Ancient India (with Earth Science)

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The Royal Road to Ancient India (with Earth Science) is a five-week block and should be the first block in The Royal Road to Ancient Mythologies series.

The recommended order is:

1. Royal Road to Ancient India

2. Royal Road to Ancient Persia

3. Royal Road to Ancient Babylon

4. Royal Road to Ancient Egypt

5. Royal Road to Ancient China

The Royal Road to Ancient India (with Earth Science) is intended to provide the student with a rich immersion into an ancient culture renowned for its beauty, literature, and values.  As we come to learn about this fascinating culture, especially through its stories, may we wonder at the beauty of humanity’s journey through time, and may we find truths to apply to our lives today.

This block, while primarily a language arts block, covers strong science concepts, geography, social studies, art, and mathematics applications.  It is written in “open and go” style like all Royal Road curriculum books, and it offers abundant pictures as guides for drawings and student work.

Required supplemental book as the literature resource: Ancient Mythologies by Charles Kovacs

Academic topics covered in The Royal Road to Ancient India

Writing, Grammar, and Spelling

Students do need to learn to write full reports and essays, but they do not need to do this every week. They do, however, need to continually practice writing. Royal Road makes regular writing practice fun.

• Collaborative writing

• Independent writing

• Written summary of a story

• Creative writing

• Expository writing

• Opinion writing

• Vocabulary words

• Verbal recall of stories

• Creation of main lesson book with table of contents

• Dictations

• Poetry

• Poetry recitation

• Unscramble words

• Make words out of larger words

• Earth as a proper and common noun; when to capitalize

• Figurative language (puns, onomatopoeia, idioms, hyperbole, acronyms)

• Alternative words for commonly used words (e.g. said, amazing)

• Adjectives

• Synonyms

Reading, Literature, & Poetry

• The Iron Ring by Lloyd Alexander

• Atlantis and Manu

• King Sangara’s Horse

• Baghira and the River Ganges

• Indra, the Warrior God

• The Fisherman’s Catch

• The Sons of Pandu

• The Hermit and the Elephant

• Rama and Hanuman

• Buddha, the Enlightened One

• Krishna, a God in Disguise

• The Peasant’s Reward

• The Tiger and the Monkey

• Poetry memorization:  “The Tyger” by William Blake

• Seasonal and holiday poems

• Reading comprehension questions and activities

• Independent reading

• Reading aloud

• Tongue twisters

Science (Earth science, Physics, Zoology)

• The Water Cycle

• 12 Climate Regions

• The Sun and its layers

• Deserts

• Rainbows

• Moonbows

• White light and the color spectrum

• Refraction

• Buoyancy

• Animal Science: Monkeys

Math Application and Enrichment

• Number journeys

• Fibonacci sequence

• Using the compass to draw circles; radius

• Generations and timelines

• Morning warm-up activities that include logic, math puzzles, strategy games, and riddles

• STEM activity:  building a bridge

• Percentages

• Estimation

Critical Thinking

• Poetry memorization

• “Experience before explanation” approach to science

• Analogies

• Logic

• Math puzzles

• Strategy games

• Drawing

History/Social Studies

• Ancient Indian culture

• The caste system

• Hinduism

• Reincarnation

• The gods of ancient India

• Inventions and achievements of ancient India

• BC/BCE; AD/CE

• Family tree

• Buddha and Buddhism

Art

• Watercolor painting

• Drawing

• Math art

• Crafts

• Poetry

Geography

• Geography and landscape of ancient India

• Native animals

• Ganges River

• Indus River

• The Himalayas

• Climates of the world

• Oceans of the world

• Deserts of the world