Thursday, September 27, 2012

Ancient History, Week 1

Archaeology

We are starting the four-year cycle for both history and science this year. The four-year cycle method of teaching history and science is central to classical homeschooling and has been made popular by The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise.

The idea is to teach history from the beginning. That means starting with ancient history and then studying the middle ages, early modern history, and modern history in subsequent years. Students who begin the cycle in first grade will be able to repeat it three times by graduation. Each cycle allows students to learn the material in greater depth. Science is divided into life science, earth science and astronomy, chemistry, and physics. The sciences correspond with history by order of discovery.

Ancient History < > Life Science
Middle Ages < > Earth Science & Astronomy
Early Modern < > Chemistry
Modern & Today < > Physics

There are many ways to execute the four-year cycles. For history, we are using History Odyssey: Ancients, Level 1 by Pandia Press as a guide. Our text spine is an older version of Usborne: Ancient World by Fiona Chandler. (The various versions are pretty much all the same.) While we are not using The Story of the World: Ancient Times text by Susan Wise Bauer, we are using some activities and literature suggestions from a copy of The Story of the World activity guide that was gifted to me. We are also using as many picture books and DVDs as I can find from the St. Louis County Library. While we do not live in St. Louis, we pay $50 a year to use this wonderful resource. A steal for sure!

Most weeks, Tessa will study history Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. My goal is to post what we do each week here on my Blue House School blog. Here we go!



Monday
  • Completed "What is History?" history pocket according to HO, Lesson 1.
See Kindergarten 2012 - Age 5 for post and pics.


Tuesday

After reading "Archaeologists Dig for Clues," Tessa drew an awl (ancient sewing needle) and a bone for this week's draw and color.
After reading "Archaeologists Dig for Clues," Tessa drew an awl (ancient sewing needle) and a bone for this week's draw and color.


Wednesday
  • Completed mini archaeological dig adapted from "A Dirty Dig" from the SOTW activity guide.
  • Watched The Magic School Bus: Super Sports Fun DVD (Shows and Tells episode) by Scholastic from Netflix.

Thursday
Tessa has been interested in family trees lately, so I added a simple lesson about family history this week. There are more in depth family history projects in the SOTW activity guide.


Other Books of Interest

* HO = History Odyssey, SOTW = The Story of the World


Mini Archaeological Dig

For our mini dig, I bought a disposable lasagna pan, a small bag of play sand, and a Playmobil cave woman figure, baby and accessories for a cost of about $10 total. The rest of the supplies I gathered from around the house.

It was raining the day of our dig, so we conducted it on the front porch. Not ideal, but it worked well enough. First, Tessa and I set up a grid across our dig site using pencils, tape and jute. Next, Tessa dug with a sturdy plastic spoon and sifted the excess sand into a bucket. As Tessa discovered artifacts, she charted, bagged and labeled her finds accordingly. After the dig, we completed artifact log sheets inside.

Tessa discovered her first artifact in quadrant C2. She carefully charted, bagged and labeled the find.
Tessa discovered her first artifact in quadrant C2. She carefully charted, bagged and labeled the find.

Tessa marked her second find on the artifact log dig site diagram.
Tessa marked her second find on the artifact log dig site diagram.

She later predicted it to be an ancient bowl!
She later predicted it to be an ancient bowl!

Tessa was disappointed she didn't find anything new in this quadrant. I explained that archaeologists often dig for days or weeks before making even one small discovery.
Tessa was disappointed she didn't find anything new in this quadrant. I explained that archaeologists often dig for days or weeks before making even one small discovery.

Tessa enjoyed brushing away sand from the artifacts...even more than digging, I think.
Tessa enjoyed brushing away sand from the artifacts...even more than digging, I think.

Tessa found five artifacts during our dig. After careful examination and a little creative thinking, she correctly determined they were a spoon, cup, baby carrier, fork and bowl.
Tessa found five artifacts during our dig. After careful examination and a little creative thinking, she correctly determined they were a spoon, cup, baby carrier, fork and bowl.

Even pint-sized archaeologists keep meticulous records. Tessa recorded each artifact's quadrant number, description and predicted use. She also drew a picture of each item.
Even pint-sized archaeologists keep meticulous records. Tessa recorded each artifact's quadrant number, description and predicted use. She also drew a picture of each item.

Our mini dig was a huge success, yet I somehow managed not to capture one smile on film. Tessa says she wants to be an archaeologist when she grows up. Sounds good! I'm pretty sure I didn't even know what an archaeologist was at age five.

3 comments:

  1. I would love to know what you added to the sand. Or did you just put sand in the pan?

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    1. Darn it! I just discovered that I forgot to approve and reply to your comment last month. I apologize. I didn't mean to ignore you. The sand is just sandbox sand from Lowe's. There are some small rocks in it here and there. I added the accessories from the Playmobil cave dweller figure (from one of their mystery figure packs...I bought mine on eBay) to the sand for my daughter to find. I "think" I dampened the sand after doing this and let it dry out so that it would chip away in a more realistic fashion when my daughter excavated the site.

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  2. Best "dig" activity I've seen! Thank you for sharing

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