Concept Weeks #27 & 28: Ancient China and Chinese Mythology

My kids love the Disney movie Mulan so I figured it was time for some units focusing on that era of China. We actually could have turned this into a three week unit while also focusing on Modern China or even a four week unit with another week on Chinese Holidays, but I think for now two weeks was good.

For our Ancient China half we had three books:

• Our Cultural Heritage: Chinese Americans by Lucia Raatma 
• Country File: China by Michael March
• DK Eyewitness: Ancient China

The first one really wasn't relevant to our unit, I just picked it up because our library had pretty much ZERO books on China for kids. The second book focused more on modern China, but it did talk a bit about history with things like the Great Wall. So, it was slightly relevant. I did find some worksheets covering traditional clothing, important landmarks, famous women (Wu Zetian), the flag, etc. So, the unit didn't focus entirely on me reading to them. Some parts really bored them, some really interested them. When it came to the third book they were really fascinated about some of the things we learned. They loved the Chinese invention that detected earthquakes, and they loved looking at the pictures.

They REALLY liked the Mythology half. Our book was Chinese Mythology by Irene Collier and they LOVED the stories in it. Most of our mythology units have covered European mythology. When we did Egyptian mythology in our Ancient Egypt unit they really liked that, and when we did Native American Mythology it was pretty much 50/50 on what they liked and didn't like. But for Chinese mythology, they really loved most of the stories we read. This unit was a MUCH bigger hit than the Native American one. So much of that they just couldn't relate to or get. Clearly I need to go buy a Pocahontas movie or something...

Overall I would say that both units were a huge success.