are you looking for Middle School Medieval Unit Study Ideas?
Check out this post for even more ways to explore the medieval era with older students!
Would you like to know more about planning unit studies?
Either of these homeschool masterclasses can help! How to Plan Effective Unit Studies and Homeschooling with Project-Based Learning are video-based masterclasses designed to make homeschool planning easier. Each class is concise yet thorough, giving you practical, step-by-step guidance you can use immediately. Whether new to unit studies or looking for fresh ideas, these masterclasses provide simple, effective strategies to help you create engaging and meaningful learning experiences!
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Do you have a list of recommended medieval books with a Christian theme? And what ages are they good for? I just came across Kingdom’s Dawn by Chuck Black and I’m reading it to see if it’s OK for my 5th grade son. But I’d love other recommendations!
Elaine,
Here is my middle school post about studying the middle ages. Not every book has a specific Christian theme like the Chuck Black books do, but we always find a way to tie in Christian discussion in all of our readings. 😉 https://ourjourneywestward.com/middle-ages-study/
Question for you: if this unit is for six weeks and that is the history focus for the year on the four year cycle- is this six weeks for the whole year of history? Can you tell me how you fill the other weeks of school, for e.i. Do you switch to science, or other topics? This looks great- I am trying to plan out the coming year:). Thank you
Jessica,
Great question. I usually do one unit study at a time. So, if we’re doing a history study for six-weeks, a science study for 6-10 weeks will follow. Usually, one of my studies doesn’t cover everything I want to teach about one subject from the year’s cycle. For example, during this middle ages cycle year, we may also have done other unit studies covering specific events in more depth, art/artists of the period, etc. Some people may put all that together in one unit study, but it would likely last a full semester. In that case, I would probably teach history for one semester and science the next. I sure hope that makes sense. 🙂
Is there a particular order in which you read these books? I’m trying to pull together a medieval history study for my 4th/5th grader. Ideally I would like to just read to him, have him read some, do a project or two, and some note booking pages.
Kelly, I just realized that the activity books I use for this unit were missing from the post. I’ve added them back in, so the post should make a little more sense. 🙂 I read the literature books in the order that works with the activities we choose from the activity books.
I love The Door in the Wall. I teach 6th grade in public school and have used it as a read aloud for years. I’ve also used it between 5th and 8th grades.
Cindy, I love this post! Especially, the books with a Christian theme. We are studying Medieval history this year with SOTW and I have made a book list for us, but I hadn’t seen these books before. I’m excited to check into these. Thanks for the great ideas, Heidi
You’re very welcome, Heidi! 🙂 Enjoy your studies. We’re wrapping up the middle ages and moving into SOTW Vol 3 soon. I love that curriculum!
This is great!
Hello! I don’t know how old the comments are on this, but I wanted to recommend The Castle in the Attic by Elizabeth Winthrop! It is a fantastic story that I loved as a kid! In fact I still love it! I just listened to it on audible with my 5 and 4 year olds. It’s for ages 8 to 12 but my girls seemed to understand it! It gave a whole new interest to their toy castle and knights!
This is a nice list of books!
Do you have any posts with more specifics around what activities and projects you did for Middle Ages?
Julie, no, but I wrote another post about some of the resources we used during a middle school study that you might find helpful. 🙂 https://ourjourneywestward.com/middle-ages-study/