Story of the World Ancient Times - Chapter 14 - Moses, the Isaelites, and the Exodus from Egypt

Painting in header is "Mother of Moses", by Simeon Solomon, 1860
and is in the public domain

This is part of my Story of the World lesson series, but this post especially can be used by those not using that curriculum.  In stead of reading these stories about Moses in SOTW, we actually read them in our Children's Bible (since we were reading other parts of the story as well to supplement).   And we didn't do a lot of activities, since we had just recently attended a Vacation Bible School camp related to the story of Moses and the Israelites.  But there are SO MANY hands on activities you can do related to the story of Moses, so I decided to share links to some of the best of those with you (both ones directly related to the parts of this story SOTW includes, and ones not included...I've noted which are which in the activity section below.).  


But before I get to those activities, here are some Children's Bible versions I suggest for these stories... 

 The Jesus Storybook Bible
This is a beautiful retelling of various Bible stories, told in a way that  shows how each separate event is  really part of ONE story...a Love story about how God rescues his people.  It's gentle and perfect for younger children, yet brings out aspects of the stories that even adults can learn from. 

I suggest buying the version with the audio CD, as David Suchet's reading of this story is really wonderful (my oldest listened to these tapes over and over...he couldn't get enough of them).   You can also purchase just the book by itself or get it with the animated movie version of this on DVDS too (which I haven't seen so can't comment on).

The DK Children's Illustrated Bible 

This book has faithful retellings of the Bible stories along with beautiful illustrations, and sidebars with helpful maps, pictures of artifacts and places, and historical and cultural information related to the text.   It's really a perfect book if you want to connect the Bible stories with other aspects of history.  (Note, the cover shown is not the most recent cover version). 

The Action Bible 

This comic book style Bible is great for older elementary age kids and middle school kids.   My own kids really liked this one...it was the first one they read on their own. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ACTIVITIES


For All Sections

Old Testament Notebooking Activities

Baby Moses Activities

(Included in SOTW Narrative)

• Printable (Ages 4 - 7)
• Baby Moses Craft - This uses a walnut shell, but I think a large acorn cap would work, and you could subsitute a smaller acorn (without cap) for Moses, or make a paper Moses.
• Baby Moses Peg Doll Craft and Activity
  
• Simple Paper Basket (Ages 6-8)
• Yarn Basket
• Baby Moses Wave Bottle
• See also "Notes for Christian Homeschoolers" at the bottom of this page for additional discussions, especially for older children
  

Moses and the Burning Bush Craft

(NOT included in SOTW narrative)

• Burning Bush Luminaries
• More Burning Bush Crafts

The Israelite Make Bricks
(NOT included in SOTW narrative, but it would be easy to add this without additional reading just by explaining that this was one thing the Isrealites had to do when they were slaves).

• How to make mud bricks.

10 Plagues Activity

(Included in SOTW Narrative)

• 10 Plagues Snacks
• 10 Plagues Activities

Crossing the Red Sea
(Included in SOTW Narrative)

Crossing the Red Sea 3D Paper Craft
Cross the Red Sea Interactive Coloring Page

Crossing the Red Sea - Jello and Lego Activities*

*Technically, these are crossing the Jordan activities, but they would totally work for crossing the red sea too. 

See also "Notes for Christian Homeschoolers" at the bottom of this page for additional discussions, especially for older children


EVENTS AFTER THE SOTW NARRATIVE

 
The following things that happened to the Israelites while they were wandering around in the desert aren't part of what was included in Story of the World narrative, but if you want to extend this by reading Bible stories from the Exodus, here are some fun activities to go with this.

10 Commandments Activities

While this was not included in SOTW Narrative, a picture of Moses carrying the 10 commandments is one of the illustration)

10 Commandment Ornament 

10 Commandments Tablets (larger)

10 Commandments Lapbook

Various 10 Commandments Crafts

10 Commandments Spinner

Wandering in the Desert

Exodus (and other Bible Stories) Play Activity with Sand (Ages 4-8)
A way to tell the Exodus story to very young children using a sand box and wood figures (you could print out figures in stead and glue them to popsicle sticks to use in the sand in similar ways).

Learn about the Sinai desert

The Israelites wandered for 40 years in the Sinai.   This would be a great chance to explore a little bit of what this desert is like.   Below are some great resources for that.

