Marco Polo Adventure Box

Yesterday I shared the resources I’m using for the Ancient China part of our adventure box.  The resources shown here will make up the Marco Polo Adventure Box.  We will be studying these in tandem, so the resources here may not look like much but together with the Ancient China resources, there’s loads!

Marco Polo Adventure Box Contents

Books

This is Marco Polo’s own autobiographical book about his travels. It was written centuries ago and the language can be unfamiliar. That said, I read a chapter each day during our morning meeting and, honestly, really enjoyed it. This was primary evidence at its finest:

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:

Picture/Fiction/Non-Fiction Books

I have a couple of picture books about his travels for the children to peruse:

Activity Book

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.

CD/Books to Listen To

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.

Printable Passport

These are great for any unit study, but really useful if you want to track all the countries Marco Polo travelled through on the Silk Road. Download your copy here: Printable Passport:

And, they come with their own stamps:

Last but not least…

All the equipment needed to make a paper mache map:

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!