The First Humans Unit: Middle School World History
Middle School World History. Wow. That’s crazy to say. I never in a million years when I was getting my teaching license, when I was homeschooling preschool for my twins, when I sent them off to Kindergarten, never did I think I would be teaching middle school. And yet, here we are and crazy as it sounds I am excited.
Our first unit for Middle School World History is First Humans. This covered the Stone Age or the Paleolithic Era, Ice Age and the Neolithic Era. Below are the resources I used and some unit ideas.
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First Humans Unit
Base Text: Everything You Need to Ace WORLD HISTORY in one Big Fat Notebook. This is by no means an all inclusive, perfect “textbook” but it does give you a solid outline. Throughout our World History Unit we are using this as a spine to build off. We read the chapters and do the review questions together with some notebooking. Then we get into the other books related to the topic on our shelves, watch documentaries, do hands on activities, etc. Buy Here
Notebooking: we are using notebooking to keep track of what we’ve learned in World History. My kids are highly visual learners who also really enjoy art, so this is a great fit for us. We read the study guide above and read more in the resources below and then they take time to record what they find the most interesting and important. This is usually a combination of drawings and writing. By the end of the year they will have a record of early World History they can review and share as a work sample of all they have learned. Our notebooks are spiral bound, unlined journals, similar to these.
More Resources about First Humans
Many of the books listed below will be used throughout our Middle School World History course throughout the school year. They cover the range of early history. For this First Humans Unit we simply read and focused on the early humans pages.
Tales of Ancient Worlds: Adventures in Archaeology by Stefan Milosavljevich and Sam Caldwell – short stories that walk you through discoveries and build a story around each one. For example, one of the first stories is about Lucy. She was an Australopithecus discovered by archeologists and the book shares what has been known and hypothesized about her. It helps tie science to history and also personalizes history through stories. Find Online
A Child Through Time: The Book of Children’s History illustrated by Steve Noon – offers the story of a child for many of the main periods in history. It begins with Taya, an Ice Age Girl, and ends with Ruby Bridges during the Civil Rights movement. Find Online
A Street Through Time also illustrated by Steve Noon – this is my daughter’s favorite in the World History stack. It shows a 12,000 year journey along the same street. Obviously some creative license is taken here, but the concept is fun. The illustrations are detailed and it brings to life the different periods. We focused on the Stone Age and First Farmers pages for this unit. Find Online
History of the World in Comics by Jean-Baptiste de Panafieu – is just that, history told in comics. It starts at the very beginning of time and provides an overview of evolution and how our world has changed. We read this over the summer before starting our year and with this First Humans unit. After that it speeds up as it attempts to accurately depict how little humans have occupied the earth’s history. Find Online
Math & First Humans
For Math during our First Humans Unit we focused on timelines. This allowed us a starting place to work with positive and negative numbers. We also reviewed fractions by placing fractions on number lines as well.
History Year by Year from Smithsonian – is a fantastic resources that ties together timelines, photographs and artwork. Find Online
Timelines of Everything from Smithsonian – this is one of my favorite books on our shelves. It puts history and science and art into timelines. The timelines are different and creative and it is such a wonderful visual on so many topics. Find Online
All civilizations had to eat and therefore they had to cook. I love integrating cooking into our math, which we’ve done in various ways over the years. This year we are using this Ancient History Cookbook to do some thematic cooking together (which works on fractions and measurement) each unit.
You May Also Like: Ancient Egypt Unit for Middle School
Science & First Humans
Glaciers were the most interesting topic to my kids when we started exploring the First Humans resources. We watched the Magic School Bus Rides Again episode about glaciers and watched this YouTube video on Glaciers.
Ancient Science also has tons of history themed science activities that we’ve started working through. These are simple experiments that usually use materials we have on hand and the book ties them to history and explains the science behind them. Find Online
Learn about Ice Age animals by doing a little guided research with this packet from Peanut Butter Fish Lessons.
Art & First Humans
Early Humans created cave paintings that have been discovered by archeologists all over the world. We read about them in the books below.
Vincent’s Starry Night and Other Stories: A Children’s History of Art by Michael Bird – is a gorgeous, thick book that tells stories of history through art. It walks through history chronologically, telling stories inspired by different iconic artworks of the period. Find Online
Art That Changed the World from DK Books – offers more details and facts about art through history. It is also laid out chronologically starting with Prehistoric Art. This book has a huge collection of artwork from each period, details about each, timelines and more. Find Online