• Foods of the Sinai (With Recipes) - This blog post from one of my other blogs, which I wrote largely using info from the three previous sources, has suggestions for snacks that relate to various parts of the Exodus, and at the bottom has a list of edible plants in the Sinai, and recipes, most using only foods that the Israelites would have had. It includes some activities you could do for learning about God's provision  manna and quail to the Israelites.

• Wandering Through the Wadis  - An blog with beautiful pictures of Sinai flora and fauna which is fun to explore. 

• Wildlife of the Sinai - This site has pictures of animals and insects that live in the Sinai.

• Wild Plants of the Sinai - A short list of plants that grow in the Sinai (not all plants, but just some common ones), with pictures.

• Bedouin History Desert Safari - A blog with lots of great stories about what life is like today for Bedouins in the Sinai desert.   This post, with a story about children digging for wild tubers in the desert, I thought would be a good one to read to children. 

The Making of the Tabernacle

• Paper Tabernacle
  

Spies Enter Canaan

• Find the 12 spies
  

MORE NOTES/COMMENTARY FOR CHRISTIAN HOMESCHOOLERS

SIMILAR ANCIENT STORIES TO MOSES

There are stories similar to the story Moses' and how he was placed in the Nile by his mother.    One of these stories is the story of Sargon, and some people have claimed that the Moses story was based off of that.    This article does a pretty good job of refuting that claim. 

Another ancient myth that is similar to the Moses story is the story of Isis and Horus.   According to the myth, while hiding from Set, Isis gave birth to Horus in the swamps of the Delta.   She kept the baby hidden in the thickets, and the goddess Selket (or in some versions Neith) watched over Horus when Isis needed to go out for food.   (Source: https://www.ancient.eu/Horus/)

This is similar to how Moses' mother hid Moses in the reeds, and had her sister watch over him. 

While it's just conjecture, this idea popped into my head:   What if Moses' mother knew these stories?   What if what happened to Moses was BOTH a copy and a reality?   What if, having heard these stories from the Egyptians she lived with, she hid her baby in a way that she thought would make any Egyptian who found her child hesitant to harm him?  Horus was an important god in Egypt, associated with the rule of the Pharaohs.  If an Egyptian found a baby in a basket hiding in the reeds, I imagine it could make them pause, possibly treat the child a little more kindly (or have second thoughts over turning it over to be killed if they realized it was a Hebrew child).  


CROSSING THE RED SEA

This blog post discusses the question "Did Pharoah die with his army?" 

Last :: Next

See All Story of the World Posts

Making Mud Bricks

 

The bricks shown here were made with a mix of 

garden sand/soil mixed in, and came out kind of

crumbly.  "Texas clay" straight out of my back yard 

worked much better - it dried solid like rock.

Back in 2010 our church did an Egypt themed VBS that included making mud bricks, and I can tell you, it was a blast.  It's cheap, fun and really does give kids a glimpse into a common part of life in ancient Egypt (and lots of  other places in the ancient world where people made their homes out of mud brick, such as Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley civilization, and ancient Nubia).

For these instructions I consulted the instructions on the Biblical Archaeology website and several other websites (see sources at the bottom of the page) and added some suggestions we learned while doing this project with groups of kids age 4-11.  


MAKING THE BRICK MOLD

There are two main ways to make your brick mold...single-brick molds or multi-molds.   Both use the same basic materials.

MATERIALS:

Nails
1x4 or 2x4 (to be cut into smaller lengths)

SINGLE-BRICK MOLDS

The brick molds shown below were made by cutting 1x4 or 2x4 boards into smaller sections and nailing together in the pattern you can see below.  Ours were a little narrow (making 2" wide bricks...3" wide are better).     For 3" wide bricks cut wood in the following dimensions

FOR 1x4
5" end pieces
6" side pieces

FOR 2x4
7" end pieces
6" side piece 

You can of course go a little longer or shorter if you want, for different sized bricks.

Then you nail the ends together.  

Note that actual Egyptian brick molds may not have used nails.   There's a picture of an ancient Egyptian mold here, and it looks like it was made with joinery (interlocking wood joints).   Off Grid Web also has an article showing how these can be made without nails (though it looks like a rougher technique than the Egyptian molds).  It  might be fun to show your kids, though would be much more challenging to replicate.

