Second Grade, History, Set Five

I read chapter 70 from Child's History. It covered:

• James I
• Parliament
• Divine Right of Kings
• King James Bible
• Jamestown
• Captain John Smith
• Slavery
• Mayflower/Plymouth

In addition we read:

• Explorers of North America by Brendan January -- pages 29 - 41; this covered Cartier and Hudson and French exploration of North America
• A Lion to Guard Us by Clyde Robert Bulla -- about the journey to Jamestown on the Sea Adventure. Being stranded in the Bermudas, and finally getting to Jamestown by building two small ships. They arrived after the "starving time".
• Pocahontas and the Strangers by Clyde Robert Bulla -- the story of Pocahontas' life. This book mentioned the "starving time" and the ships that came from Bermuda, so we were able hook the two books together.
• If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 by Ann McGovern -- this book presents the information about the Mayflower and the first year of life in America in an interesting, conversational manner.
• The Pilgrims at Plymouth by Lucille Recht Penner -- this book covers a lot of the same information that If You Sailed. . . has, but it has more and better illustrations.
• Samuel Eaton's Day by Kate Waters -- takes you through a day with a colonial boy from getting dressed in the morning to bedtime at night.
• Sarah Morton's Day by Kate Waters -- both these book have more photographs than text, making it an ejoyable book to look at.
• Squanto: Friend of the White Men by Clyde Robert Bulla -- Squanto's biography told as a story.
• John Billington: Friend of Squanto by Clyde Robert Bulla -- this was a book I'd never read before. It was very interesting -- in fact we read it in one day.

Activity Book -- American Kids in History: Colonial Days by David C. King
This book talks about a fictional family in 1732, and has games, crafts, etc. that they would have played or made.

• We used a sea gull feather to make a quill pen and bluing and water to make blue ink.
• Make Cranberry Ice, on page 46
• Pomander Ball, page 105

I read chapter 71from Child's History. It covered:

• King Charles I
• Oliver Cromwell
• Charles II
• Plague and Great Fire (1666)
• William and Mary Stuart
• Bill of Rights (1688) and the Glorious Revolution

I could not find books in the library at K.'s age level on these subjects, so we looked at Tudor Theater by Gillian Glements.

Second Grade, History, Set Four

I read chapter 68 of Child's History. It covered:

• King Henry VIII
• Mary and Elizabeth Tudor
• Philip II of Spain
• Spanish Inquisition
• William the Silent
• Mary Stuart
• Spanish Armada

In addition we read:

• Elizabeth Tudor by Marguerite Vance -- well, we read the first chapter. Then we started talking about who Elizabeth's mother was. K. remembered there being a princess Elizabeth in the book The Queen's Smuggler (which we read in Bible). I googled 'Henry VIII wives' and found the website www.ActivityVillage.co.uk. It has coloring pages and information. We printed out a small origami book with pictures of his six wives and the years they were queen. We read to find out who were Mary, Elizabeth, and Edward's mothers. Who died, who he divorced, and who he had killed.

• Meet the Men who Sailed the Seas by John Dyment -- I read the chapter about the Spanish Armada
• Explorers of North America by Brendan January -- lots of pictures, easy text; covers Vikings through Hudson, so we are picking out the sections that go with what we are studying
• Galileo's Leaning Tower Experiment by Wendy Macdonald -- a picture book story about Galileo and this period of history

Chapter 69 of Child's History. It covered:

• Queen Elizabeth
• Sir Walter Raleigh
• John Cabot
• Roanoke Island
• Tobacco
• William Shakespeare

In addition we read:

