STUDENT FAMILY COAT OF ARMS ACTIVITY
40 points (20 for the drawing; 20 for your explanation)
Coats of Arms represent a family’s history, language, cultural and geographical backgrounds, often religious beliefs, and representative colors, animals, and sundry other familial items of importance. This is your chance to create a Coat of Arms for your family, even if the roots cannot be traced back very far. Primarily, this is an entertaining, creative activity to get you to think about your interests, background, religious and cultural beliefs.
The shields that the knights carried represented them in battle. The fanciest shields portrayed the knights’ families’ Coats of Arms. Knights were not always royalty; sometimes they were lords and landowners of high status. Often they would carry flags into battle representing their queens, demonstrating they were fighting for the honor of the country or province.
What represents you?
Pick ananimal, three colors, a motto,and at least one object that represent you and/or your family in some way. Write an extensiveparagraph or two about how these/this colors, animal, motto and object/symbol represents you and/or your family. What flag might go on your Coat of Arms?
Your Coat of Arms must be colorful, creative, relevant, and must include an extensive explication (10-15sentences).
You must thoroughly delineate what has been colored/drawn on the shields, and why. If any aspect is not thoroughly explained or is unclear, then points will be taken off.
You must have at the very least the following:
-Three different colors, representing some aspects of your family and/or yourself.
-An animal that is relevant to your family’s history, or why you have chosen it to represent you.
-A symbol or symbols representing you, your family, your religion, etc.
-A motto which is significantly meaningful about you, your family, life, your religion, etc.
-MUST be hand-drawn, and NOT cut and pasted from the Internet. IF YOUR FAMILY’S COAT OF ARMS EXISTS, I WILL NEED PROOF THAT IT IS FOR YOUR FAMILY, THE URL WHERE YOU GOT THIS INFORMATION, AND ANY PROVIDED BACKGROUND/EXPLANATION WHICH ACCOMPANIES IT.
* You are welcome to cut and paste a blank shield/coat, but you must fill in the rest by hand.
Your explanation for the animals, symbols and colors MUST come from the information provided on the below websites.On the back are some sample shields.
You will be presenting your Coat of Arms to the class, along with your explanation. These will be prominently displayed in the classroom, and must in every way be school appropriate. Anything deemed inappropriate will get you a grade of zero. If you are uncertain, ask me. If you think you need to ask me, it is probably not appropriate.
Websitesto utilize: