Coat of Arms

In 5th grade I have my students create their own personal coat of arms. (This is a much anticipated project) I used the book "Design Your Own Coat of Arms" by Rosemary Chorzempa to help the kids with some different ideas for their coat of arms. We talk about the different elements they need to incorporate, the shield shape, the helmet/bow/crown at the top, mantling (the decoration around the helmet and top of the shield), and the scroll at the bottom with their motto (we talk a little about examples of mottos and what a motto is). Unlike traditional coats of arms, these projects are not about their family name, instead they should represent them as a person. The students incorporated different symbols that related to them or represented things they like to do. The kids LOVE this project, which is pretty cool for a non-messy thing. We used skinny sharpies to outline and colored pencils to color in.