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Next: Week 2
| Week 1 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resources | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 |
| *Spine Book: Beowulf’s Big Book of Early American History *A spine book is a “backbone” of information and will be used for most of the year. | |||||
| Beowulf’s Big Book of Early American History | p. 12-21 Chapter 1 Before the Europeans Arrived | p. 22-27 The Tale of Some Vikings | p. 28-31 Chapter 2: The Age of Discovery Why People Looked Westward: Marco Polo and the East | p. 32-35 Marco Polo and His Travels The Turks Cut Off the Trade Routes | p. 35-40 Prince Henry the Navigator and the Portuguese |
| Note: Main chapters in Beowulf’s Big Book of Early American History are listed in bold text. Subchapters are listed in normal text. Don’t feel overwhelmed if there are a lot of subchapters listed in some weeks. They are often quite short. The pages in Beowulf’s Big Book of Early American History are marked with visual “sticky notes” that tell you what week and day the reading corresponds with. Be on the lookout for images like this in the book:  All you have to do is follow along in the book and place a bookmark where you left off to know where to pick up again. | |||||
| Non-Fiction Books | |||||
 Who Was Leif Erikson? | Chapters 1-2 | Chapters 3-4 | Chapters 5-6 | Chapters 7-8 | Chapters 9-10 (End of book!) |
| Notes for Who Was Leif Erikson?: Chapter 1 Discuss Erik’s temper. What are some potential consequences of having a temper? Discussion for Christians: 26 Bible verses about anger and how to control it Secular ideas about managing anger: 12 ways to help an angry child manage their anger Note to secular parents viewing the online sample of this schedule: There are 4 notes for Christians throughout the 36 weeks of the schedule. They are easily deleted for those who don’t wish to view them. 🙂 | |||||
| Fiction/Literature/Graphic Novels | |||||
| Maps and Geography | |||||
| Note: When we link to Google Earth in the schedule, we link to the exact place you should look at. If, for some reason the link isn’t working properly, just put what you are looking for in the Google Earth search box. Make sure to scroll out to see the “big picture” and feel free to zoom in and explore a little. The goal is to get your student to be familiar with how a globe works, what our world looks like, and where things are located. You can also use a globe. If you are using Google Earth and you have a globe, you may want to click on the schedule link, look at the place via Google Earth, and then have your student point to the location on the globe (to reinforce what s/he is learning). Google Earth: Look at Iceland together, then look at Greenland (to the left). Notice how Greenland is white. That color shows how much of Greenland is covered in snow and ice. Explore L’Anse aux Meadows (the modern site of Vinland). Look at Marco Polo’s route. Look at the Cape of Good Hope. Printable map: Native American cultural areas You need to sign up for a free account to access this printable. Free downloads are limited. Scholastic Teachables: Tribal Nations of the West: Color in the map (the rest of this PDF is scheduled in later). Interactive 3-D Maps: Options for this week: p. 6-9 The First People Arrive in America map (Note: You may want to remind your student that no one knows for certain how people arrived in America and that there are different theories. Young Earth Christians will also want to discuss the date on the map and replace it with your own guess or beliefs). p. 10-13 Vikings Discover America map | |||||
| A Buffet of Extra Resources and Activities | |||||
| Activities | Art/Crafts How to draw a Viking ship (step-by-step) Make a Viking boat paper model p. 40 Beowulf’s Big Book of Early American History: Draw a compass. Recipes: Beowulf’s Big Book of Early American History: p. 20 Indian Fry Bread. Watch a video to see how it’s made: How to Make Navajo Fry Bread Cook a Viking recipe: Choose a recipe p. 41 Beowulf’s Big Book of Early American History: How to Make Hardtack (Ship’s Biscuits) Science: Make a homemade compass | ||||
| Printables | Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Marco Polo unit study and lapbook – You may want to use some of the printables and/or notebooking pages in this PDF. Explorer’s Notebook – You may want to look through this and use pages as your student reads along in Beowulf’s Big Book of Jr. Early American History this week and next. There are notebooking pages, maps, and cut & paste items for the main explorers mentioned in the text. | ||||
| Videos | This only applies to the PRINTABLE version of the schedule: We’ve matched up some videos with the book they correspond with via a matching symbol. For example, Who Was Leif Erikson? is marked with a * symbol in front of the title. The videos that go with this book are also marked with the same symbol. You can see them in the day 2 column since they match what is read about in the day 2 reading assignment for Who Was Leif Erikson?. We will continue this type of marking throughout the schedule to help you know if specific videos go with specific books or if they are more general and cover this week’s topics as mentioned in the spine book and/or a combo of books. | ||||
| Videos | All About Glaciers for Kids 3:59m Formation of Moraines 1:08m Great Wonder of the Ancient World – The Great Serpent Mound 4:12m Mesa Verde’s Cliffside Dwellings Show a Glimpse of History | National Geographic 1:45m | The Vikings – In a nutshell 2:07m How Thor Got His Hammer 4:51m How to Norway: What is a fjord? | Visit Norway 2:39m *Warning a word is bleeped out at time stamp 0:55. It’s not super obvious, but parents may want to preview. Every Genius Detail That Made Viking Longships Remarkable 3:56m The Sunstone: Secret of Viking Navigation 4:15m Atlantic Walruses 3:08m | TED-Ed: The Silk Road: Connecting the ancient world through trade 5:19m | The Life Story of Marco Polo in Under 3 Minutes 3:24m | How did the Great Explorers avoid getting lost at sea? 8:40m Prince Henry the Navigator 1:42m Bartolomeu Dias | 3 Minute History 3:25m Just watch a few min if you wish: 1863 American Civil War Hardtack Oldest Cracker Ever Eaten 14:16m |
| Websites | Article: Where do you pee on a Viking ship? An archeologist answers your boat questions. Skip down to the section: What was daily life like for Vikings on the boats for many weeks? Where did they sleep, eat (and go to the bathroom!)? Article: 139 Old Norse Words that Invaded the English Language | ||||
| Optional Reference Books – Books to Browse | |||||
 DK Eyewitness Books: North American Indian | p. 6-7 Peopling the Americas | p. 8-9 A vast continent | p. 10-11 Medicine and the spirit world | ||
 Everything You Need to Ace U.S. History in One Big Fat Notebook | Chapter 1 Early People in America | Chapter 2 Indigenous Peoples in North America | Chapter 3 The Price of Expansion (Stop at p. 22 before European Expeditions.) | ||
Hi there! The link for the online game Sortify is under construction 🙂
Thank you so much for letting us know! I’ll leave the link in for now and keep an eye on it to see if they update it. 🙂 Please don’t be shy if you run into anything else!
Thank you so much!!
The link for Secular ideas about managing anger: 12 ways to help an angry child manage their anger says ‘not found’.
Thank you! I linked to the Internet Archive version of that page. 🙂 You should be able to read it now!
The “Science: Make a homemade compass” link is does not appear to be working.
Thank you so much for letting us know about the link! I wrote to the website owner to see if they can fix it. In the meantime, I’ve linked to the Internet Archive version of the page. 🙂