MULTI-BRICK MOLDS

You can also make a long mold for several bricks by using a longer piece of wood and putting slats between it, as shown here.   I prefer the smaller one when working with multiple children though because it allows them to more easily  remove the brick themselves, in stead of all being crowded around one larger mold. 

RESERVE A PIECE FOR PACKING MUD

Whichever type of mold you use, it's helpful to reserve a short 2x4 to use to pack the mud and help push the bricks out of the mold if they stick. 

MAKING BRICKS

MATERIALS:
Brick Mold  (see above)
Bucket
Dirt (see note below)
Water
Hay or sand (optional)
Shovel, board, or other tool, to mix mud
Short 2x4 (optional, see above)
Plastic Butter knife for each child (optional, for smoothing top)
Cookie sheet or board (optional)
Spatula or other flat tool (for help removing bricks from drying surface)

For Mess Management:
Towels
Tarp or plastic sheet (such as a disposable plastic tablecloth or cut up trash bags)
An extra bucket of water to wash in
Trash bags to protect clothing


GETTING THE RIGHT DIRT
The best dirt to use is a clay like dirt (not too sandy, not too "woody").   If you live in central Texas, what is in your backyard is perfect (if you haven't amended it much).   In other places your backyard soil might be less perfect, but what is in your backyard may still be better than what you can buy in a garden center ("clay" dirt is a nightmare for growing most plants in, so this type of dirt isn't usually sold).


MAKE YOUR BRICKS

1.  Pick your time and prepare your location. (It's best to do this craft outdoors if possible, on a warm sunny day.   Bricks can take several days to fully dry, so do not try this when rain is expected.)  

If you have an outdoor location, hard ground or cement is preferable.   If the only outdoor location has grass, you will need boards, cookie sheets, or other flat hard surfaces to put your bricks on.  If picnic tables are available they work well...but remember to cover them with a plastic tarp or disposable tablecloth. 

If you are doing this in an indoor space you will want to lay out a tarp to contain the mess, and cover any table you use (a cut up trash bag can work if doing this with just your own children).   You will still need to take the bricks outside to dry.   To make it easier to move them outside I suggest getting a board to make your bricks on, or cookie sheets (using these can also allow you to do this craft outside on grass).

If doing this in a group you will also want to set up a washing station for cleaning muddy hands and have a towel set aside for wiping feet as children leave the brick making area, so they don't track mud outside that space.  You will also probably want to have kids wear a trash bag with holes cut in it for the arms and head (in our camp we used pillowcases for kids to wear, which doubled as a costume once we added a colored sash). 

Child playing with the muddy water we used to mix our bricks.
This was not the "mud" but the water we scooped into the dirt,
which is why you'll want something separate to wash with.

2. Mix soil and water in a large bucket or other container to create a thick mud (it should not be too watery).  Kids really like taking part in this, usually.

3.  (OPTIONAL) SEVERAL DAY STEP  
For a more authentic experience, and sturdier bricks, add straw ( around a half pound of straw for every cubic foot of mud mixture), and then KNEAD DAILY FOR FOUR DAYS, then leave the mixture alone for a few days before using (kneading the mixture one more time on the day you use it).   This allows the straw to ferment which creates a chemical reaction in the mud that makes them three times stronger than regular clay.   But, understandably, you might want to skip this, as we did, as it's time consuming (and the fermentation may possibly create a smell).   Still, its good to tell kids that this was part of the original process, and what it was for.   Just adding the straw without the extra days of kneading doesn't seem to add much strength to the bricks, and actually seemed to make them a little more fragile.  

4.   Whatever surface you've prepared to make your bricks on (unless it's already covered by a plastic sheet), distribute hay or sand on it to make it easier to get the bricks off it later (WARNING:  sand can damage cookie sheets).

5.   Pour the mud into the molds and pack them down with your hands or a short 2x4 piece.  Scrape off any excess mud with a piece of wood or other flat tool such as a plastic knife.  

6.  (OPTIONAL) Let molds sit to solidify for 20 minutes.   This was suggested in the original authentic method, but we were able to remove the mud from the molds right away without much problem. 

