google.com, pub-8985115814551729, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 Free Printable Lesson Plans: Marco Polo
Showing posts with label Marco Polo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marco Polo. Show all posts

Free Printable Marco Polo, Kublai Khan, Silk Road Lesson Plans


As world explorers go, Marco Polo is probably the most curious and exciting. The exploits of Marco Polo are featured in a new Netflix Originals mini series. The next season will air in 2016. Marco Polo traveled in medieval times to explore the magical Xanadu, summer palace of the Mongol leader Kublai Khan (son of Ghengis Khan). Polo brought back exotic spices, jade, silk and strange beasts (elephants) to the western world. His travels ushered in the Silk Road and Spice Road trade systems. Marco Polo wrote about his travels in "Il Milione" or "The Travels of Marco Polo." Here are free printable Marco Polo lessons on the exploration, Kublai Khan, Xanadu and the Mongol (Mongolian) Empire.
Start at Silk Road by reading the biography of Marco Polo. Students could character map listing information about Marco Polo. Next acquaint yourself with the travels of Marco Polo. Here's a free printable map of the Marco Polo expedition, which became the Silk Road.You could expand it and attach it to a cheap roll up window shade to make a classroom map of the Silk Road. Have students color and label the map and make icons to symbols elements of the Marco Polo story.
This site describes Kublai Khan and the rise of the Mongol Empire under Ghengis Khan. Students could create a Facebook profile Ghengis or Kublai Khan to put their lives into modern perspective. Cal Tech has comprehensive information on Marco Polo and Kublai Khan. Use this as a travelogue of Xanadu, the Mongol Empire and the Silk Road.
Mr. Donn offers free printable Marco Polo lessons and activities on the Mongol Empire and Kublai Khan, geared for lower elementary to middle school students. Lesson Tutor has free printable Marco Polo lessons. Click on the checkmarks beside each lesson to open the activities on Kublai Khan, Xanadu and the travels in the Mongol Empire.

Older students might complete these free printable Marco Polo worksheets and study guide. These lessons work well students in grades 4-8. Here's a more descriptive discussion on Xanadu and Mongol Empire with re-enactors dressed in Mongolian battle dress and villagers costumes. There are images of artifacts from the Kublai Khan dynasty which students could make replicas of. Last, for a creative writing and art lessons, have students draw what they imagine the Mongol Empire and Kublai Khan may have looked like using Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem Xanadu, the Ballad of Kublai Khan

Free Printable Pirate Activities, Maritime Lessons, Talk Like a Pirate Day, September 19


If your children ask to wear a peg leg and carry a bottle of rum to school, don't be alarmed. It's just International Talk Like a Pirate Day. But wait that's not till September 19! Why would kids be celebrating now? Well, it could be they're getting ready for the Michigan Pirate Festival in August. Or it could just be that with school ending, they're looking for fun, pirate style. So why wait till August or September for some pirate fun? Here are free printable pirate crafts, pirate ship models, paper boats and pirate activities to kick off summer.

So if you were wondering there really is a Talk Like a Pirate Day. It was started in 1995 by Mark "Cap'n Slappy" Summers and John "Ol' Chumbucket" Baur. Personally, this author thinks it was just an excuse for two grown men to play dress up and entice women to sport corsets.
At any rate, schools and many businesses get in on the fun. You can, too with free printable pirate crafts, games and toys. And side-stepping the less savory aspects of pirate lore, this article includes lesson plans on navigation, maritime and marine and nautical lesson plans, too. That way teachers and home-school parents can indulge their inner pirate and call it educational.
* Start with free printable Disney "Pirates of the Caribbean" coloring pages from Coloring Book Info. No Talk Like a Pirate Day is complete without a nod to POTC pirate crafts Not since "Treasure Island" have pirates been so in vogue. Johnny Depp gave a memorable and oft-imitated Capt. Jack Sparrow, but the best of all pirates is Geoff Rush as Barbossa. Check out these free printable Jake and the Never Land Pirates coloring pages too. And hey, girls can be pirates too. Here are free printable Pirate Fairy coloring pages.
* Boat-Links is subtitled "The Mother of All Maritime Links," and it's rightly named. The site is a comprehensive collection of hundreds of free printable nautical resources about nautical science, navigation, sailing, maritime history, merchant marine, the U.S. Navy, naval history in other countries, naval warfare, maritime museums around the world, nautical music and paper boats.
Celestial Navigation. Before modern navigation, pirates and sailors relied on the sky to guide voyages. Ancient instruments such as the sextant, astrolabe, cross-staff, quadrant, kamal (latitude hook) and nocturnal were indispensable. This site shows how to make ancient and medieval navigational tools.
* Boats, Ships and Subs has dozens of links for free printable paper boats and ship models. There are sailing vessels from all periods in history, including clipper ships, Chinese junks, Roman warships, Coast Guard boats, viking long boats, pirate ship models and models of the Titanic and Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki.
* Disney Experience has free printable nautical toys and pirate crafts from maritime-themed movies. There's a Spanish galleon, Capt. Nemo's Nautilus, Jack Sparrow's compass, dead man's chest, Cortez's treasure chest, a Mark Twain riverboat and several other models. Raven's Blight has an awesome array of creepy free printable pirate ship models, ghost pirate ship models, paper boats and more. Perfect for Talk Like a Pirate Day.
* The Toymaker has a free printable puppet theater in which children can act out the adventures of Florimel the Magnificent. Florimel is a rabbit sailor who has adventures on the high seas in his "Golden Hind" inspired sailing ship. The youngest children can enjoy this for Talk Like a Pirate Day.

* Lee Hansen has free printable pirate crafts, party activities and pirate crafts. DL-TK has free printable pirate crafts and party activities too. Coloring Pages for Boys has dozens of realistic free printable coloring pages of paper boats, ships and submarines for many periods in history. There are also coloring pages of pirate ship models and dreadnought class paper boats.