EXTRA CREDIT / MAKE UP opportunities

EXTRA CREDIT / MAKE UP opportunities 

If you've come to the blog looking for a few freebies, here you go!

5 (count 'em, five) 

free vocabulary words for the 

Castle Vocab #1 or 2 (Gentile's Class)

Castle Parts That Your Project Will Likely Have or Could Have

Yes, they are free, but nothing is ever REALLY free.  These definitions are longer, more detailed, and show more depth of information.  If you write the definition and still are unsure of what the part looks like, Google images will many examples and diagrams to look at.

** If you copy down any of these words,  you will one EXTRA credit point for each word (because these are purposely longer, more descriptive definitions)


PARAPET -- a low, protective wall or fence at the top of a roof, platform, or bridge.  Typically, it is knee-high or chest-high.  Soldiers could fight from behind the parapet at the top of a castle wall.

BATTLEMENTS -- The wall at the top of a castle is called the parapet.  Together with merlons and crenels on top of that wall (the teeth, or rectangular gaps), the wall is called a "battlement"  and allow soldiers to step into and out of cover to fire arrows.

MACHIOLATION -- An architectural term that refers to the opening or a series of openings in a projecting (outward) parapet between corbels on a medieval castle.  Often machiolations are the holes at the bottom of a parapet through which stones or other weapons could be thrown or dropped by defenders of a castle.  Bascially, part of a turret, a wall, or a tower is built to project out (stick out) over the ground and a hole is built into the lower floor of that part that hangs over the ground.

CORBEL -- The architectural term for a projection jutting out (sticking out) from a wall to support a structure above it; a supporting feature of a building, wall, etc.  For instance, if you were to take a bunch of square blocks and nail them to the outside of a house and then put a piece of board on them to act as a sort of walkway, those blocks would be known as "corbels" because of how they are functioning to hold up the walkway.  Machiolations utilize corbels.

BASTION -- A small tower or turret that projects (sticks) out from a wall or at the junction of two walls (where they come together at a corner).  Introduced to Norman/English castles in the 10th and 11th centuries, bastions were sometimes circular or square in shape.  More sophisticated designs were pentagon in shape.  The purpose of a bastion was to cover "dead ground" or the blind spots of a castle wall.  The word is derived from Old French, meaning fortress.