7.   Remove the brick from the mold.   You may need to gently push them out with a short 2x4 piece or other tool.  

8.   If you are indoors, carefully move your cookie sheets or board with bricks outside to dry.   If you are outside, leave your bricks alone.   Bricks may dry in a day but can take several days.   They are usually sturdy enough to transfer onto a paper plate after several hours of drying though. 

MORE READING ABOUT ANCIENT BRICK MAKING
These were my sources for this article, and are fun extra reads.

How to Make a Mudbrick

Biblical Archaeology, written by anonymous Biblical Archaeology Society Staff,    August 15, 2020 

Primitive Technology: Making Mud Bricks
Off Grid Web, Written by Patrick McCarthy on September 27, 2017  

Mudbricks Give Clues to Understanding the Bible

www.BibleIsTrue.com (Lion Tracks Ministries), unknown Author, unknown published date, accessed 3/8/2021

Why bricks with straw in Egypt at the time of the Exodus?

Patterns of Evidence, by Dr. Dale Mannor, published February 26, 2021, accessed 1/18/2025

Ultimate Guide to MudBricks

The Survival Journal, Publish Date Unknown, Last Updated August 30, 2020, Written by Editorial Staff, accessed 3/8/2021

Mudbricks
www.mummies2pyramids.info, unknown Author, unknown published date, accessed 3/8/2021.

Senegal Architects Ditch Concrete and Revive Old Techniques
I didn't use this for the article, but thought it was interesting how they are returning to mud bricks (sort of). 

Most of the photos were not taken by me, 

but by other wonderful photographers at Dayspring Baptist Church. 

---

Shared on Dear Homeschooler Bookshelf

Story of the World - Vol 1 - Ch 6 - The Jewish People

Image above incorporates picture from Distant Shores Media/Sweet Publishing

licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Post contains some affiliate links, through which I can earn commission.
  I suggest looking for the books mentioned at your local library.

 

Usually I do separate posts for each sub-chapter, but since we used mostly the same resources for all the sub-sections of this chapter I'm combining them into one post.  We took a long break at this time to not just study the two Bible stories covered in Story of the World,  but many other old testament Bible stories not covered here (you can see how we integrated those with Story of the World here).    And we ended up doing some of the stories twice because I went over them a second time when we did these with our co-op our second year covering Volume 1 (in fact, this was the last chapter we did our first year, by ourselves, not with our co-op...so the rest of the chapters will be at a little different pace, as my son was able to handle more reading with less adjustments to hold his attention the second year we did this).  We didn't do all the activities listed, but I listed a few others that also looked interesting for your use.

I love the writing in Story of the World.  However you should know it  incorporate some extra-Biblical information (SOTW pulled in some information contained elsewhere about Abrams father's worship of other Gods, and used that as a way to talk about some of the religious practices in Ur)

The SOTW version story of Joseph left out some of the story of Joseph, including the tests with his brothers...which I understand as they could be confusing and make the story longer.  But I wanted to include that and talk about why he might not have trusted his brothers...how he wanted to make sure his little brother Benjamin was safe and this was a way to make sure of that.  So, on both counts I used text from other Bible stories below to teach these passages in stead of Story of the World.

Books We Used:

The Jesus Storybook Bible
My mother bought this book and CD set for us years ago....and I love it.  It's a beautiful collection of Bible stories that show how all the stories are really ONE story...a Love story about how God rescued his people.  It's gentle and perfect for younger children, but brings out aspects of the stories that even adults can learn from.  I suggest buying the version with the audio CD, as David Suchet's reading of this story is really amazing (my oldest listened to these tapes over and over...he couldn't get enough of them).   You can also purchase just the book by itself or get it with the animated movie version of this on DVDS too (which I haven't seen so can't comment on).



The DK Children's Illustrated Bible 

This book has faithful retellings of the Bible stories along with beautiful illustrations, and sidebars with helpful maps, pictures of artifacts and places, and historical and cultural information related to the text.   It's really a perfect book if you want to connect the Bible stories with other aspects of history.  (Note, the cover shown is not the most recent cover version). 

General Bible Story Activities 
(For All Bible Stories)

Story Telling in Sand Box
I had planned to tell the stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob using printable Abraham and Sarah on cardboard in a sand box like I had seen on a video (which I can't find now...doh).  But I left the sand I bought outside and it got rained on, and I didn't want to wait or go out and get more.

