Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts

Friday, October 4, 2024

Famous Spies in History

As a Waldorf persion, I always love to add stories into my lessons wherever possible, so I appreciate that Jim Wiese included some real-life spies throughout history in his book of science experiments, Spy Science: 40 Secret-Sleuthing, Code-Cracking, Spy-Catching Activities for Kids.

I'm going to make note here of the real-life connections, so that I can have appropriate history/biography information on hand for different activities.

All My Notes from Teaching
Spy Science in Science Club!


Okay, here goes:
Chapter One

    Project 1: Covers


    Project 2: Legends

      Lafayette Baker
      (Civil War)

      James Rivington & Robert Townsend
      (Rev War)


Chapter Two

    Project 1: Quick Thinking

      Giovanni Giacomo Casanova
      (1750s, spying on England for France)


    Project 3: Trash Treasures

      Mikhail Gorin
      (1930s, spying on Japan for Soviet Union)


    Project 6: Mapping


    Project 7: Mock Compass


    Project 9: Watch the Birdie


    Project 10: Hiding Places


    Project 11: Gotcha!


    Project 12: Hairy Situation


Chapter Three

    Project 1: Seeing Around Corners


    Project 3: Seeing It All


    Project 4: Seeing It Bigger


    Project 5: Listening In

      Lydia Darragh
      (Rev War)


    Project 9: Tricycle Tracker


Chapter Four

    Project 1: Torn Dollars


    Project 2: Passive Contacts


    Project 3: Rubber Bands


    Project 4: Small Secrets

      Civil War


    Project 9: Scytale

      Spartan generals, 400 BCE


    Project 10: Page Grills

      Kryptos, copper sculpture at CIA headquarters


Chapter 5


~ ~ ~ ~ ~

More Resources!


Rev War


Civil War


WWI

    Robert Baden-Powell wrote a book for children called "My Adventures as a Spy." It's important to look for a vintage edition, which includes the original illustrations, or read it free online at Project Gutenberg.


WWII


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

Posted by at No comments:

Sunday, June 23, 2024

Accidental Archaeologists

A student and I are reading Accidental Archaeologists: True Stories of Unexpected Discoveries by Sarah Albee. Here is the list of stories included:

Chapter One: A Blast from the Past
Italy
1709
town of Herculaneum (Pompeii was later found nine miles away)


Chapter Two: Etched in Stone
Egypt
1799
Rosetta Stone


Chapter Three: A Giant in the Field
Egypt
1815-1819
tomb of Sety I (among other discoveries)


Chapter Four: In a Pile, Crocodile
Egypt
1899
Tebtunis papyri


Chapter Five: What a Wreck
Greece (Aegean Sea)
1900
Antikythera shipwreck


Chapter Six: Proving a Point
New Mexico, USA
1908
Folsom site


Chapter Seven: Paleo Painters
France
1940
Lascaux Cave


Chapter Eight: The Case of the Copper Coins
Australia (Marchinbar Island)
1944
Kilwa sultanate coins


Chapter Nine: Scroll Up
West Bank
1947
Dead Sea Scrolls


Chapter Ten: Bogged Down
Denmark
1950
Tollund Man


Chapter Eleven: Lucky Break
Thailand
1955
Golden Buddha


Chapter Twelve: Eternally Yours
China
1974
Terracotta Army


Chapter Thirteen: Temple of Gloom
Mexico
1978
Templo Mayor


Chapter Fourteen: Grave Considerations
New York, USA
1989
African Burial Ground


Chapter Fifteen: Dead in a Ditch
Italy
1991
Ötzi


Chapter Sixteen: Skeleton Key
England
2012
King Richard III


Chapter Seventeen: The Chamber of Secrets
South Africa
2013
Homo naledi


Chapter Eighteen: You Don't Say
Mongolia
N/A
burial site of Genghis Khan


IN THE NEWS



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

Posted by at No comments:

Tuesday, June 4, 2024

WHEN and WHERE Did It Happen?

