Fun before the fall break

Have you heard of Pieter Brueghel? Here in Belgium, he's a darling of medieval art. In St. John's he's the focus of our second unit of inquiry that allows children to explore how "every picture tells a story". This is the Friday before the fall break (how sweet is this: no thanksgiving long weekend...instead we get a full week off school to revive ourselves and cruise into the christmas season!) and to finish off our lines of investigation about art, Benelux history, medieval anthropology and math involving time and calendars, we're headed into the gymnasium to play similar games to those children in Antwerp might have played in 1560, as immortalized in Brueghel's painting called Children's games (shown here):

In this painting there are more than 250 children playing over 80 games. This afternoon, the P.E. Department of St. John's has set up more than a dozen hand-made replicas of some of these activities so that the children can experience them for themselves: hoop racing, knuckle-bones, whipping tops, jousting (modernized by use of a mountain bike), "bowling", barrel riding, etc. We'll have more than 60 kids, from four grade five classes participating in mixed groups, experiencing for themselves what it might have been like to play the games of their ancestors. We've been very lucky obtaining the equipment for the afternoon: a kinesiology professor at the University of Leuven has made these toys for the sole use of schools wishing to reinact this particular part of Belgian history for children. We're all looking forward to this, so I'll be sure to take pictures and let you know how it went!