Wooden Spoon Puppets
These would be another cute way to illustrate these stories



Abraham Activities

Stars Activity
When we studied Abraham and the story about his decendants being like the uncountable stars and sand, we did a simple craft drawing all over a black piece of construction paper with a glue stick and then sprikling glitter on it with stars.  I had bought sand to make sandpaper hills the same way (only on brown paper, cut like hills to paste over the stars), but my sand got rained on the day before so we didn't do that.  You could also cut up sandpaper to do that like this blogger did.  She also used sticker stars, but those were too countable for me.

Here's some more Abraham activities you can do...

Printable Abraham and Sarah Tent and Figures

Abraham and Sarah Lift the Flap Tent

3D Tent Craft

Lapbook Pages/Tent Book

Abraham and Sarah Games

Abraham Character Traits, Tracing, and More


UR Activities 
This chapter mentions Ziggurats.   If you haven't done any activities on them for previous chapters, you might consider making a ziggurat, since it was mentioned here.     You could make one out of legos (if you haven't already made a pyramid this way, because it would be very similar), out of sugar cubes, or cardboard, or even a pop up card.



Isaac and Jacob Activities

Sacrifice of Isaac

Isaac and Rebecca 

Isaac, Jacob and Esau (various)

Jacob and Esau

Jacobs Sons



Joseph Activites

Joseph Puppets

Joseph Coat Activity

Grain Bundle Craft

Creative Commons Illustrations of Joseph Story

While we went on and covered many more Bible stories, we didn't really do any crafts for those, as my son began to be less interested in doing crafts related to the stories.   Again, you can see what we read between various Story of the World chapters to integrate the Bible stories chronologically here.

Linking Up At

Monday's Musings

The Homeschool Nook

Little's Learning Link-up

Dear Homeschooler Bookshelf

Family Friday Link-up

A Little Bird Told Me 

See All Story of the World Posts

Last Lesson :: Next Lesson

Story of the World Bible Integration

As we are Christians, I wanted to teach more of the Bible stories than were included in Story of the World.  I thought teaching them alongside the history would be helpful to give context to the stories.   It was hard to know where to place some of the stories, as placing some of these precisely in history is not possible.   I'm not attempting to list all the stories here, just most of the major ones. I will list only the chapter EXCEPT where it makes sense to insert the Bible stories between sub-chapters.  Here's the order for our Old Testament reading...I will post a New Testament chronology later.

OLD TESTAMENT CHRONOLOGY

SOTW Introduction:  How Do We Know What Happened

Creation Story
Adam and Eve
Cane and Able

Ch 1 - The Earliest People

Noahs Ark

Ch 2 - Egyptians Live on the Nile River

Ch 3 -  The First Writing

Tower of Babel
(Also goes nicely around Chap 5)

Ch 4 -  The Old Kingdom of Egypt

Ch 5 -  The First Sumerian Dictator

Ch 6 - The Jewish People

God Speaks to Abraham

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob

Joseph Goes to Egypt

The longer story of Joseph
(the SOTW version skips some parts)

Ch 7 - Hammurabi and the Babylonians

(Comparing Hammurabi's code to the 10 Commandments can go here,
even though the 10 Commandments Come Later)


Ch 8 - The Assyrians 

Job 
(Job is hard to date but considered very old...could go anywhere really.  There was space here.)

Ch 9 - India (River Valley People)

Ch 10 - Ancient China

Ch 11 - Ancient Africa

Ch 12 - Middle Kingdom of Egypt

Ch 13 - New Kingdom of Egypt

Ch 14 - Isrealites Leave Egypt

Isreal in the Wilderness
10 Commandments
Walls of Jericho
Isreal Enters Promise Land (Joshua)

Ruth
Samson
Deborah
Gideon
Samuel
Saul 

David
Solomon


Ch 15 - The Phoenicians
Elijah/Elisha
Story of Namaan
Hosea

Ch 16 - The Return of Assyria

Jonah
Jeremiah

Ch 17 - Babylon Takes Over Again

For this one, some of the Bible stories take place mid-chapter, so...