I'm working this summer with an online student who really wants to nail down all of the events in history that she has heard about... mentioned in a scattershot way here and there... and put them on a Timeline Scroll to show WHEN as well as a World Map and a United States Map to show WHERE.


The best place for free printable outline maps of the continents is The World of George the Geographer. Everything is available as both JPGs and PDFs. You can get many different versions. Here are the ones that we are printing:


We are using the Montessori color coding for the continents.

    green - Africa

    white - Antarctica

    yellow - Asia

    red - Europe

    orange - North America

    brown - Oceania

    pink - South America


First we will decide how far back in time she would like to go. Then we will measure the length of her scroll of paper (I love cash register tape for this; you could also use old rolls of fax paper if you wanted room to write more) and decide on our scale.

    25 foot length of paper

    10 feet = 1000 years

    1 foot = 100 years

    1 inch = approx. 8 years


Then I'm just going to have her name any person or event from history! We can review what happened, if she's fuzzy. Then we will mark it on our timeline with a note as to the location and a colored dot as to the continent. She can get out the relevant continent map and find the location. Easy!

I'm extremely curious to see what events in history she remembers from public school and from reading some fun short biographies. She's read

  • How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous
  • How They Choked: Failures, Flops, and Flaws of the Awfully Famous
  • Caught! Nabbing History's Most Wanted
  • Poison: Deadly Deeds, Perilous Professions, and Murderous Medicines
  • Poop Happened! A History of the World from the Bottom Up
  • They Lost Their Heads! What Happened to Washington's Teeth, Einstein's Brain, and Other Famous Body Parts

    etc.


    So how much did it stick and what does she still want to know???


    Sun Jun 9
    put the following marks on our timeline

      1 in - 2024

      2 in - 2016

      3 in - 2008

      4 in - 2000

      10 in - 1950

      16 in - 1900


      add her birthday


    Sun Jun 23

    put the following marks on our timeline

      28 in - 1800

      40 in - 1700

      52 in - 1600

      64 in - 1500

      76 in - 1400

      88 in - 1300

      100 in - 1200

      112 in - 1100

      124 in - 1000

      136 in - 900

      148 in - 800

      160 in - 700

      172 in - 600

      184 in - 500

      196 in - 400

      208 in - 300

      220 in - 200

      232 in - 100

      244 in - 0
      mark dividing line between CE/AD and BCE/BC


      add eruption of Mt. Vesuvius / Ancient Rome / Italy
      find Italy on map of Europe
      235 in - 79

      add start of the Revolutionary War / Lexington & Concord
      find Great Britain on map of Europe
      add compass rose, Canada, and Atlantic Ocean to map of U.S.
      find Massachusetts on map of U.S.
      31 in - 1775

      add inauguration of George Washington / New York City
      find New York on map of U.S.
      29 1/2 in - 1789


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

    • Posted by at No comments:

    Tuesday, May 7, 2024

    Ten Queens: Portraits of Women of Power

    On my screen-free Fridays I like to shelve books and reorganize my library. Last week I redid 921 (biography) and put the books in categories instead of having names in alphabetical order (which jumbles people up significantly).

    My categories are Age of Exploration, Music & Dance, Writers, Inventors, Mathematicians & Scientists, World Leaders, and Other Biographies.

    While I was looking at each book to decide what that person was famous for, I came across a book which had been donated and which I had never read. It's Ten Queens: Portraits of Women of Power by Mildon Meltzer. Amazing!

    For me, physically writing things down is how I remember them (I take copious notes during workshops and conferences), and so I immediately wanted to make a blog post listing these women. That way, when I go to teach about one of them, I'll remember that they are in this book!

      Esther, 5th century BCE

      Cleopatra, 69-30 BCE

      Boudicca, circa 28-62 CE

      Zenobia, 3rd century CE

      Eleanor of Aquitaine, 1122-1204 CE

      Isabel of Spain, 1451-1504 CE

      Elizabeth I, 1533-1603 CE

      Christina of Sweden, 1626-1689 CE

      Maria Theresa, 1717-1780 CE

      Catherine the Great, 1729-1796 CE


    I have biographies of most of these women in other resources, which would present an interesting opportunity to compare and contrast.


