This past week my students and I started our new block. After four weeks of Rocks and Minerals we were all glad to make the shift to the more imaginative content of history.
Last year I decided to save the stories of Alexander the Great for sixth grade. Because Alexander traveled through all of the cultures we studied in fifth grade, I thought he would provide the perfect recall material to start our first history block with this year.
As I put together the block outline for our first Rome block I got more and more nervous and started to question this decision. How will we have enough time to fit everything in if I have to dedicate a couple of days to telling the students about Alexander? Alexander is Greek — it feels like old material. We just need to move on to Rome!
These were the thoughts that plagued my mind last weekend.
Then, on Monday I started the story of Alexander. I could see so clearly that Alexander’s stories met my somewhat young class perfectly. They loved hearing about Alexander taming Bucephalos. They were right alongside him as he entered the temple in Egypt where he was declared pharaoh. And the older ones, those who are so ready for the conquests of Rome, completely understood the message that Alexander sent when he used his sword to slash through the Gordian knot.
Remembering where we are and setting the stage was the perfect thing to do. Then at the end of the week they were ready to remember Troy and hear about Aeneas and Romulus and Remus.
We are now ready, with Alexander fresh in our minds, to forge ahead and create an empire.
p.s. A Little History of the World by E.H. Gombrich (my all-time favorite history book) was the perfect resource for my Alexander stories. Brief, succinct but full of imagery — what more could you want?
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