History Faire: An In-Depth Report

May 26, 2016

On Friday, April 22, 2016 6:30 AM, a fog covered the field at MacArthur Fundamental Intermediate School.  Seventh-graders Brendan Mai Ha and Tracy Dang, the king and queen of France for MacArthur’s History Faire, walked on to the field to their pop-up canopy, which was busily being filled and with a variety of food and decorated with a full table and chairs.  Minutes later, Brendan and Tracy search for the rest of their kingdom, the other students who make up Mr. John  De Gree’s first period class.  This is the day that had been weeks in the making.

SWORDPLAY - Using large foam swords, students display their fencing skills.
SWORDPLAY – Using large foam swords, students display their fencing skills.

After collecting all the students, King Brendan and Queen Tracy led the rest of their kingdom to the quad where the opening ceremonies were about to begin.  A nervous chatter takes hold of the crowd with all the kingdoms whispering among themselves, but once De Gree’s booming voice announces the kingdom of France, the loudest roar of cheers begun.

Brendan said, “I was really anxious when I was chosen to be king because I knew that I had a lot of responsibilities as being the co leader of my kingdom.  I was also, I have to admit, I was super pumped because I’m really competitive with these kind of events, and it left me smiling when I heard my kingdom had won.”

 

My opinion on History Faire was that it was a special and exciting event that, I believe in my opinion, should continue and flourish throughout the years.

— seventh-grader Montserrat Rodriguez

What is the History Faire?

The annual History Faire was made years ago by MacArthur’s first principal Tom Resen, and former History Teacher Mrs. Kathy Farless.  In the early days, the History Faire was much smaller and simpler.  The Faire was held out in the field; there were rotations out on the blacktop, and the entertainment was provided by Medieval Times, with knights having jousts and brawls out in the field.

BEGINNING THE DAY - Seventh Grade Teachers dressed in medieval garments as part of the festivities of History Faire, too.
BEGINNING THE DAY – Seventh Grade Teachers dressed in medieval garments as part of the festivities of History Faire, too.

Over time, the event has grown significantly.  Now, the quad, library, room 38, the bowl, the PAR, the fitness room, and even the lunch tables house Medieval themed events.  In order for the event to run smoothly, and for students to learn valuable lessons about the Renaissance and project planning, the preparation time has grown significantly.  

There are eleven kingdoms in the faire, one for each seventh-grade history class, and there are two realms, which separate the honors and benchmark level classes.  The two realms are the Realm of the Sea for the honors classes, and the Realm of the Mountains for the benchmark level.  The kingdoms include France, England, Sweden, and Scotland comprising the Realm of the Sea, and the Realm of the Mountains includes the kingdoms of Leon, Aragon, Norway, Poland, Hungary, Castile, and Denmark.

The kingdoms themselves had a specific hierarchy; King and Queen are at the top, then the Prince and Princess, the Archbishop, Lord and Lady, Knight and Dame, the Court Jester,  the Royal Serfs, and the lowest class was the Whipping Boy.

Each role was taken by a student and had responsibilities.  The king and queen had to represent their kingdom in the Mind Match competition, which was a Jeopardy-style game in the castle, they attended lunchtime roundtable meetings, they also led short class discussions on History Faire activities, encourage students in his or her kingdom to participate, collect all student forms, manage lucre points, and participate in the knighting ceremony.

The responsibilities for the prince and princess are to assist the King and Queen when needed.  The lord and lady are volunteers to help earn lucre when needed and to help the King and Queen with anything needed.  

WINNING THE PIE CONTEST - One contest in the History Faire was the pie eating contest, which took place in the bowl.
WINNING THE PIE CONTEST – One contest in the History Faire was the pie eating contest, which took place in the bowl.

Knights and Dames collected and take the lucre from each student in their kingdom.  The Court Jesters made the kingdom banners, entertained teachers and their kingdom.  The Archbishop advises the kingdom on chivalry and other matters, they also read the questions in the mind match game.  The Whipping Boy competes in the whipped cream contest during the kingdom clash.  

Because everyone has a role, no single student was excluded, and everyone had to work together in order to win.  Itzel Quiroz, seventh grader, said, ”My favorite thing about the Medieval Faire was going against the competitiveness of all the kingdoms from the seventh grade class.”

I made two types of crafts for the Faire.  I made a soap carving and an illumination drawing. My favorite type of art is the illumination; illumination is when you make your initials or any letter with designs of every sort and lots of color, and it is my favorite because I put in a lot of time and effort to make my initials very detailed.

— seventh-grader Itzel Quiroz

Art Guild

Weeks before the day of the History Faire all eleven kingdoms had to make many arts and craft. There were a variety of art projects students crafted to help their kingdom get more lucre.  All these crafts began weeks before the History Faire, so each kingdom had enough time to create them.

Student Origami on display in the library.
Student Origami on display in the library.