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

    Posted by at No comments:

    Monday, October 23, 2023

    The Renaissance - The World Awakes

    My oldest student is doing her study of the Middle Ages using the wonderful book The World of Walls: The Middle Ages in Western Europe by Polly Schoyer Brooks and Nancy Zinsser Walworth. This out of print and hard-to-find book contains biographies of the following key historical figures:

      Gregory the Great (born 540)

      Charlemagne (born 742)

      William the Conqueror (born 1027)

      Eleanor of Aquitaine (born 1122)

      Richard the Lion Heart (born 1157)

      Francis of Assisi (born 1182)

      Simon de Montfort (born 1208)

      Geoffey Chaucer (born 1343)


    Today we learned about the Norman Conquest and the Battle of Hastings. In addition to the chapter from The World of Walls, we also used Hastings (Great Battles and Sieges) by Philip Sauvain. For a fun follow-up assignment idea, I recommend my Dec 2016 blog post The Norman Conquest - "Breaking Battle".


    The Bayeux Tapestry: Complete Reproduction
    amazing fold-out book


    Note: The Eleanor of Aquitaine chapter is so well regarded that it has actually been released as a paperback book on its own, Queen Eleanor: Independent Spirit of the Medieval World.


    Polly Schoyer Brooks and Nancy Zinsser Walworth wrote two other books, one on each side of The World of Walls. The one that comes before it is called When the World Was Rome and the one that comes after it is called The World Awakes: The Renaissance in Western Europe.


    Here is a list of Renaissance biographies included in The World Awakes:

      Italy Awakes
      Lorenzo dé Medici (born 1449)
      Leonardo da Vinci (born 1452)

      Spain Awakes
      Ferdinand (born 1452) and Isabella (born 1451)
      Christopher Columbus (born 1451)

      France Awakes
      Francis I (born 1494)
      Francis Rabelais (born 1494)

      England Awakes
      Elizabeth I (1533)
      William Shakespeare (1564)


    Although the out-of-print books can be expensive and hard to track down, I recommend getting them if your child likes long, detailed, and beautifully written biographies of interesting historical figures. I also just discovered that all three books in this series are available to borrow digitally for free at archive.org!


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

    Posted by at 3 comments:

    Sunday, July 16, 2023

    Lucy Fitch Perkins and the Twins Books

    Tracking down a free PDF of The Dutch Twins (see previous post) has made me realize that a LOT of these vintage books are probably online for free.

    When I was a child we had The Dutch Twins (her first book), The Eskimo Twins, and The Puritan Twins. I cherished them all. These books by Lucy Fitch Perkins (born in 1865) are unquestionably dated today, but still achieve their original goal of making children curious about how other children live all around the world. I think many of these titles are well worth tracking down!

    And, according to this Los Angeles Times interview, The Dutch Twins was the book that made Beverly Cleary -- who detested the first grade early readers she was given in school -- start reading as a child and come to LOVE it!

    this book, for sale on eBay, includes a signed letter
    from the author to the child, dated 1931!


    Here are all of the Twins books Lucy Fitch Perkins wrote, with links to the ones I have found online for free:


    Geographical series

    The Dutch Twins (1911)
    PDF from heritage-history.com
    audio recording from LibriVox

    The Japanese Twins (1912)
    PDF from heritage-history.com

    The Irish Twins (1913)
    HathiTrust digital library

    The Eskimo Twins (1914)
    PDF from heritage-history.com

    The Mexican Twins (1916)
    PDF from heritage-history.com

    The French Twins (1918)
    PDF from heritage-history.com

    The Scotch Twins (1919)
    PDF from heritage-history.com
    audio recording from LibriVox

    The Italian Twins (1920)
    archive.org

    The Swiss Twins (1922)
    PDF from heritage-history.com

    The Filipino Twins (1923)
    HathiTrust digital library

    The Farm Twins (1928)

    The Pickaninny Twins (1931)

