St. Peter's Bascilica in Rome, photo courtesy of 123rf.

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Catholic Heritage Curricula Italy Unit

Background: Catholic Heritage Curricula provides an elementary school level Social Studies unit that explores nine countries including Italy. A four week plan allows for two days of studying Italy each week. See Tour a Country lesson plans at Catholic Heritage Curricula Learning about Other Lands. I recommend purchasing these plans to participate in the studies of the other countries. Completing a provided brochure is one excellent option for studying Italy. Rather than completing the CHC brochure, Ryan and I made a Keynote presentation on ourApple computer. We used part of CHCs schedule, resources, and a few of the enrichment activities, as our guide. Materials: Keynote or Powerpoint App, World Map and/or Globe, noted websites/Italy, noted books/Italy, noted religious art masterpieces/Italy, ingredients for Italian food, noted Italian music.

Catholic Heritage Curricula lesson format, revisions by Catholic Teacher Daydreams copyright 2013

Week One: Plan. Listen to music similar to Eurpeon Playground'scompact disc found at European Playground. Make a travel plan for ying from America to Italy. How much will it cost? We chose Expedia. Find an Italian ag image to post and give credit to the website where you found it. Create rstpage of Keynote with travel information and Italy's ag. Finish another Keynote page by researching the weather in Italy. Your county library has kid links to get information like this. When will you be traveling there? Is it warm enough for swimsuits by the Mediterranean Sea? What should you pack to wear? What other items should you bring? A language book for Italian? Italian money? What is the exchange rate? Rent from library or purchase:

courtesy of Amazon

Catholic Heritage Curricula lesson format, revisions by Catholic Teacher Daydreams copyright 2013

courtesy of Italy Travel Co.

Week Two: Map. Find a map of Italy on a search engine. Notice its shape is like a boot. Find the Mediterranean Sea, the Apennine Mountains, the Alps and Rome. Post this picture on your new Keynote page. Find one fact about each place. Local library sites are good resource sites. Be sure that you do not copy and paste the fact. Rewrite the fact in your own words, and post it on your page. Begin a new Keynote page. Title this page Fast Facts or Interesting Information. Some ideas for Italy facts might include government, climate, population, area, religions, historical fact, or current events. Research can be completed using a simple children's non-ction library book or surf the web, but make sure your source is reliable. Facts can be fun. Be creative. Enrichment: View all or parts of this History channel special ~ History Channel Pompeii . . . Buried Alive Begin to read about Italy saints in Saints for Young Readers: Sts. Catherine of Siena, Thomas Aquinas, Francis of Assisi, and Anthony of Padua.
Catholic Heritage Curricula lesson format, revisions by Catholic Teacher Daydreams copyright 2013

Courtesy of Italy Travel Co.

Week Three: Research. Choose an historical event or place in Italy. The fall of Rome, eruption of Mt. Vesuvius (watch youtube video, with parents, from Week Two), the colosseum battles, or the Vatican are prudent topics. Find an image to go with this topic and paste it into your keynote. Give credit to the site that provided the image. Research your topic and write one paragraph about it. My son wrote a paragraph about Mt. Vesuvius because he found the video to be fascinating. Learn about a Catholic event or shrine. Read about some of the saints that lived and died here (see week two under Saints for Young Readers). Tour St. Peter's Bascilica online atEWTN St. Peter's Bascillica Gallery. Label Vatican City on your Keynote map (slip a textbox on your map to make it easy). Find images of Italian saints. Paste the images on a new Keynote page and write a sentence about each saint. Remember to type "courtesy of (website)" under your images, so you do not receive credit

Catholic Heritage Curricula lesson format, revisions by Catholic Teacher Daydreams copyright 2013

for your pictures. Are you able to nd out how many Italians are Catholics? Do they honor the Pope as we do? Enrichment: Listen to Vivaldi while you study religious art masterpieces that may be found in the Vatican Art collection in Rome. Begin one of these favorite ction books about Rome, from Aunt Dee's Attic. These books may be ordered at (952) 931-0004 at THE APOSTLE BOOKSTORE in Minnesota.

Dianne Ahern books provide a plothera of facts about Rome and the Ponticate in a fun, unique manner. If Sister Philomena was a real person, we'd love to have her for supper tonight!

Week Four: Explore. Now it's time to explore Italy as if you were there! Do you want to learn about Italy's foods, their Holidays, the animals that are native to Italy, the landscape? What kinds of music do Italians listen to? Do they watch American movies or movies from Italy? What was your favorite part of Italy and if you could, would you travel there? Publish your Keynote presentation by sharing it with an audience. Keynote presentations or similar presentations are fun to make and watch. If you are a homeschool student, why not share it with your
Catholic Heritage Curricula lesson format, revisions by Catholic Teacher Daydreams copyright 2013

family while eating an authentic Italian meal? Congratulations on your rst Keynote or Powerpoint Presentation! Teachers, If you follow this plan on Catholic Teacher Daydreams you will be able to click on the provided links. Once you print the lesson the following links will be helpful: https://www.chcweb.com/catalog/ TouraCountryLearningaboutOtherLandsandPeoples/ product_info.htmlhttp://www.ewtn.com/gallery/sp/sp26.htm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-nifgJUTlg http://www.putumayo.com/european-playground-re-release? section=kids.

Catholic Heritage Curricula lesson format, revisions by Catholic Teacher Daydreams copyright 2013