History Pockets: Ancient Civilizations, Grades 1-3 [Paperback]

Evan-Moor Educational Publishers (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 6 and up | Grade Level: 1 and up

History Pockets-Ancient Civilizations,Grades 1-3, contains seven discovery pockets. An introduction pocket gives an overview of the time periods studied. The other pockets focus on the food, shelter, clothing, and contributions of six ancient worlds. Each of the pockets contains: * a reproducible pocket label * four picture dictionary words * a fact sheet of background information for the teacher * a reproducible student information booklet complete with illustrations * a postcard of a famous monument * two puppets to show the clothing * arts and crafts projects * writing activities As a culminating activity, the students put together a passport of all the places they have visited. This passport gives students a chance to reflect on all they have learned. The book includes the following pockets: * What Is History? * Ancient Mesopotamia * Ancient Egypt * Ancient Greece * Ancient Rome * Ancient China * Ancient Aztec World

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 6 and up
  
• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Evan Moor (January 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557999007
• ISBN-13: 978-1557999009
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #39,971 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #14 in Books > Children's Books > History > Ancient

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring a love of history, February 13, 2008

By 

E. Smith - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: History Pockets: Ancient Civilizations, Grades 1-3 (Paperback)

I used these pockets to help me teach my children at home about ancient civilizations, although I mainly relied on Story of the World, Volume 1: Ancient Times Audiobook CD: From the Earliest Nomads to the Late Roman Empire, Revised Edition (7 CDs). Fortunately they fit beautifully together. The Story of the World title gives a lot more information than the pockets, including stories from each culture, and if you get the Audio CD version, your children can play the tracks to their heart's content. These two titles together work really well but don't supply any of the science, so to flesh it out I used Ancient Science: 40 Time-Traveling, World-Exploring, History-Making Activities for Kids, which is also arranged civilization by civilization. The set of science experiments are couched in historical background, are well explained from both the scientific point of view and from the point of view of what each civilization discovered, and most importantly they really work!

So the pockets by themselves are not going to teach the history, but my children LOVED the pocket activities which had them make things that they can handle, that will remind them of what we covered in other ways. I'd also like to recommend Ancient World (World History Series) for your independent readers. It is also arranged by different major civilizations, but adds in some other peoples, e.g. The Celts, and includes spreads on key figures, like Alexander the Great. My 8yo and I both fell in love with this book. My daughter asked me to buy it for her as her very own copy, and she can remember tonnes of the details because the book is so inspiring.

Using these four titles together has created the best learning experience we've had in our home educating (except for classic read-alouds in the evening).

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful activit;y book!, January 22, 2006

By 

J. Prekker (MN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: History Pockets: Ancient Civilizations, Grades 1-3 (Paperback)

We used this with our 2nd grade daughter with Story Of The World history. She enjoyed doing the activities and there were some really neat, creative things to do. No cheesy activities, these were unique projects that were fun and educational. This went perfectly with SOTW volume 1.

-Jeanne

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous!, October 11, 2004

By 

Lora N. - See all my reviews

This review is from: History Pockets: Ancient Civilizations, Grades 1-3 (Paperback)

If you are looking for an easy way to add hands-on projects to your study of ancient civilizations in the primary grades, this is it. The blackline masters are very professionally done so the child's end product is high quality. All you need are basic school supplies including scissors, glue stick, crayons, and construction paper (and a few other things). You do need to photocopy the projects, so start up for homeschoolers might be a little more involved.

The projects touch on highlights of the culture being studied and create memorable products that facilitate discussion. My first grade daughter's interest in history came to life when we added History Pockets to our homeschool studies. She still enjoys taking out the stick puppets from various cultures and having them talk to each other a year later. It's been a great way to show relatives what she's studying and review it for herself in the process. Each culture has a written booklet of info. which creates a nice summary. They also include 4 vocabulary words per culture done in an appealing way. Then there are several other projects, most of which vary for each culture. For example, you make a Parthenon shape book for Ancient Greece.

There is too much coloring, in my opinion. We handled this by limiting what she would color per page and by using fewer colors. The projects still look good even if only certain aspects are colored or if some aren't colored at all.

I plan to use History Pockets with my younger children and look forward to trying History Pockets on other subjects.

Classroom teacher (former classroom teacher, myself): These projects are pretty simple and many could be done at a center with an example to look at. I would make the notebook pockets ahead of time for the kids or allow lots of time to create them with the kids if you're working with a large group. You could have small groups create a combined notebook per group to divide up the projects, depending on how much time you have to devote to projects. These projects would help bring any history text to life.