    The Chinese Twins (1934)
    archive.org

    The Norwegian Twins (1933)

    The Spanish Twins (1934)
    archive.org

    The Dutch Twins and Little Brother (1938)

    The Dutch Twins Primer
    HathiTrust digital library


    Historical series

    The Cave Twins (1915)
    HathiTrust digital library
    audio recording from LibriVox

    The Spartan Twins (1918)
    PDF from heritage-history.com

    The Puritan Twins (1921)
    PDF from heritage-history.com

    The Colonial Twins of Virginia (1924)
    archive.org

    The American Twins of 1812 (1925)
    HathiTrust digital library

    The American Twins of The Revolution (1926)

    The Pioneer Twins (1927)
    archive.org

    The Indian Twins (1938)

    The Belgian Twins (1917)
    PDF from heritage-history.com
    audio recording from LibriVox

    Note: I have moved The Belgian Twins to History because it takes place during WWI. Lucy Fitch Perkins wrote in the Preface, "This story of two little Belgian refugees is based upon the actual experience of two Belgian children, and the incident of the locket is quite true."

    Posted by at 1 comment:

    Sunday, February 26, 2023

    Georgia Bragg, et al.

    Just finished doing How They Choked: Failures, Flops, and Flaws of the Awfully Famous AND Caught: Nabbing History's Most Wanted, both by Georgia Bragg, with my Zoom tutoring clients (age 10) and now we are moving on to some titles by Carlyn Beccia.


    list of people in How They Croaked (and here are my teaching notes):

      King Tut

      Julius Caesar

      Cleopatra

      Christopher Columbus

      Henry VIII

      Elizabeth I

      Pocahontas

      Galileo Galilei

      Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

      Marie Antoinette

      George Washington

      Napoleon Bonaparte

      Ludwig van Beethoven

      Edgar Allan Poe

      Charles Dickins

      James A. Garfield

      Charles Darwin

      Marie Curie

      Albert Einstein


    NOTE: Kids love How They Croaked. And they often come up with the most hilarious book report projects based on it! I have one student who is doing a book report on Napoleon Bonaparte using this book as her resource, and her "artistic element" is a display of black & silver pipe cleaners twisted together, cut into short lengths, and carefully arranged sticking out of a clay block. This is meant to be a souvenir display of locks of his hair for sale, and she's going to walk all around her classroom as the souvenir seller, asking her fellow students if they'd like to buy a lock of the deceased Napoleon's hair!


    list of people in How They Choked:

      Marco Polo

      Isabella of Castile

      Montezuma II

      Ferdinand Magellan

      Anne Boleyn

      Isaac Newton

      Benedict Arnold

      Susan B. Anthony

      George Armstrong Custer

      Thomas Alva Edison

      Vincent van Gogh

      J. Bruce Ismay

      Joseph Jefferson "Shoeless Joe" Jackson

      Amelia Earthart


    list of people in Caught!:

      Joan of Arc

      Sir Walter Raleigh

      Caravaggio

      Blackbeard

      John Wilkes Booth

      Jesse James

      Billy the Kid

      Mata Hari

      Typhoid Mary

      Rasputin

      Vincenzo Peruggia

      Bernard Otto Kuehn

      Anna Anderson

      Al Capone


    new books I just bought:


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

    Posted by at No comments:

    Sunday, February 5, 2023

    WWI

    I've been working on a WWI booklist for my grade 8 U.S. History course. Here are the ones that I like. Let me know if you have other suggestions! These books are found in 940.3 and 940.4 in the Dewey Decimal system.


