Ancient History, Week 2

Stone Age Cave Dwellers

I don't really dig History Odyssey's lessons for "The Move from Cave to Towns." The recommended Usborne readings, picture book suggestions and so on don't mesh well, in my opinion. I didn't want to skip the picture books, so I crafted a lesson to bridge the gap. We'll continue on with the rest of History Odyssey, Lesson 2 next week.

For what it's worth, Tessa absolutely loved studying about cave dwellers. She asked me to read multiple books multiple times. She spent the week in an imaginary stone age world where she pretended to sew clothes from animals skins, craft bone and seashell necklaces, and knap spearheads from flint. She even asked the neighbor girl if she wanted to play "cave people."

I rented Walking With Cavemen from Netflix in hopes of playing a couple of clips from it for Tessa. It was a no-go for our family. There was male and female nudity throughout, which I may have been able to work around by playing it on a small screen. It wasn't worth the effort, though. The time periods were wrong for our studies. Apparently, cavemen aren't the same as cave dwellers. There were about 30 seconds at the very end that fit. I also didn't care for some of the stereotypical caveman behaviors in the movie. (I have another DVD in my queue that I hope will work out. It won't be here until Friday. I'll be sure to post, if it's good.)

Monday

Read How People Lived by Jim Pipe (pages 8-11) and Stone Age Boy by Satoshi Kitamura.
Completed draw and color.

Usborne: Ancient World doesn't have a chapter on cave dwellers, so I read "Cave Dwellers: Life at Pinnacle Point" from How People Lived. Tessa and I love this book! I wish the publisher would expand it, as I think it would make a good alternative to Usborne. I will definitely keep it handy as we continue our study of ancients. There are several more selections we'll be able to use this year.

After reading "How People Lived" and "Stone Age Boy," Tessa drew a cave with all of the trimmings.

Tuesday

Looked up and defined HO dictionary word for Lesson 2, Main Lesson Part 1.
Read One Small Blue Bead by Byrd Baylor and The First Dog by Jane Brett.

Wednesday

Read First Painter by Kathryn Lasky.
Completed "Make a Cave Painting" from the SOTW activity guide.
Listened to Magic Tree House #7: Sunset of the Sabertooth audiobook by Mary Pope Osborne.

Check your local library for digital audiobooks that can be checked out and downloaded for free via the internet. Our library uses OverDrive. We listened to Sunset of the Sabertooth during lunch.

Friday

Read Fossils Tell of Long Ago by Aliki.
Examined real fossils.
Completed handprint fossil activity from Fossils Tell of Long Ago.

Tessa had been begging me to learn about fossils, so I went ahead and added a short lesson on fossils this week since we had the time. Fossils Tell of Long Ago was recommended in HO, but that was it...no other mention of fossils. I found this a little perplexing.

Tessa examined fossils I purchased on eBay earlier this year.

Tessa pressed her hand into Crayola Model Magic to create a "fossil."

Tessa's "fossil." In the book, the children bury their "fossils" for future generations to find. Tessa wants to do this, so we may have to make a trip to the craft store to find a different type of modeling compound that will better hold up to the elements.

Other Resources of Interest

Ug - Raymond Briggs
Little Grunt and the Big Egg - Tomie dePaola
Rocks, Fossils and Arrowheads - Laura Evert
Rocks and Fossils - Chris Pellant
Me Want Pet - Tammi Sauer
Kali's Song - Jeanette Winter
The Wild Girl - Christopher Wormell
Bill Nye the Science Guy: Fossils DVD - Disney (Unfortunately, I didn't have this DVD in time for this week's lessons. Tessa has since watched it. I would have shown it on Friday.)
Dinosaur Train: Dinosaurs in the Snow DVD ("Fossil Fred" episode) - PBS Kids

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

Cave Painting

We didn't have any kraft paper or brown paper grocery bags on hand, so I raided the gift closet. I found a roll of nearly used up wrapping paper that had a kraft paper insert, which worked perfectly for Tessa's cave painting. Instead of acrylic paint, she used tempera, mixing colors when necessary.

Tessa began by painting a simple outline of a horse in black on her cave wall (a.k.a. crumpled piece of kraft paper). I had her practice drawing the shape a couple of times beforehand on scrap paper.