Of Castles and Paper Airplanes

  

The weather wasn't quite what I had hoped for, but there was no changing plans now. I had told the 8th graders that we were hiking to the castle today, and hike we would! Armed with our lunches, hiking shoes, cameras, and a Castle worksheet, 24 students and 5 teachers set out for Sausenburg.

Despite the rain, we had a blast clambering over curtain walls and scaling up the stairs of the tower, checking out the view of the bailey and batter below (ask an 8th grader what all these terms mean). Where things grew interesting was in regard to NG's paper airplane. (Why yes, it was made out of his castle worksheet). I had a rule about not throwing litter from the top of the tower (thanks to the kid last year who lost his worksheet that way), but NG very badly wanted to toss his paper airplane down. Soon he had the whole class begging on his behalf as well. The pressure was on. After surveying the situation and eliciting a promise from NG that he would retrieve it no matter where it landed - even from the far side of the woods - and a promise from the rest of the class not to copycat him, I finally relented. He leaned back and let fly! 

And it landed about seven feet away, below him, in the middle of the vines on the tower (blue spot in the second picture). No retrieval possible. I've never heard 24 8th graders laugh so hard!

 Fun was had by all, and with any blessing, some things were learned as well about castles and the Middle Ages and the wisdom of the words "I really don't think that's a good idea...."