    U.S. History
    cohort limited to 15
    $50.00




    Timeline of World War I (Americans at War)
    by Charlie Samuels


    World War I: The War to End All Wars (Voices of War)
    by Enzo George


    World War I Through the Eyes of Woodrow Wilson (Presidential Perspectives)     by Amanda Lanser


    The War to End All Wars: World War I
    by Russell Freedman
    this is the only book here that explains what happened after the war ended, and how the Treaty of Versailles actually set the stage for World War II



    Grace Banker and Her Hello Girls Answer the Call: The Heroic Story of WWI Telephone Operators
    by Claudia Friddell


    Shooting at the Stars: The Christmas Truce of 1914
    by John Hendrix


    Cher Ami: Based on the World War I Legend of the Fearless Pigeon
    by Mélisande Potter


    Dazzle Ships: World War I and the Art of Confusion
    by Chris Barton


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

    Posted by at No comments:

    Saturday, January 28, 2023

    Susan B. Anthony

    Susan B. Anthony could potentially come up in three places in the Waldorf curriculum, and I love teaching about her so I'm making myself some notes! She could be part of

    grade 2 - Heroes

    grade 3 - Currency

    grade 8 - U.S. History


    Story for Grade 2/3


    Story for Grade 8


    Mapping Activity

    Regardless of what story you use, I highly recommend doing this mapping activity (which I invented today while working with a child) after the story.

      print Blank United States Map (I like this one from TpT)

      read aloud the list of states/territories which granted full voting rights to women, in order, from the Timeline (1787 - 1920) in the back of Marching with Aunt Susan; have the child color each state as you go

      look at the map and see what patterns emerge

      where in the country were women's rights more accepted?


    ~ ~ ~


    Guess what I discovered when I went to look up whether the Susan B. Anthony quarter is still being minted. There's a BRAND-NEW and ALREADY STARTED quarters program honoring the lives of famous American women... and I knew nothing at all about it!


    *NEW* American Women Quarters Program

    This program celebrates the accomplishments and contributions made by women of the United States. Beginning in 2022, and continuing through 2025, the U.S. Mint will issue up to five new reverse designs each year (with George Washington on the obverse). Here are the women & designs so far:

    2022

    • Maya Angelou – celebrated writer, performer, and social activist
    • Dr. Sally Ride – physicist, astronaut, educator, and first American woman in space
    • Wilma Mankiller – first woman elected principal chief of the Cherokee Nation
    • Nina Otero-Warren – a leader in New Mexico’s suffrage movement and the first woman superintendent of Santa Fe public schools
    • Anna May Wong – first Chinese American film star in Hollywood


    2023

    • Bessie Coleman - first African American and first Native American woman pilot
    • Edith Kanaka'ole - indigenous Hawaiian composer, custodian of native culture and traditions
    • Eleanor Roosevelt - first lady, author, and civil liberties advocate
    • Jovita Idar - Mexican-American journalist, activist, teacher, and suffragist
    • Maria Tallchief - America's first prima ballerina


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

    Posted by at No comments:

    Saturday, November 5, 2022

    A Bit of European History

    I've been watching a lot of Lucy Worsley because I have COVID and am stuck at home, and I'd like to put some of these documentaries in chronological order. I always like to put things in order. Plus, it may come in handy someday. In the 8th grade, Waldorf students study the Age of Revolution as well as U.S. History. There is a LOT of material to cover and sometimes watching to learn about it is faster than reading to learn about it.

    It is also really fun to see actual artifacts and locations from the time period!


    The Age of Revolution
    by Charles Kovacs


    Lucy Worsley Investigates, ep.3
    "The Black Death"
    King Edward III
    House of Plantagenet
    focus on one family in Walsham le Willows, a village in Suffolk, England
    1348


    Lucy Worsley Investigates, ep.1
    "Princes in the Tower"
    young King Edward V (never crowned) and his brother
    1483

    King Richard III was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death during the last decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses marked the end of the Middle Ages in England.

    Henry VII declared himself king by just title of inheritance and by the judgment of God in battle, after slaying Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. His coronation marked the beginning of the Tudor dynasty.