• John Cabot and His Son Sebastian by Ronald Syme -- this book is a bit beyond K.'s interest level, because it is more facts than story. We will try it again when she is older.
• Sir Walter Raleigh by Tanya Larkin -- this is an easy reading book with lots of illustrations, large print, and just enough information to keep a young child interested without boring them.
• John Cabot by Tanya Larkin -- both these books are in the Famous Explorers series
• Roanoke: The Lost Colony by Jane Yolen -- this book presents the facts about Roanoke in a fun way. A young girl, who wants to be a detective, serves as the guide through the book, presenting the facts while trying to solve the mystery. At the end it asks what the reader thinks happened.
• Raleigh's Page by Alan Armstrong -- this is a fictional story about an 11 year old boy who becomes a page for Sir Walter Raleigh. The major figures in the story are "pretty much as documents of the time presented them." This is a long book (315 pages), but interesting. The chapters are usually short, and there is a lot of action and conversation, making it exciting even to young listeners. It took us over four weeks to read the book, but it provides such good information as to life in this time period, explorers, Indians, etc. that I highly recommend it.
• William Shakespeare by Ibi Lepscky -- a story about Shakespeare's childhood
• Daily Life by Kathy Elgin -- uses quotes from Shakespeare's plays to teach about daily life during the Elizabethan era.
• Tudor Theater by Gillian Clements -- with great illustrations, this book tells all about the theater of Shakespeare's time. It covers topics such as: why, where, and who built the theaters, how plays were put on, who went to the theater, etc.

For older children, Tudor England by Marshall Cavendish looks really good.

A couple books we didn't get to:

• You Wouldn't Want to be Mary, Queen of Scots! by Fiona Macdonald
• You Wouldn't Want to Sail in the Spanish Armada!  by John Malam

Second Grade, History, Set Three

I read chapter 66 of Child's History. It covered:

• Renaissance
• Michelangelo
• Sistine Chapel
• Raphael
• Leonardo da Vinci

In addition we read/watched:

• Exploration and Conquest by Maestro -- we are continuing to use this book to make our timeline.
• Leonardo da Vinci -- dvd in the series Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists by Mike Venezia
• Michelangelo -- dvd in the series Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists by Mike Venezia
• In these videos when they show sculptures or painting that are of unclothed people, they either don't show the private parts (just show the torso of David), or they cover it up with a banner or person, etc.
• The Renaissance by Rupert Matthews -- look through it before hand. There may be a few pages you want to skip, but it has great illustrations and information.
• Leonardo's Monster by Jane Sutcliffe -- a picture book about Leonardo da Vinci's boyhood
• Michael the Angel by Laura Fischetto -- a picture book about the boyhood of Michelangelo
• Neo Leo: The Ageless Ideas of Leonardo da Vinci by Gene Barretta -- this book takes many of Leonardo's ideas and drawings and tells about when they were actually built.

I read chapter 67 of Child's History. It covered:

• Reformation
• Martin Luther
• King Henry VIII

I was able to refer back to the books we read in Bible about Martin Luther and William Tyndale (which had Henry VIII in it).

In addition we read:

• Raphael by Mike Venezia -- interesting book about the artist Raphael Sanzio. Look through it first to make sure you are okay with all the pictures. There was one I stuck a small sticky note on.
• The World in the time of Leonardo da Vinci by Fiona Macdonald -- in this book we mostly looked at the pictures and read the captions about them.
• Christianity by Nancy Martin -- we read pages 10 - 13 about the church in the Roman Empire and the reformation
• Christianity by Philip Wilkinson -- we looked at pages 28 - 35 regarding Catholicism and the Reformation
• Monday with a Mad Genius by Mary Pope Osborne -- the is a book from the Magic Tree House series about Leonardo da Vinci.

During week 5 I wanted to consentrate on what what happening in the Americas during this time period. However, most of the books about Native Americans that I found are about the 1800s. Here are the books we used:

• North American Indians by Marie and Douglas Gorsline -- this book tells how some of the Indian tribes lived when the European settlers first came.
• Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow -- this is a picture book with pictures by Susan Jeffers
• If You Lived with The Hopi by Anne Kamma -- easy reading, nice illustrations

Second Grade, History, Set Two

I read chapter 64 of Child's History. This chapter covers:

• Ponce de Leon
• Fountain of Youth
• Hernando de Soto
• Mexico / Aztecs / Montezuma
• Hernando Cortes
• Peru / Incas / Pizarro
• Mayas

