I’m doing a series called looking back, documenting learning the children and I did together prior to me blogging. To be honest it’s more for my sake than anyone else’s. Blogging is like having a scrap-book, but takes about a quarter of the time to stay up to date
Our study of Ancient India began with these books:
Every civilisation starts with these three books, if they have one on the civilisation in question.
I then add any fiction I can get my hands on. Fiction set in Ancient India is nearby impossible:
The boy with pale eyes: A story of Indus Valley by Helen Cannam
Next we made a map. Sometimes we do folder maps, other times papier mache maps but this time we went for a cookie map. We looked at paper maps of India and tried to replicate it:
We added lots of decoration and icing:
I think next time I would get them to add a key to show which sweet represented which land mark as it’s not terribly clear (!).
I also had them fill in a paper map for good measure:
They wrote a quick paragraph about the Indus Valley:
I had them choose two of the myths from the book pictured above. They wrote a key word outline or spider diagram (T prefers these) and rewrote them in their own words. These are T, who was maybe 9 at the time, and chose to write about the Brand New Cosmos and Ganesh:
In my search through the web, I happened upon this fun activity, which they all did with aplomb! The children had to read all the evidence and make up their own conclusion about what happened to the Indus Civilisation.
We read Savitri and used these extra sheets for information. The children put on a play, acting out Savitri.
After reading all our books we filled out a lapbook from Hands of a Child whilst doing lots of hands on activity:
We always try to either make or buy in dressing up. Our children seriously LOVE dressing up and play acting. Even as I write this they are in the living room acting out kings, princes and servants, have made a huge beduin tent over our beams and are generally having a ball (this is all 5 including the baby – too cute!). This time we thought saris would be fairly easy to make and I decided I could teach them a new skill by tie dying the material. I bought the cheapest white material I could buy. I was informed that I needed 6 meters for each child. We bought some pink and blue cold water dye and followed the instructions to a tee. First though we made sure we had tied mounds of fabric to create a circle pattern and simply tied rope around the material to create straight lines. We did all this in the bath (so much material) and dried it on the line.
The lady who runs our newsagent very kindly offered to come around on her only afternoon off and teach the children to put on a sari properly and T to put on a turban. She also, bless her, brought some Indian jewelary and sticker-bindhi, which she genorously allowed our children to keep:
Another activity included applying henna to our hands. I also cut out hand shapes for all the children and gave them sheets with henna patterns on to copy, so they could have a go themselves:
And as a final activity we made chapati:
Do you have a hard time getting them to write so much?
Writing would be arduous for T10. I expect the same from him but I offer more help. They have always had to write every day so it is ingrained and very much a habit, so whilst he does not enjoy it I don’t really have any problems getting him to do it.
They do look stunning in those saris!
I’m betting I’d get a lot more buy in for a cookie map than drawing……..
Yeah, it’s the eating at the end that sells it to mine too!
They do look good in the Saris. They are beautiful children if I do say so myself.
Must be their genes……!
I love the saris. Were they expensive to make?
Not compared to buying them in. I bought the cheapest material I could so they weren’t too bad.
This is perfect timing for us. We are about to dive into Persia. I read about henna and thought the kids would like decorating themselves with permanent marker. Where did you get the designs? Those Saris are beautiful. – Thanks for linking up with Homeschool Hobbies and Handicrafts.
I googled it and there are loads of designs out there.
How wonderful!!! We used several of those books when we studied Ancient Civ also!! I like your version of making the maps 🙂 We were supposed to do salt dough mapping, but it never really worked out. I like the cake and decoration much better!! We also like lapbooks. My kids love doing that!!
Yep. anything that requires eating is always a hit!! Thanks for stopping by.
This is such an amazing in-depth study! I love that you even dyed cloth for your saris – wow! Thanks for linking it up at TGIF!
I featured this at TGIF today! Feel free to grab an I was featured button if you like! I hope to see you linked up again today – http://www.livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com/2013/01/tgif-linky-party-60-were-back.html
Have a GREAT weekend,
Beth =-)
Thank you Beth! It’s an honour to be featured!
What a fantastic unit! I haven’t covered ancient India much yet, so I’m bookmarking this post for future reference.
Love the saris, too – my best friend’s mom, when we were kids, is from Sri Lanks, so we grew up playing dress up with saris and I still love them. How nice of that lady to come around and share her time like that!
I know, we are so blessed in our village with people who are really community minded and willing to help out where ever they can!
Sri Lanka, not Lanks – sorry for typo!
Wow! What a wonderful way to study India – I love all of your activities – especially making your own saris! The Toblerone Himalayas are also really cool. Thanks so much for linking up to The Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop – I’ll be coming back to this post when my girls are a little older.
Thank you, that’s so kind! I’m glad to know it’s been useful!
This looks like an awesome lesson plan on learning about India! You have the whole bundle. 🙂 I really like the cookie! Thank you for sharing at The Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop.
No problem! I’ll be back on Sunday to link up. I think it’s a great idea for a blog hop!
Thank you for taking the time to blog this. I’m just starting this unit with my students and was wondering which resources (as the school has none on Ancient India) that you used above would be worth buying? (I’m sure they all are but I can only get away with buying so much!)
That’s a hard question to answer. Eye Witness books are great for pictures and bite of information. The Passport to India book is packed full of hands on material. The myth book you could probably find the same information on line. The Ancient India book is one of my favourites, full of information, but I guess would be geared towards older students and isn’t so ‘fun’ to read. The novel is incredibly hard to get hold of, and therefore very expensive- we found it in a charity shop. The note pages and website are all free. The biscuit map making and tie dye were really great fun. You could do both smaller scale, to save money. The Hands of a Child Lap book is inexpensive and can be printed multiple times for a family- I’m not sure their policy on schools. I think that covers everything- if not feel free to ask more!
I like they way you used cards for the Heyna drawings. I’ve been thinking about our upcoming India study and don’t think the kids would like to be tatooed, but would like to decorate paper.
You see, mine would have loved to have been tattooed but the ink would have gone everywhere and they would have looked like one big splodge. So I was a meany mummy and made them do it on card!