    Henry VII: The Winter King
    King Henry VII
    not Lucy Worsley


    Tudor Monastery Farm
    King Henry VII
    also not Lucy Worsley, but a documentary series that I LOVE!
    1500


    Lucy Worsley's 12 Days of Tudor Christmas
    King Henry VIII


    Secrets of the Six Wives
    King Henry VIII


    Lucy Worsley's Royal Myths and Secrets, ep.4
    "The Reformation"
    King Henry VIII
    The English Reformation and Thomas Cromwell
    Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon was annulled on May 23, 1533


    Lady Jane, rated PG-13
    movie with Helena Bonham Carter
    Queen Jane, the Nine Days' Queen
    House of Grey
    July 10 until July 19, 1553 (succeeded by Mary Tudor, "Bloody Mary")


    Lucy Worsley's Royal Myths and Secrets, ep.1
    "The Warrior Queen"
    Queen Elizabeth I
    defeat of the Spanish Armada - July 29, 1588


    Lucy Worsley Investigates, ep.4
    "The Witch Hunts"
    King James VI of Scotland
    The Scottish Reformation and John Knox
    1590

    James VI became king of Scotland in 1567 when Mary was forced to abdicate. On the death of Elizabeth in 1603, he became James I of England. He is thus known as James VI and I. Elizabeth I was the last Tudor monarch.


    Lucy Worsley's Royal Myths and Secrets, ep.2
    "Queen Anne: The Mother of Great Britain"
    Queen Anne
    Acts of Union - May 1, 1707
    Queen Anne was the last Stuart monarch. After Queen Anne dies childless, the crown passes to her second cousin George I of the House of Hanover.


    I also really enjoyed the movie Délicieux, rated PG-13
    in French with English subtitles
    storming of the Bastille - July 14, 1789


    Lucy Worsley's Royal Myths and Secrets, ep.3
    "Marie Antoinette: The Doomed Queen"
    The French Revolution and Maximilien Robespierre
    King Louis XVI of France - date of execution: January 21, 1793
    Queen Marie Antoinette of France - date of execution: October 16, 1793


    Lucy Worsley Investigates, ep.2
    "Madness of King George"
    King George III
    declared unfit to rule and forced to give up his throne in 1811

    Fun Fact: The planet Uranus was originally named "Georgium sidus," the Georgian Star, after King George III of England, who had funded the 40-foot telescope William Herschel used in its discovery.


    Lucy Worsley's Royal Myths and Secrets, ep.5
    "George IV and the Regency"
    King George IV
    Regency era 1811 - 1820


    Victoria and Albert: The Wedding
    Queen Victoria
    marriage to Prince Albert - February 10, 1840
    also discusses her uncle, King George IV (the Prince Regent)


    The Young Victoria, rated PG
    movie with Emily Blunt
    Queen Victoria
    this goes a lot into her mother's relationship with John Conroy


    Her Majesty, Mrs Brown, rated PG
    movie with Judi Dench
    Queen Victoria
    her heartbreak after Prince Albert's death
    1864


    Of course, there's also Victoria (seasons 1, 2, and 3), Victorian Farm, the Victorian Farm Christmas Special, and Edwardian Farm. The Edwardian Era was 1901 to 1910 (sometimes extended to the beginning of WWI).

    Victoria was the last of the Hanoverian line in Britain.

    The ascension of her son Bertie, crowned King Edward VII, marked the beginning of the House of Windsor. This is because his father was Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. In 1917, the name of the British royal house was changed from the German Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the English Windsor because of anti-German sentiment during the First World War. The name was taken from Windsor Castle, the first version of which was built by William the Conqueror in 1070. It is the largest inhabited castle in the world.

    Queen Victoria's Descendants Still Reign Over Europe
    Town & Country - Sep 16, 2022
    countries mentioned in this article include England, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Germany, Russia, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Greece

    Victoria's second daughter, Princess Alice, lost her daughter Alix when Alix and her family were executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918. Alix, who would become better known to history as Alexandra Feodorovna, was the Empress of Russia and wife of Tsar Nicholas II of the house Romanov. Together the two had five children, all of whom were executed along with their parents.


    Lucy Worsley's Royal Myths and Secrets, ep.6
    "The Russian Revolution"
    Tzar Nicholas II of Russia
    The Russian Revolution and Vladimir Lenin
    1917


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

    Posted by at 2 comments:
    Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)