C is for China (Ancient)

So we've found ourselves at the point in history with SOTW at Ancient China. We thought it might be a nice idea to try and spend a little more time on this period and so joined forces with a few others to accomplish this.

Our themed country days have been working really well so we simply took the same guidelines and used them for our Ancient China Day. Each family brings along an activity to cover with the group. We decided on one day only, even though we could've easily spent a great deal longer on this. I for one learned an amazing amount about this period in time, so was very pleased with the outcome.

As a group our main goal is for exposure, I don't have my kids memorise lists of names, places and dates, the more we read, talk and do activities on these topics the more they naturally memorise them anyway, because they are making the connections.

From the Great Wall, to Silk, The Mongols, a myriad of inventions, the Terracotta Warriors and the amazing people themselves there is such a vast amount of information you could cover with this topic.

 

All of this was one big group effort, many hands really do make light work and I love how easy it is to pull together a great unit for the group when you only need to focus on one component of it.

I chose the topic of Silk, we, of course talked a little about silk worms, we read a couple of the Silk Legends  and talked briefly about the early beginnings of silk trade. The kids loved this Mythtory clip I found on You Tube.

I always try to do more reading on the topic both prior and after group days like these. I thought I'd share the books we used in addition to SOTW and the chapters covering Ancient China. I also thought I'd show you inside some of them, I know I love to see a page or two inside a book before I commit. Can never judge a book by its cover.

This was a second hand book sale purchase so for $1 definitely a great buy!

It covers all major areas of day to day life in Ancient China, such as birthdays, dinner time, getting dressed, inside a home, live in the country/city,

travel and transport, going to school, festivals and ceremonies and getting married. My kids were very wide eyed with the ages of marriage in Ancient China, boys were 20 and girls were a mere 15 years old! They really couldn't contain themselves when we discussed the topic of arranged marriages.

 

A lovely Chinese folk tale, filled with gorgeous illustrations. "When the Emperor is taken prisoner, only his tiniest daughter's courage and a little help from her kite can save him."

We all enjoyed this story, we felt tremendous sadness for the Djeow, whom no one thought of ever, but it wraps up nicely with Djeow taking her rightful place within the family. A shame that she had to do something heroic so her father would love her though.

From the book cover, With lavish illustrations and a highly informative text, The Silk Route traces the early history of the silk trade. From Mulberry groves of China to the marketplace of Byzantium and explores how two of the worlds greatest empires were brought together, forever opening the channels of commerce between East and West.

This is quite in depth for a 'picture book' but is perfect for a middle primary school aged child.

Ok so the Story of Silk is actually set in Thailand, it does reference early China and in fact the first couple of pages are devoted to that.

This is a very thorough account of silk, the silk worm and silk production, with some stunning photographs.

 

From the book cover, The Emperor's Silent Army features more than forty full colour photo's that showcase the terracotta troops. A vivid and engaging text tells all about the army as well as the extraordinary story of the man who commanded its creation, the ruthless and tyrannical first emperor of China.

There is so much to learn in this book and the photographs are amazing. The next best thing before seeing the soldiers for real.

This book I grabbed a couple of years ago in a book store throw out sale because the cover was damaged. However that was the only damage. I truly love these bargains this is fabulous book with a large amount of information

 

A large pop up image on each page and a few other small pop ups as well. The kids have spent a considerable amount of time pouring over this book.

Turning the pages, talking about the images and wondering what life would've been like in Ancient China. I've struggled to find much online about this book, all I can really tell you is that it is published by Hinkler Books and the author is Peter Riley.

This day was a fabulous jumping off point for Ancient China, we truly could've spent a great deal more time on this era, however we decided to move on. I know we will revisit Ancient China again in the future where we will have the opportunity to build upon everything we covered during this time.

Useful Links

My Pinterest Board for Ancient China

Early Silk Trading in cartoon format. This short you tube clip is great for the kids

Crash Course History: The Silk Road and Ancient Trade. Slightly longer clip and probably more suited to the older child.

Ancient Lapbook on Homeschool Share

Ancient China Lapbook Dynamic 2 Moms

Squidoo Lens on Ancient China

Powerpoint Presentations and More

History with Story of the World

This year we are using the very popular Story of the World program within our Learning Circle (we meet weekly with a couple of other families). The process for our history block follows the same simple steps each week.

This assists us, the facilitators to plan effectively and also the children as they know what to expect each and every week during our time spent on history.

We begin in our homes, reading the chapter together aloud.

The Activity guide which you can purchase to use along side The Story of the World has been invaluable. It takes all the hard work out of the planning for you. Each chapter is laid out with Review/Discussion Questions, ideas for further reading, map work, colouring pages and lots of hands on activity ideas.

We begin as a group, discussing the chapter we all read at home. Here we use the questions in the Activity Guide, as the weeks have progressed we've found that the children are discussing more and answering less. Exactly what one of our aims for the group was. They are still answering the questions needed but they are now beginning to discuss the chapter together with their peers, as opposed to just simple answers to the questions asked, building, learning, growing from each other.

During the discussion time we write 'key words' on the white board. At the end of the group discussion the children take notes on the keywords and using the principles they are learning in their writing group using IEW they complete a note booking page that I created, at home during the week that follows.

The younger members of the group complete a colouring page from the activity guide and where appropriate they will write something they can remember about the chapter.

Each child has started a time line, here they add a card to their timeline each week, that in some way relates to the chapter they have been reading. I am trying to prepare the timeline cards several chapters in advance as often it takes awhile to find a suitable image.

The maps are all included in the activity guide and a simple step by step process on completing them is detailed in the guide also. You simply can't go wrong with the mapping process regardless of your own personal geography skills.

That completes the sit down/book work style component of how we are using Story of the World. This normally takes approximately 30 minutes to work through as a group.

Then it's time for the hands on activity. Again the activity guide generally gives you a few different options for creative hands on activities, there are also a myriad of ideas found online if you had the desire to seek them out.

For chapter one we chose our activity from the guide, but supplemented the paints with oil pastels. A simple cave painting recreation. Scrunch a sheet of brown paper into a ball then flatten it out again as best you can, this gives the children a rough, rocky like surface, something similar to a cave wall to draw/paint on.

Whilst drawing on their caves we discussed elements of the chapter and things that the earliest people drew on cave walls and their reasons for doing this. Many people use this program without the hands on activity and whilst you certainly can, I honestly feel that it is during the hands on component that the story truly comes alive. The children are imagining what it might have been like to be there drawing on those cave walls. A fun and important element of the program not to be missed.

Given that the majority of hands on activities from the guide are creations that simply will not lie flat in a notebook I've put together a simple page where the children can photograph their finished piece and adhere it to the page. Here we were able to glue the actual cave drawings to the page itself. These are then added to the children's history notebooks along with their note booking page and map work.

Week by week they are working their way through history and are slowly building their very own Story of the World.

Each family then has the option of delving a little deeper into the particular chapter during the week that follows, with subsequent books, activities and research. The timelines have been designed so that the children can add their own images or pieces of research that they choose to investigate at home.

Now that we are in a routine of sorts and we all know what to expect from the program and our history time together as a group we are seeing the value more and more of working on projects such as these collaboratively.

Do you tackle the subject of history with others? Please let me know if you do, I'd love to hear about how you go about it all.

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