Meet Alice and Tom, two peasant children in a medieval village. Their day starts at sunrise. There are no alarm clocks — the rooster wakes everyone up!
Their house is small, with one room, a dirt floor, and a fire for cooking. Father works in the fields, plowing and planting. Mother makes bread, tends the garden, and spins wool into thread. Alice feeds the chickens and Tom helps carry water from the well.
For lunch they eat dark bread, cheese, and vegetable soup called pottage. There is no school for most village children — they learn by helping. But after chores, there is still time to play tag and ball games before the sun goes down!
1. What woke the village up in the morning?
2. What was the peasant house like?
3. What is pottage?
4. How did village children learn if they did not go to school?
Write what each word means in your own words.
Write T if it happened THEN (Middle Ages) or N if it happens NOW.
| Sentence | T or N? |
|---|---|
| A rooster wakes the family up. | |
| Kids ride a bus to school. | |
| Water comes from a well. | |
| Dinner is cooked over an open fire. | |
| Water comes from a faucet. | |
| Kids play tag after chores. |
Write T for true or F for false in each circle.
Draw the medieval village: a small house, the fields, the well, and children doing chores or playing.
1. The woke the village at sunrise.
2. Father plowed and planted in the .
3. Tom carried water from the .
4. The family ate soup called .
5. Food was cooked over an open .
6. Children did before they could play.
1. Compare your morning to Alice and Tom's morning. What is the same? What is different?
2. Which chore would be hardest for you? Why?
| I learned... | Circle one |
|---|---|
| What a peasant house was like | YES / NOT YET |
| What medieval families ate | YES / NOT YET |
| How medieval children lived | YES / NOT YET |