Alexander the Great

At our last meeting, we learned all about the crazy, exciting, sometimes gruesome, sometimes sordid life of Alexander the Great.  His life is full of mystery, ambition, arrogance, luck, skill, and the impossible.  He never lost a battle.  He best friend was a horse.  And he thought himself a demi-god son of Zeus.  It makes for a cool story.  So here are lots of links if your students are interested in learning more about Alexander and the incredible empire he forged out of sheer willpower.
This week we will fast forward our history - We've got a lot to cover in two weeks if we're going to make it to the Fall of Rome!
Gwyn has the health lesson this coming week.

Alexander the Great Mini-Bio Video

Timeline Map of Alexander's Conquests

Battle of Gaugamela History Channel Video

Alexander's Speech in India

Alexander the Great map and reading comprehension activity

Horrible Histories Alexander the Great Song

Horrible Histories Alexander Names Yet Another City Alexandria

Visual Glossary of Greek Pottery

Back to India and China

The Life of Confucius animation

Gautama Buddha: The Founding of Budhism

Ancient Greece

We went back to Greece at our last History Club to visit the Age of Pericles.  Pericles was a general who rose to power in Athens after the Persian Wars.  He was quite progressive, but also a bit of a dictator.  He expanded democracy to men outside of the aristocracy, but kept a tight hold on his own power.  He ushered in a thirty year period of advances in art, culture, theater, education, architecture, and civic participation.  He also treated all the other city states around Athens like subjects, so that made them a little mad.  Soon Greece was divided into two camp, the Delian League sided with Athens and the Peloponnesian League aligned with Sparta.  The Greeks commenced to fighting each other for around 27 years before Athens was defeated.  To see a short movie explaining the War go here:
Peloponnesian War and Thucydides Video


We then spent some time discussing Greek Tragedies and how the theater was conducted during the Age of Pericles.
We ended by creating theatrical masks for our characters to present the play Antigone.  The kids did a great job with the play!  Bridget posted some video and pics of it on facebook if you're interested in watching.

This week we'll go back to Asia!

Ancient India and China

     We traveled back to Ancient India and Ancient China this week to get a perspective on a few World Religions.  In India, we discussed the migration of Aryan people into India and the development of the Sanskrit language and the writing of the Vedas.  The Vedas are the holy stories of Hinduism.  We read Ramayana, the story of Rama and Sita.  We even got to watch a few minute of Sita Sings the Blues, which is a really neat animated version of the Ramayana.  I will warn you though that it is told from a modern woman's perspective with scenes from her life interspliced in the story which includes some insinuated "romance."
     We also made a fold-able with Asian religions on it.  So far we filled in info about Hinduism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism.  We will get to Buddhism next time.  We spent most of our time on Hinduism, because the stories are so vivid and that is a religion that is the most foreign to most of us raised in the West.  We did talk briefly about the Hindu holiday of Diwali, and some of the ways people celebrate that like making intricate designs and pictures in flour on their floors.  We ended by trying to carve our own "ivory" statues that had something to do one of the stories we learned about.  I think that carving takes a lot of patience and the challenge was for the kids to scrape away small slices instead of trying to hack or cut off big pieces.  :)
Celee will do the health lesson at our next meeting.

Hindu Children's Stories

Sita Sings the Blues  

Hinduism Site 

Mickey and Friends: Mumbai Madness  

Interactive Ancient China Map  

Ancient Greece

We had an interesting class this past week, full of heroic battles and underdog wins!  We took a look back at Ancient Greece, from the forming of the city states to the Age of Pericles.  We finally got to put some dates on our Europe portion of the time lines. And we assigned everyone some people to find out about and report back to us as we study new times and places in the coming weeks.  Here are the assignments:
Michael - Homer
Siddhartha Gautama - Lydia
Confucius - Evan
Aristotle - Lyla
Alexander the Great - Celee
Asoka - Gwyn
Shihuangdi - Bella
Pericles - Olivia
Socrates - Gracie
*This does not have to be some huge report.  Just a few facts that each student can learn about their person and tell the others about.  If you'd like to find and show a picture or drawing of the person that would be great, but not required.

We worked on an Ancient Greece foldable, with the sections for Ancient Greece (Minoa and Mycenae), City-States (Athens and Sparta), Persia Invades (Battles of Marathon, Thermopylae, and Plataea), and Age of Pericles.  We didn't get to the Age of Pericles yet.
We watched an episode of Horrible Histories about the Battle of Marathon.  If you'd like to watch it again (or for the first time)  Here it is: Battle of Marathon

We watched a small portion of the History Channel documentary on the Battle of Thermopylae.  The whole thing is 1 1/2 hr. long and bloody in some spots, so we just watched some highlights.  Here is the link if you'd like to see it:  History Channel: Battle of Thermopylae

Here are some other videos and interactive sights that have some cool info about Ancient Greece.
History Channel - Crash Course on Greek Gods


Myth of Prometheus


Explore Ancient Greece


Adventures in Ancient Greece Game

Ancient Israel

  Thank you Gracie for the health lesson on Eating the Rainbow yesterday!

We had fun yesterday finding out about the Ancient Israelites.  We took a speedy tour of the past from Abraham leaving Ur in 1800 BC to the rebuilding of the Temple in 538 BC.    It was fun to let the students dress up and do a quick role play of the history.  They got to be roped into the Twelve Tribes of Israel, split into Israel and Juday, then taken over by the Assyrians, then the Babylonians, then the Persians, then the Greeks, and then back to independence again.  (We went a little farther up the timeline in our role playing to get in the Macabees kicking the Greeks out)
The kids also got to see how the Phoenicians developed an alphabet that was the beginnings of our Latin alphabet and the Hebrew alphabet.  We even practiced writing the Shema, which is prayed at least twice day.  Here is what it looks like in Hebrew and English:

For fun here is a funny video about Israel and a game about one of Israel's leaders and his lost tomb.


Israel explained in 5 minutes Video

Herod's Lost Tomb Game


History of the Phoenicians Video   

Evan is set to do the health lesson the next time we meet, which will be Jan 21st.  See you then!

Ancient China

We studied Ancient China last time and I totally forgot to post about it!  ARG!
Anyway, we discussed the unique geography of China and its isolation.  The large deserts that span the western side of China kept it isolated and allowed the civilization to develop independently from other ancient civilizations.  The Chinese came up with their own writing, crops, technology, religion, and societal structure.  We also talked about the Xia Dynasty, which is considered a myth by some scholars, as the 1st dynasty in China.  (Although we also mentioned the remains of an older civilization that has been discovered recently)  The Xia left no written records, and if they were real they were defeated by the Shang Dynasty who did develop the writing that we tried out.
The kids got to try a chopstick/rice relay.  It is harder than you think!
We discussed the image of the dragon and how it is an important animal in Chinese myths and legends.  Then we made dragons of our own.
They also tried painting Chinese characters, specifically the one for "hope." Several of the kids tried other words and their names as well.

I found a neat documentary on Ancient China.  It's 50 minutes long, but it has some really great info in it.
Ancient Civilizations and Theocracies: China Part 1


Thank you Lydia! She did a nice job doing our health lesson.  She taught everyone about Dyslexia and described how it can effect learning and communicating.
I believe Gracie is up to do our health lesson this week as we travel back to Egypt for History!