In addition we read/watched:

• The Spanish Conquistadors in North America by Walter Buehr -- we read the first three chapters (up to Cortes) and then switched to this next book. When we finish it we will go back and read the chapters about Balboa and Coronado.
• Cortes of Mexico by Ronald Syme -- well written, interesting book. It is better than his book about Champlain (which we didn't finish). The chapters are long (191 pages and only 8 chapters), so it takes the entire history time to read one chapter, but it is holding K.'s attention and I'm finding it very interesting.
• Ancient Civilizations for Children: Ancient Maya by Schlessinger Media
• Ancient Civilizations for Children: Ancient Inca by Schlessinger Media -- both these dvd's are 23 minutes in length. They are geared for grades 3 - 7, but are interesting and K. enjoyed watching them. They each had a teacher guide pamphlet with questions for discussion.
• Secrets of Ancient Cultures: The Inca by Arlette Braman -- this is an activity and craft book. I let K. look through it and pick out one thing to make. She chose to make a raft. We didn't have balsa wood, but used popsicle sticks instead.
• Secrets of Ancient Cultures: The Maya by Arlette Braman -- this is an activity and craft book. I let K. look through it and pick out one thing to make. She chose to make a wheeled toy. The instructions are very good. It is made of clay. We didn't have enough of any one color, so her tiger is very colorful and it really rolls and she can play with it. The instructions called for air dry clay, but we used oven dry clay and it worked fine.

We finally finished assembling the wheels on the toy. It really rolls, although in a lopsided manner since the wheels aren't perfect.

We have started drawing and labeling lines on a world map to show who explored where.

I read chapter 65 of Child's History. This chapter covers:

• Portuguse sailing around Africa
• Vasco de Gama
• East Africa
• Ibn Battuta

In addition we read:

• A Boy of Old Prague by Sulamith Ish-Kishor -- I did not read the entire book to K. just enough for her to get an understanding of what life was like for the peasants and Jews.
• Exploration and Conquest by Betsy Maestro -- we have just started this book. We are using it to make a time line of the explorers.

Second Grade, History, Set One

I read chapter 62 of Child's History to K. This chapter covers:

• Christopher Columbus
• Discovery of the Americas
• King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella
• Columbus' voyage

In addition we read:

• The Discovery of the Americas by Maestro -- this book has color illustrations on every page. It starts with "stone age explorers" crossing to America via the land bridge from Asia and goes through Magellan. Although this book has maps that show the routes explorers traveled, keep your globe handy. "Around the world" just makes more sense with a globe.
• Ship Boy with Columbus by Meadowcroft -- this book tells the story of Columbus from Diego (his son) and Pedro's (his ship boy) point of view. I read this book a few years ago and have been waiting for the chance to read it to K.
• Where do you think you're going, Christopher Columbus? by Jean Fritz -- we watched the dvd of the book.
• Columbus by Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire -- wonderfully illustrated
• I borrowed Pedro's Journal by Pam Conrad from the library, but we didn't read it. Just looking at the cover and the first few pages it had three things that were contradictory to the book Ship Boy with Columbus and since Meadowcroft had nine sources and Conrad had only two I decided we wouldn't read it.
• I assigned Meet Christopher Columbus by James T. de Kay for K. to read on her own.
• Meet the Men who Sailed the Seas by John Dyment -- K. read this for her reading book during these five weeks.

Chapter 63 of Child's History covers:

• Americus Vespucci
• Age of Discovery
• Spices
• Vasco de Gama

In addition we read:

• Magellan: First around the world by Ronald Syme -- this book covers Magellan in an interesting way. It also has some illustrations.
• The Apprentice by Pilar Molina Llorente -- a very good read. We both really enjoyed it. There were parts where we didn't want to stop reading, and you learn a bit about being an apprentice.
• Champlain of the St. Lawrence by Ronald Syme -- this is actually a bit beyond the time period of chapter 63, it is a good book to read