Market Day in Ancient China

“This is unbelievable!”  “You mean we get to keep what we buy?” These were some of the many comments made today after turning our classroom into  a market in Ancient China.
At one time there were four main currencies in Ancient China, thus the class was divided into four groups.  Each group was given their own [...]

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In Celebration of Chinese New Year

Early this morning, before the school day officially began, our fourth grade class happily boarded the bus for a field trip to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem where we were treated to a special Chinese New Year celebration.
Upon arrival, we were ushered into the museum auditorium where we enjoyed a wonderful storytelling session by [...]

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Designing a Confucian School

“Let’s name our school The Confucius School of Poetry.”  “Our school should have all of the classrooms around a courtyard  with a fountain.” These are some of the many comments made today by students during our new Ancient China lesson: Design a Confucian School.
After studying the five Confucian relationships and the philosophy of Confucius, the [...]

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Elements of a Civilization Game

During our study of Ancient China, we will be creating a timeline of events in this civilization which is the oldest continuing civilization in the world. Historians often have difficulty defining the word “civilization,” but most agree there are six elements:

monumental works
written records
social structure
labor specialization
food surplus
population density

To help learn these elements, each child has [...]

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Chinese New Year: Year of the Rat

Happy Chinese New Year! To celebrate Chinese New Year, our class, along with another fourth grade down the hall, spent the day learning about many of the traditions. To begin the day, the children watched the film New Year in Ping Wei, the story of Liu Yen Twin and her family who live [...]

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Market Day in Ancient China

 

As the afternoon rain pelted our windows, our classroom was transformed into a market in ancient China. After walking a timeline of history, counting off the centuries and discussing the length of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, we returned to the classroom to turn it into a market square. Each group was given a [...]

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A Step Into the Past: Peabody Essex Museum

There was excitement in the air this morning as we boarded the bus for our field trip to the Peabody Essex Museum. Upon arrival, we were quickly ushered into the highlight of our visit, The Yin Yu Tang House. Once lived in by eight generations of the Huang family in a small village [...]

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What Would Confucius Say Today?

This afternoon in our warm cozy classroom while a chilly wind blew outside, the children studied Confucius.  After hearing about his life as a scholar and philosopher, we took a look at his book of Anaelcts and discussed some of his sayings as well as six Confucian relationships.  In addition to illustrating one of the [...]

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