aim4balance Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 Does anyone use or can anyone recommend a prehistory (or it could be science I guess) curriculum that begins as close to the beginning of the earth/solar system as possible? SOTW starts history at the time of humans (which is how history is usually understood). However one of my kids is a huge dinosaur fan and both kids asked me questions after going through chapter 1 of SOTW about life BEFORE humans. I guess I could do this two ways; either start their history curriculum with pre-history (at the beginning of earth) -or- I could keep going with SOTW and life with humans as their history curriculum and work on pre-history and all the animal/plant life here before us as science. I didn't know if with relation to history/pre-history being a "story" it would be wise to start with two stories at once though. Anyone have any recommendations? Thank you!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RahRah Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 Do you want evolution as part of that or not? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aim4balance Posted July 18, 2011 Author Share Posted July 18, 2011 rah-rah, yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RahRah Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story; Peters Life on Earth: The Story of Evolution; Jenkins The Tree of Life: The Wonders of Evolution; Jackson DK Eyewitness: First Dinosaur Encyclopedia (or visual dictionary) DK Visual Dictionary, Prehistoric Life Evolution Timeline; Charlie's Playhouse Ancient Creature Cards; Charlie's Playhouse Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarenNC Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 (edited) For what ages? For K-summer before first grade, we did some basic origin of the universe and life, etc. For summer before 5th grade, I went with something similar, but with a heavier emphasis on hominid evolution. Here are some of the resources I pulled from (primarily for 5th grade, I don't remember exactly what we used before first grade): "The Beast in You: activities and questions to explore evolution" by Marc McCutcheon (had a number of fun activities) "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly (chapter book about a young girl in late 1800s Texas learning about Darwin's theory---we enjoyed it as an audiobook) Smithsonian exhibit---what does it mean to be human http://humanorigins.si.edu/exhibit PBS Evolution website http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/ Nova evolution website with videos http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/beta/evolution/ Becoming human, pts 1,2 and 3 Evolution: The Story of Life by Douglas Palmer The Last Human: a guide to 22 species of extinct humans by G. J. Sawyer Bill Nye video on evolution "The Story of Life" by Virginia Burton The "Walking with...." BBC video series (dinosaurs, prehistoric beasts, monsters, cavemen, etc) "Our Family Tree: an evolution story" by Peters Jacqui Bailey's cartoon history: "Birth of the Earth," "Dawn of Life," "Day of the Dinosaurs," "Life Finds Its Feet" "Life on Earth: the story of evolution," by Jenkins "When Fish Got Feet, Sharks Got Teeth, and Bugs Began to Swarm: a cartoon prehistory of life long before the dinosaurs" by Bonner Also by Bonner, "When Bugs Were Big, Plants Were Strange, and Tetrapods Stalked the Earth: a cartoon prehistory of life before dinosaurs" "The Human Body: how we evolved" by Joanna Cole There are spreads in DK and Kingfisher history encyclopedias, as I remember, that cover a bit of this as well. Also, if you search the boards for things like "evolution" you will find other discussions on this that can yield a lot of suggestions. Edited July 18, 2011 by KarenNC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChandlerMom Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 I spent about 3 months covering prehistory before starting SOTW (planned on 6 weeks, but it was such a success I extended it). I just used the various good book out recently as a spine to work thru. You could do it as sci/history combined by throwing in some geology-type experiments, but it's hard to come up with hands-on experiments, which kids love in science. If there is a good Natural History museum in your area, go there. You can pair some nature study and biology (classidication, observational) to round out the science. I LOVE when I can do science and history together (or at least complimentary topics)! :D I plan to use Story of Science for mid/late elementary. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tawlas Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 I'm planning on using Usborne's Encyclopedia of World History, the Prehistory section as a spine. You can also get it separate from the wold history book (I have both). Can't tell you how it works cause my son is only pk and I thought I'd wait until K to do it - but it exciting for me to plan it out! If a book gets me excited, usually that transfers onto my kids lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SunD Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 Charlie's Playhouse has some great resources. An evolution timeline and activity guide, stuff on ancient creatures, and some good lists of book recommendations. We're going to do prehistory for K, before starting human history in 1st. In addition to the things on Charlie's Playhouse and some other books that have been mentioned, I want to get a fossil set to examine, some dinosaur/other ancient creature coloring books, and plan museum visits. I also like the comic-book style books called The Universe Verse. So far there are two, Bang! and It's Alive!. You can read them online, email and ask for PDF copies, or buy printed ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satori Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 You can look at my blog, I started detailing out our prehistory lessons. http://satorismiles.com/tag/prehistory http://satorismiles.com/curriculum/prehistory/lesson-1/ and so on... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoPlaceLikeHome Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 I'm planning on using Usborne's Encyclopedia of World History, the Prehistory section as a spine. You can also get it separate from the wold history book (I have both). Can't tell you how it works cause my son is only pk and I thought I'd wait until K to do it - but it exciting for me to plan it out! If a book gets me excited, usually that transfers onto my kids lol. :iagree: it does have a nice prehistory section:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aim4balance Posted July 18, 2011 Author Share Posted July 18, 2011 (edited) Wow thanks--some awesome ideas! And Satori--The Universe Verse books sound perfect! Is that what you used as your backbone for lessons or supplemental? Oh sorry meant to add--this is for a 2nd grader and K/1st. Edited July 18, 2011 by aim4balance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terabith Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 (edited) Born with a Bang From Lava to Life Mammals to Morph Older than the Stars Big Bang: The Tongue Tickling Tale of a Speck that Became Spectacular The Best Book of Early Humans Life Story by Virginia Burton And the Bang! The Universe Verse books look awesome! I would also make timelines of the universe, to show where in teh universe's history earth came to be, and one of the earth, that shows when dinosaurs, mammals, humans, etc came to be. Edited July 18, 2011 by Terabith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satori Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 Wow thanks--some awesome ideas! And Satori--The Universe Verse books sound perfect! Is that what you used as your backbone for lessons or supplemental? Oh sorry meant to add--this is for a 2nd grader and K/1st. That was just the most recent resource we found that I blogged about. If you go to my main Prehistory page, you'll see more of the books we used. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aim4balance Posted July 18, 2011 Author Share Posted July 18, 2011 Ok. Thank you so much to all who responded!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarenNC Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 Your kids might enjoy doing a dino dig. For my daughter's 4th birthday, we did a princess paleontologist party :)---pink princess cake and a dino dig. I took small plastic dinosaurs (you could use skeletons that could be reassembled) and wrapped them in a mix of homemade playdough and sand, then left them to dry for a couple of days. The kids excavated with popsicle sticks. If you have a sandbox, these could also be buried for another layer of exploration. There's also making fossil prints in plaster as a good option. Definitely take a look at "The Beast Within You." It has a lot of interesting activities that could be used with younger kids with parent involvement (as I remember---we've already sold the book, unfortunately). Since your kids are younger, you will want to preview the "Walking with..." videos, as they do get pretty graphic in the animal-on-animal territorial fights and feeding. Might be too intense for some young kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paceofnature Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 There is also the Mosaic/Bringing Up Learners curriculum that does prehistory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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