Nebuchadnezzar's Madness - Paragraph 1 - 3

Daniel Captured/Eating Restrictions
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

Nebuchadnezzar's Madness - Paragraph 4 to End

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

NOTE ABOUT CHAPTER ORDER:  At this point, we decided to skip ahead to Chap 21, so I could do the whole story of Daniel in one place, then go back and read all the chapters on the Greeks.  That also makes it easy to do all the rest of the Old Testament stories before starting Ancient Greece.  But you wouldn't have to do that.   All the chapters I skipped to do later are grayed out below.

Ch 18: Life in Early Crete

Ch 19: The Early Greeks

Ch 20: Greece Gets Civilized Again

 

Daniel and Beltshazar - Writing on the Wall

Ch 21: The Medes and the Persians

 Daniel and the Lions Den

(Note, who "King Darius" is debated, but it's thought

that Cyrus the great put people over areas of his kingdom,

and that King Darius was who he placed over Babylon)

Rebuilding of Jerusalem (described in Nehemiah)

Esther

 ISREAL BETWEEN THE TESTAMENTS

That's the end of the Old Testament stories, but between the old  and new testament, Alexander the Great took over the area where Isreal was.  He gave them a lot of freedom to practice their religion, but one of the Seleucids  did not, and oppressed the Jews greatly (the Seleucids were descendants of Seleucus, one of the four generals who ruled the areas conquered by Alexander the Great after his death).   This lead to the Maccabean revolt, which made Isreal an independant nation for a few hundred years.  The story of Hanukkah (outside the Bible) directly relates to this.   If you want to add some study of this,  a good place to do it is after Chapter 25.

NEW TESTAMENT

Story of the World puts both the birth of Jesus, a brief summary of his ministry, and his death, in Chapter 37.  You could use their retelling, adding some of the stories from his ministry in the middle, and stories from acts between chapter 37-38. 

Or you could replace this section completely, and take time out from SOTW to do a more thorough study of the New Testament at this point.   This would be the simplest way to do things, without changing the order of the SOTW chapters.  

So, that's the simple version.  Below is the more complex version with some supplemental history that's not in SOTW.

I wanted my child to learn more about the first 5 Roman Emperors, making connections with Bible stories as we learned about them, so that meant changing up the order of SOTW chapters at this point to be more chronological.  If you would like to do this too, below is the order I used (and some other useful dates).  SOTW also introduced Diocletian before Constantine, and while that is after the period of Biblical stories, I wanted to add some church history about the persecution of Christians under Diocletian, so I changed the order there as well (and added/changed some material in the chapters) to make that make more sense.   I'm still editing that text but I'll add it soon. 

The first five Caesars reigns are listed in purple below, and some other later Caesars mentioned in SOTW, in case like me you would like to add more info about them.

Augustus (REIGN 27 BC –  AD 14) 

-Augustus is covered by SOTW.  Jesus' birth/childhood happened during his reign
Ch 36:  The First Roman Prince
Ch 37 Section 1:  The Birth of Jesus

Tiberius (REIGN 14 - 37 AD)
Tiberius is not mentioned in SOTW.  Most of Jesus ministry, and his death and resurrection, happened during this period, as well as some of the early events in Acts.
Ch 37 Section 2:  Jesus Crucified and Resurrected

Caligula (REIGN 37  - 41 AD)

He is not mentioned in SOTW.  His reign was short because he was paranoid, ruthless, and insane, and was soon assassinated.

Claudius (REIGN 41 - 54 AD)
He is not mentioned in SOTW.  The grandnephew of Augustus, he was left with a limp and partial deafness from a childhood illness.  He probably survived Caligula's reign because he wasn't considered a threat.  He was chosen by the assassins of Caligula to be the next Caesar, and ruled fairly well.   A large part of the book of Acts took place under his reign.

Nero (REIGN 41 - 54 AD)
Nero is covered in SOTW.  It was only 3 years into Nero's reign when the Apostle Paul "appealed to Caesar" when charges were made against him in Jerusalem (Nero's persecutions of Christians had not begun yet then).   That persecution would start shortly after Paul was sent to Rome, and he would be killed there.  It's important to note that persecution of Christians didn't stay at this level after Nero.   For the period between Nero and Diocletian, Christianity, while not embraced, was not attacked to the same degree (though it differed under various emperors).   Because of this and that archeologists/historians no longer believe Christians hid in the catacombs (silverware found there the believe was for Funerary feasts, not because they were living there),I rewrote the "Christians in the Catacombs" section.

