Posted in Curriculum

The Renaissance Unit - what can I say?  I really don't see how anyone would love it as written.  But I am sure some people do.  For those who haven't seen it, it is a 9 week long unit on the Renaissance.  4 of those weeks are spent studying just the Reformation.  Most of the rest of it is on Explorers.  One week is on Art.  Seriously - that is the curriculum for the Grammar Stage (K-5 approx)  I was just dumbfounded that anyone would want their 2nd and 3rd graders spending a month on the Reformation.  I am not saying that it isn't important, but C'MON!

Anyway, I decided that we were going to put a lot more emphasis on the re-awakening of Europe.  And once I decided how I was going to do that it was actually pretty easy to re-write the curriculum.  First I decided that we would use The Renaissance by Mary Quigley as our spine instead.  This was one of the Upper Grammar Alternate books.  I took the book and divided it by 7 weeks (I wanted the last two weeks to study the Aztecs and the Explorers).  This came to about 8 pages a week and it actually was a fairly nice split of topics.  And that gave us a theme for every week.  I then added in the HOAC Lapbook on the Renaissance (instead of the TOG Unit 2 Lapbook which would all be on the Reformation).  I assigned activities from that lapbook which would go with each weeks theme.  Since I already had Story of the WorId (SOTW) pulled out some chapters from that and added them in as well.  Along with some pages from our Jewish History Spine.  As I said, the last couple of weeks will be more on explorers which will segue nicely into our Colonial America unit I think.

I then went through the Literature selections that TOG had and discarded any that we didn't want and re-arranged what was left to fit more with the new schedule.  I then filled in some blank weeks with some books from the Sonlight reading list, after remembering that my biggest complaint with The Well Trained Mind is that if you only read literature selections to match your history, you are losing out on some really good books!  So not everything they will be reading is history related, but that is just fine.  I also added in some Jim Weiss CDs since he has some good ones for this time period.

Finally I decided to put more emphasis on Art and Music with this unit.  I already had Artistic Pursuits Book 2 (for K-3) so we are using that covering an artist every week.  I am also using Story of the Orchestra covering the different instruments during this unit (many of which were developed during this time period).  We will do the book backwards, and will move into the composers in the next unit.

We will stick with Writing Aids in the order it is, but just change the topics.  This is easy enough.  Little Miss (level 3) will spend the first 4 weeks doing a photo essay. She has chosen to do it on Michelangelo. After that she will spend the last 5 weeks writing a realistic story.  Sweetie Pie Girl (level 2) will learn about writing a paragraph for the first 2 weeks, and then will spend the next 7 weeks making a display board (topic TBA).

We will end the whole unit off with a Field trip to the Museum of Fine Art in Boston.

So this is basically how it breaks down:

Week 1

Quigley 4-11  Introduction to Renaissance
LapBook – Activities 1-4
SOTW Chapter 35
Jewish History – Page 161
I, Juan De Perrara - LM
Leonardo’s Horse – SPG
Artistic Pursuits Book 2– Cimabue/Giotto (watercolors with Gold Leaf)
Story of the Orchestra – Strings

Week 2

Quigley 12-19  Government Church and Reformation
Lapbook – Activities 12, 13, 19, 21
SOTW 36
Jewish History – Page 166
I, Juan De Perrara – LM
Good Queen Bess – SPG
Artistic Pursuits Book 2– Limbourg (Paper Mache)
Story of the Orchestra – Strings

 Week 3

Quigley 20-27 – Family Life, Clothing, School, Farming
Lapbook Activities 5-8
I, Juan De Perrara – LM
Tippy Lemay – SPG
Artistic Pursuits Book 2– Van Eyck (Layering Oil Pastels)
Story of the Orchestra – Woodwinds

 Week 4

Quigley 28-35 – Cities, Homes, Food and Sports
Lapbook Activities  9, 14, 15, 18
Jewish History – Page 164-165
The Secret Garden – Sima
Paint Brush Kid – Abigail
Artistic Pursuits Book 2– DaVinci (textured watercolors)
Story of the Orchestra – Woodwinds

Week 5

Quigley 36-43 – Crafts, Middle Class, Printing, Literature
Lapbook Activities 10 11
SOTW 39
Shakespeare for children – jim weiss CD
Bard of Avon Shakespeare Bio -Sima
The Secret Garden – LM
Midsummer’s night Dream by Corville - SPG
Artistic Pursuits Book 2– Michelangelo (apple carvings)
Story of the Orchestra – Brass 

Week 6

Quigley 44-51 – Science and Art
Lapbook Activities 16, 17, 20
SOTW – 37, 39
Galileo and the stargazers – Jim Weiss CD
The Secret Garden – LM
Hana in the Time of the Tulips – SPG
Artistic Pursuits Book 2– Raphael (tempera painting)
Story of the Orchestra – Brass

 Week 7

Quigley 52 – 59 – Exploration/Trade
Lapbook Activities 22-24
SOTW 31, 32
Morning Girl (Columbus) – LM
Pedro’s Journal – SPG
Artistic Pursuits Book 2– Anguissola (tempera over oil)
Story of the Orchestra – Percussion

Week 8

Aztecs
SOTW – 28, 33, 40
Around the world in 100 years – LM
Broken Shields (Aztecs) –SPG
Artistic Pursuits Book 2– Durer (block printing)
Story of the Orchestra – Percussion

 Week 9

 Africa/India
SOTW – 29, 30, 41-42
Jewish History – Page 167-175
Around the world in 100 years – LM
Encounter (Columbus) – SPG
Artistic Pursuits Book 2– Bruegel (painting with vegetables)
Story of the Orchestra – Keyboards/Conductor

 End of Unit Celebration –Field Trip to Boston Museum of Fine Art

I am also going to make an honest attempt to post a weekly update report on my blog every week.  I know lots of people do that and it seems like it would be helpful.

So, what do you think?  Thoughts suggestions and ideas are always welcome!