Generally, kings and queens were informed about these crafts by Mrs. Sandi Palmer at the Round Table meetings.  The kings and queens then found volunteers and participants among their peers in their history class to attend the workshops.  Most of the workshops occurred at lunch, and all were completely voluntary.  

The crafts consisted of illumination, soap carving, portrait drawing, needlecraft, kites, calligraphy, and origami. The leaders of each workshop were Language Arts Teacher Mrs. La Frossia with soap carving, History Teacher Mr. Charlie Andres with Portrait Drawing, Math Teacher Mrs. Sherry Skipper-Spurgeon with needlecraft, Math Teacher Mrs. Holly Kotler with calligraphy, kites with P.E. Teacher Ms. Kathleen Carrigan, Science Teacher Ms. Valerie Armstrong for origami, and Palmer with illumination.

Student created portraits
Student created portraits

All these arts were on display in the library.  During the History Faire, each kingdom walked through the library to see other kingdoms work that they’ve spent their time and effort on.  

There were also many activities that seventh graders could join too , these included chess, arm wrestling, archery, stilt walking, diablos (chinese yo yo’s), fencing, debate, geography bee, Samurai and Knights essay, Joust, and Magic. The teachers in charge for these activities were History Teacher Mr. David Chee with Chess, P.E. Teacher Mr. Terry Young for Archery, stilt walking and diablos were with Ms. Kathleen Carrigan, Geography Bee with Student Teacher  Mr. Mamich, Magic was with Technology Teacher Mr. Kevin Papke, and De Gree with Debate.

According to Julie Phan, seventh grader, “I attempted to try the difficult and complex Japanese type of art, origami, but I did indeed fail attempting to try to make the origami I wanted.”

My favorite rotation during the History Faire was in fact the whole day of the History Faire, but if I had to choose one that I would pick that is my favorite it would be the FOOD!

— seventh-grader Montserrat Rodriguez

Banquet

Prior to the day of the faire the kings and queens are told that their kingdom has to bring a variety of foods. The Royal Serfs play a large part in the feast because they organize and in their kingdom they assign people the food they are going to bring.

France demonstrated a tremendous attention to detail in creating their pavilion, complete with a wooden table.
France demonstrated a tremendous attention to detail in creating their pavilion, complete with a wooden table.

The banquet consisted of many foods that were used during the medieval ages such as croissants, hummus, water, watermelon, grapes, vegetable plates filled with carrots, ranch dressing, cauliflower, broccoli, and other sorts of vegetables.  Some students also brought pretzels, and some students also brought cookies, cupcakes, and a pop-up canopy with a ice chest. The portion size for each food should be enough to serve twelve people.

Each kingdom comes to the big bowl where all the food pavilions are decorated to represent the kingdoms, and that is where the food has been set up by parents. Parent volunteers were crucial to the History Faire because of all the supplies and volunteer hours required to make the event complete. For the banquet alone, parents bought the kingdom’s food for the feast, although the school did provide a lunch of fried chicken, illuminated the pop-up canopy with different graphics and designs.

England's pavilion had the facade of a castle.
England’s pavilion had the facade of a castle.

During the banquet there was also entertainment.  The entertainment included knights from the kingdom of Adrian who were fighting with many different weapons, and there were also many different rounds. The rounds consisted of a husband and wife battling each other, the next round was two knights brawling over a lady.

 

Winners of the History Faire

In the early afternoon of the 2016 History Faire, Brendan and Tracy wait first in line with tired eyes, the culminating moment is about to occur.  It’s been a long day.  Many “Huzzah’s!” have been said, and weeks of hard work are coming to fruition.

History Teacher Mr. Ray Gonzales shows Brendan Tracy where to sit in the quad.  While they are being seated, seventh-grade band members play a medieval themed song to introduce the winners.  There are a couple of last minute events to finish up, the championship round of arm wrestling has yet to be settled.

At about 1:15, De Gree again has the microphone as he begins announcing the top three kingdoms for each realm.  For Brendan and Tracy, everything went still and the only person speaking was De Gree, announcing the champions of the realms.

With thunderous energy, all anyone can hear is “FRANCE!”  

Brendan and Tracy, with the rest of their kingdom, burst into cheers look at each other with smiles as they hear they have just become the champions of the History Faire!

The other kingdoms in the Realm of the Sea places were France at first place, Scotland in second, and Sweden in third.  However, in the Realm of the Mountains the kingdom places were Leon at the top,  Norway in second, and Aragon in third.  Some things other kingdoms had won many other events such as Leon was the Champion of the Chivalry Acts, the runners up were Scotland and England.

The 2016 History Faire went down as yet another successful day-long event in a long line of History Faires at MacArthur Fundamental Intermediate.  For months long, it is an obsession for all seventh grade students, and provides a monumental experience for all MacArthur alumni.

 

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