Yesterday I shared the resources I’m using for the Ancient China part of our adventure box. The other half of the box will be focused on Marco Polo. I intend to read aloud his own autobiographical book about his travels:
We are using ‘Marco Polo- History’s Great Adventurer’ I LOVE these books. We have a similar one for William Shakespeare and they really are good. Inside there are pockets full of maps, examples of money used at the time, copies of letters written and lots of lift the flaps. This isn’t a childish book however and contains lots of primary evidence from Marco Polo himself. It inspires you to want to know more:
I have a couple of picture books about his travels for the children to peruse:
The project book we will read aloud and then do activities suggested inside is this one:
We have lots of these-Shakespeare, Divinci to name a couple and they are great for showing what was going on at the time. Although the focus is Polo, there is so much more besides. If I have the time and energy, I intend to bag up the supplies for each of the 21 activities so they will be pick up and go.
I also have this CD for the children to listen to whilst they are doing some hands on activities:
And finally, as they so often do with an adventure box/fun week, the children will complete a Hands of a Child lap book on Marco Polo.
All of the resources for ancient China and Marco Polo will be placed inside an old leather suit case, with an old label attached. Destination? Ancient China, of course!
I adore books like that Great Adventurer one. I sit there and poke through all of the envelopes and such things.
They are perfect for big children (just like us!). My mum is convinced I homeschool because I’ve never actually grown up!
I agree with Ticia, those books are hours of fun for us moms!
Couldn’t agree with you more!
Wow, really awesome resources. I intend to use the “Marco Polo for Kids” for the projects as well.
When are you learning about him? I’ll look forward to seeing what you do. I always enjoy your studies!
Thanks for your kind words, Claire. 🙂 We plan to start in March. At the moment it seems that ours will be turned into a cross-curricula / multi-country unit study, which is a slight variation to yours.
You have some wonderful resources lined up, especially the book with the pockets and letters. I’ll have to see whether I can find one at a sensible price!
Can you give the author and publisher of the Great Adventurer book? I would like to see if I can find ones like that on this side of “the pond”. Love the suitcase idea!!
It’s called ‘Marco Polo: History’s Great Adventurer (Historical Notebooks)’ by Clint Twist I bought mine from Amazon so I would think you should be able to find a copy. HTH!
I have given you a blog award…
http://homeschooljournal-bergblog.blogspot.com/2013/02/awards-from-sylvia-of-living-and.html
Have a nice day!