Easter Adventure Box: Marco Polo and Ancient China-Part 1

Just the name sends shivers down my older children’s spines!  They are very excited about their Easter Adventure Box!  This year it is going to be both a revisit to Ancient China and also learning the new topic of Marco Polo.  Marco Polo was a well-known medieval explorer, who traveled the silk road to China.  He therefore ties in rather neatly with our study of the Middle Ages and also our revisit to Ancient China.

Usually when we do revisits it is simply building on the knowledge the children already have, or studying something to a much greater depth.  This time, however, they will be learning about something completely new.  This will be their first introduction to explorers and to Marco Polo.  They know of the Silk Route but will be learning about it in greater depth and we will be doing a lot more hands on learning than we did during our last visit to china.

The children came up with areas they were interested in and would like to learn more about.  Marco Polo, they have no choice in but the extras they absolutely do.  T11 chose calligraphy which ties in rather well with our current art studies in illuminations, C10 wanted to learn how to do silk printing and L10 wanted to learn more about paper making, which we have done once before.  I have some required reading for them, which is never a hassle getting them to do and I also want to do some maths using tangrams.

Some photos of our resources which we will use in some shape or form!

Books we used for our last visit to Ancient China. These will all be required rereads
Books we used for our last visit to Ancient China. These will all be required rereads
These are picture book fiction set in Ancient China. Again, required rereads
These are picture books: some fiction and some non fiction, set in Ancient China. Again, required rereads
These are new to them required fiction set in Ancient China. And will probably last 2 days if I'm lucky
These are new to them required fiction set in Ancient China. And will probably last 2 days if I’m lucky!
These are the resources we will use for calligraphy: A calligraphy kit, two books and a specific chinese calligraphy book (which I bought in Paris!)
These are the resources we will use for calligraphy: A calligraphy kit, two books and a specific chinese calligraphy book (which I bought in Paris!)
A silk printing kit. I'm a little nervous about this as I've never done any kind of printing before!
A silk printing kit. I’m a little nervous about this as I’ve never done any kind of printing before!  As a go along with this we will probably do a silk painting picture study.
And my old paper making kit with a lovely new book, from which we're hoping to learn lots of new techniques!
And my old paper making kit with a lovely new book, from which we’re hoping to learn lots of new techniques!
And last but not least we will be using The Warlords Puzzle to learn more about tanagrams and I found a game in a charity shop, based around the ancient tanagrams (seriously so blessed!) which has four beautiful carved wood sets of tanagrams and a very thich book of ideas!
And last but not least we will be using The Warlords Puzzle to learn more about tangrams and I found a game in a charity shop, based around the ancient tangrams (seriously so blessed!) which has four beautiful carved wood sets of tangrams and a very thick book of ideas!

The children will start their adventures in Ancient China in two weeks.  I’ll do a second post tomorrow about the Marco Polo resources we plan to use.

14 comments

      1. I’ve just tried to leave a comment on your blog but I wasn’t able to. I just wanted to let you know I thought your blog was AMAZING and I’ll be back lots to visit and get lots of ideas!

  4. Fantastic! We’ll be studying Marco Polo as well, as it’s interesting to see your plans for the study. Thanks for sharing your plan and the resources you’ll be using. I’m looking forward to reading more about how your study unfolds.

    Reply

  6. You have created another winner. Good for you and even better for your children. They are truly blessed to have you for a mom.

    Reply
  7. Pingback: Ancient China Unit Study | angelicscalliwags

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