Ch 39:  Section 1 "Nero, The evil emperor" (Nero, Christian Persecution - Reign 54-68, Fire 64 Ad)
Ch 40 (Celts, Boadicea, 60-61 BC) - moved here because this happened during Nero's reign
Ch 39: Section 2. "Christians in the Catacombs"  (My rewrite "Christians in Rome"). 

Though I only covered the first five emperors with my kids, I'm including some others just for place markers here.

Year of 4 Emperors (68-69 AD)

Vespasian (REIGN 69-79 AD)
Ch 38 (Jerusalem Destroyed - AD 70)
Masada (AD 66 - 73)
Pompeii, Vesuvius erupts (AD 79, not long after the death of Vespasian)

Various Emperors

Diocletian (REIGN 284-305)
While persecution of Christians waned after Nero, it was reignited under Diocletian.   His reign was the worst and most widespread period of persecution of Christians after Nero (though, since he divided the empire, it mainly only affected his section of the empire). I felt it was important to have his story listed before Constantine, to give more weight to the changes that Constantine brought.
I included some info about Diocletian's persecution of Christians and re-wrote the chapters a bit to work

Ch 40 B (Diocletian Divides Roman Empire - 286 AD)

Constantine (REIGN 306-312)

Ch 39 C (Constantine, Reign 306 - 312)
Ch 41 Barbarians Attack  (Attila the Hun came between Visigoths and Vandals)
Ch 42 Fall of Rome

 MORE STORY OF THE WORLD BLOG POSTS

Caves: Free Printable Book

I made a cave book for my kiddo while we were studying the Stone Age.   There's a lot of other uses for this little book, though.  The center is designed to be cut out revealing a picture on a second page.  Subsequent pages could be used using these two pages again.

You could use this book to make a story or non-fiction book about...

• Caves (of course)
• Cave Art
• Bats
• Hibernation
• The Stone Age
• David and Saul's Encounter in the Cave (1 Samual 24)
• Platos Cave Allegory
• Etc.

Here's what my son did with it for the stone age.   You can see he drew a girl, a fire, cave art, and a lizard.   If I were to do this again I would have the second page be black construction paper and then have my son use light colored crayons to draw on top of it.

You could also shrink the size of this (easy to do in printer settings) and use this as part of a lapbook.

Click Links Below to Download Pages

Cave Cover

Cave Blank Pages Template

More Fun Cave Ideas

Caves Unit Study

My Pinterest Page With More Fun Cave Ideas

My Favorite Cave Non-Fiction Book

 

One Small Square: Cave 

We did whole unit on caves lasting several weeks using this book as our spine last year after visiting a nearby cavern (really, it would be more ideal for reading BEFORE going as it has several activities to do inside a cave, but it worked great as a follow up too).

The book is beautifully written and illustrated, and chalk full of great information, activities, and experiments to do.  It encourages kids to look at one small square of a cave thoroughly...thus the name.  This is one of a series of various other environments (backyard, forest, pond, jungle, african savana, etc.).  

Link to book above is an affiliate link through which I

can earn commission. 

TERMS OF USE

You are free to use this cave printable however you would like in your homeschool or for classroom or other educational or play use.  If you want to use it commercially, or make alterations and share it for free, see additional terms at the bottom of this page.

ADDITIONAL TERMS FOR SHARING/ALTERING

If you want to share this somewhere, THANKS...you're welcome to share a link to this post and use a picture from this page (but please don't share the files directly, thank you).

You are welcome to make some alterations to this and distribute/share your altered version directly on your own blog or site, if you do the following:

• YOU MUST INCLUDE A LINK TO MY BLOG ON THE PAGE YOU SHARE IT.
• The resource must be offered FREE.
• You must keep my copyright info on the front page (adding your own info too  is fine...or moving it to another spot on the page, but it must still be there.  I don't care about the second or later pages). 
• Please let me know about it by sharing a link in the comments.  Most likely I'll add a link to it on  this page.

If you want to make alterations to this, but offer it commercially (for sale), we can work that out.  It involves giving me credit and letting me have a free copy to use myself or share with friends, but you will need to contact me at ecarian@yahoo.com to sort out the details.