The Age of Exploration

The 7th grade "Age of Discovery" main lesson block encompasses the Age of Exploration, the Renaissance, and the Reformation. There is a lot of content, so I'll do a post for each! Here are the resources we used and liked this year:

Our main text was

A Child's History of the World by V.M. Hillyer
(published by Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1951)



chap 55 - A Great Story-Teller

chap 56 - "Thing-a-ma-jigger" and "What-cher-may-call-it" or a Magic Needle and a Magic Powder

chap 57 - Thelon Gest Wart Hate Verwas

chap 58 - Print and Powder or Off with the Old, On with the New

chap 59 - A Sailor Who Found a New World

chap 60 - Fortune-Hunters

chap 61 - The Land of Enchantment or the Search for Gold and Adventure

I also like

The Age of Discovery
by Charles Kovacs
(which can be used as a main text for this entire 3-part block)

note: the first 23 chapters of this book are the Middle Ages block

chap 24 - Scotland and England

chap 25 - England and France, Joan of Arc

chap 26 - Printing and Gunpowder

chap 27 - The Age of Discovery

chap 28 - Columbus

chap 29 - The Year 1492

chap 30 - America

chap 31 - Pizzaro

chap 32 - The Fall of the Incas

chap 33 - Magellan

chap 34 - Crossing the Pacific Ocean



The World of Columbus and Sons
by Genevieve Foster
(which can be used as a main text for this entire 3-part block)



Mapping the World with Art
by Ellen Johnston McHenry
(which can be used as a main text for this portion of this block)

note: each chapter is two pages long

chap 1 - The Very Earliest Maps

chap 2 - Strabo and Eratosthenes

chap 3 - Lines on the Globe

chap 4 - Claudius Ptolemy

chap 5 - The Dark Ages of Western Mapmaking

chap 6 - Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta

chap 7 - Henry the Navigator

chap 8 - Printed Maps

chap 9 - Spice Wars and Pirates

chap 10 - Christopher Columbus

chap 11 - Columbus Sails Again

chap 12 - Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot)

chap 13 - Vasco da Gama

chap 14 - Columbus's Last Voyages, Amerigo Vespucci, and Juan de la Cosa

chap 15 - The New World Becomes "America"

chap 16 - Zheng He

chap 17 - Portugal Finds Malacca and the Spice Islands

chap 18 - Magellan and Elcano

chap 19 - A Forgotten Navigator and a Forgotten Map

chap 20 - Jacques Cartier

chap 21 - Spain Explores the West Coast of America

chap 22 - The Northeast Passage

chap 23 - Gerard Mercator

chap 24 - The Continued Search for the Northwest Passage

chap 25 - The Dutch in Japan

chap 26 - The Dutch Find Australia; The Golden Age of Maps

chap 27 - Vitus Bering and Alaska

chap 28 - Longitude

chap 29 - Captain Cook's Island Adventures

chap 30 - The Polar Regions



A Gift from the Past
by James Rumford
(ancient celestial navigation)



The Great Voyages of Zheng He
by Demi



Chee-lin, the story of a giraffe
by James Rumford
(Zheng He)



Animals Marco Polo Saw: An Adventure on the Silk Road
by Sandra Markle



The Silk Route: 7,000 Miles of History
by John Major



A Single Pebble: A Story of the Silk Road
by Bonnie Christensen



Traveling Man: The Journey of Ibn Battuta, 1325-1354
by James Rumford



Joan of Arc
by Demi
(the Hundred Years War)



Marguerite Makes a Book
by Bruce Robertson



Johann Gutenberg and the Amazing Printing Press
by Bruce Koscielniak



From the Good Mountain: How Gutenberg Changed the World
by James Rumford



From the Good Mountain: A Companion Guide for Adults & Children: How Books Were Made in the Fifteenth Century
by James Rumford



Morning Girl
by Michael Dorris
(Christopher Columbus)



Animals Christopher Columbus Saw: An Adventure in the New World
by Sandra Markle



How They Croaked: The Awful Ends Of The Awfully Famous
by Georgia Bragg
"Christopher Columbus: Death by Dirt," pp.27-33



The Voyages of Columbus, 1492-1504
by Lorenzo Camusso



Ship
by David Macaulay



Metropolis: Ten Cities, Ten Centuries
by Albert Lorenz
"Vogage of Discovery, 15th Century" (Vasco da Gama)
"Part One: Lisbon"
"A World of Difference"
"Lisbon Harbor"
"Part Two: Mozambique"
"An African Trading City"
"The Market"



Walk the World's Rim
by Betty Baker
(historical fiction)
"A 14-year old Indian joins Cabeza de Vaca's 16th-century expedition through the Southwest. A vivid portrait of Mexican life and the harsh conditions of a primitive Indian tribe."



The King's Fifth
by Scott O'Dell
(historical fiction)

"While awaiting trial for murder and withholding from the king the obligatory fifth of the gold found in Cibola, Esteban, a seventeen-year-old cartographer, recalls his adventures with a band of conquistadors."



The Sad Night: The Story of an Aztec Victory and a Spanish Loss
by Sally Schofer Mathews
(Hernando Cortés)



Math and Science Across Cultures: Activities and Investigations from the Exploratoreum
by Maurice Bazin, et al
lesson 4 - "Quipus: The Inca Counting System," pp.35-45
(Francisco Pizarro)

Relevant lessons from Stanford History Education Group (SHEG):

Ibn Battuta

Teotihuacan - Maya

Moctezuma and Cortés - Aztec

Moctezuma's Zoo - Aztec

La Malinche - Aztec

Aztec Encyclopedia

Inca Empire

Atahualpa and the Bible - Inca

We are really fortunate to have received a donation of the wonderful 11-volume encyclopedia set Explorers and Exploration in nearly new condition!

This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!