Rome Unit Study - Geography

Week 1: We quilted a hot pad showing a map of the Roman Empire.

The Roman Empire was built on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea with the city of Rome at it's heart. Land which was part of the empire rests on three separate continents. The Rhine and Danube Rivers in the north served as important boundary markers. The Apennine Mountains divide the Italian Peninsula into east and West with Rome resting in the more fertile western side.

To create the hot pad, we referenced a map in the Ancient Rome (Cultural Atlas for Young People) by Mike Corbishley. First I photo copied the map and cut out the bodies of water. Using a fabric marker, I traced the bodies of water onto blue fabric. A piece of brown fabric was cut into a square to serve as the land.

The water was aligned and sewn onto the land. It took me about an hour to do this prep work before getting the kids involved.

Next we talked about important geographical features in the Roman Empire and marked them on the map.

Rivers - Po, Rubicon, Tiber, Danube, Rhine and Rhone.
Cities - Rome, Troy, Carthage and Constantinople
Bodies of Water - Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, Hellispont
Islands - Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Crete, Cyprus

I used a permanent marker to mark the rivers and cities, and the kids sewed on the lines.

There are many weeks of our Rome Unit up ahead, so now would be a great time to sign-up to follow Highhill Education by email. There's a link on the right-hand side of the blog.


 




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