So far, I've posted about:
- why I use unit studies/resources to teach you how to plan unit studies
- starting with resources that you own
- utilizing free resources.
In this post, I'll be discussing breaking the main topic for a unit study into smaller topics and choosing areas of study. Now we're really starting to get into the nitty-gritty of planning a unit study!
When planning a unit study, I simply can't cover EVERYTHING there is to know about the topic. For example, some colleges offer undergraduate or graduate degrees in Egyptology! Obviously, there is a lot that could be learned about Ancient Egypt and not all of it can be covered in the 8-10 week study that I am planning for my children.
So, part of planning a unit study is to decide which parts of the main topic of study are going to be covered. For example, the large topic Ancient Egypt is made up of lots of smaller topics like Mummies or Egyptian Math.
This particular step is one of the most time-consuming but I have found that if I do I thorough job in this planning stage, the rest of the planning goes quite smoothly. Scheduling what we will do each day and choosing hands-on projects to complement the unit study is much easier if I have first broken down the big topic into smaller topics.
To accomplish this step, I like to refer to two sources - a teacher's book and an excellent book that overviews the whole big topic for the unit study. My favorite teacher's books for planning history unit studies are the History Pockets books by Evan-Moor. To get an overview of the whole topic of Ancient Egypt, I used a book from a series that I particularly enjoy, The Nature Company Discoveries Library Ancient Egypt.
After taking careful notes while reading through both resources, I compiled a list of all of the topics that I want to cover with my children about Ancient Egypt. Now, some of the topics are rather small (e.g., Egyptian math) so that more than one of them could be easily covered in one day, while others are larger topics (e.g., Pyramids) that will take a few days to a week to cover the topic and complete hands-on projects.
Ancient Egypt - Sub-Topics
- Upper and Lower Kingdoms, 3100 BC
- Geography of Ancient Egypt
- Crops/Animals/Farmer's Year/Shaduf
- Mummies
- Pyramids
- Egyptian Wars
- Temples and gods
- Homes
- End of the Egyptian Empire
- Exodus - Bible
- Daily Life (clothing, names, jewelry, hairstyles, food toys, family life)
- Pharaohs, Egyptian government, Menes, Queen Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, Ramses III, Tutankhamen, Cleopatra VII
- Egyptian Math
- Hieroglyphs, Writing and Education
- Sacred Felines
- Egyptian Art - Frontalism
- Social Order, Pyramid of Society
- Medicine/Healing/Magical Beliefs
- Craftsmen/Craftswomen (potters, stonemasons, carpenters, glassmakers, leatherworkers, metalworkers, jewelers, weavers)
- Feasts and Festivals
- Trade with Other Countries/Tribute to the Pharaohs from Other Countries
Now that I have a list of sub-topics, I can easily look through the materials that I have to see if I have books that cover all of the sub-topics that I want to cover with my children. For example, I noted that I had very little information about Cleopatra so I picked up a book at the library from a series that my children adore, "You Wouldn't Want to Be Cleopatra!: An Egyptian Ruler You'd Rather Not Be by Jim Pipe.
Future Planning Steps
What planning steps are ahead? Before I will be done planning this or any unit study, I need to do all of the following:
- Choose fiction novels for independent reading and read-alouds.
- Choose hands-on projects to coordinate with the topics.
- Choose writing projects or design a writing menu.
- Decide if a lapbook or lapbooks will be part of the study.
- Coordinate non-fiction books with the specific topics for read-alouds and independent reading.
- Schedule what readings will be done each day.
- Consider if there are specific subjects that I need to tie in with the unit study.
In future posts, I'll be discussing all of the above topics. If you have any questions about planning unit studies, I'll be happy to try to answer them in future posts.
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