Early Medieval Europe is the first unit in the Middle Ages History course. This unit covers the Byzantine Empire, the various Barbarian groups who flooded into the previous territories of Rome, and the Vikings.
This book is for adult mentors to use as a resource when planning lessons, not a textbook for students.
This unit has sections on:
- Byzantine Empire
- Barbarian Kingdoms
- Vikings
Layers of Learning is activity-based and this unit guide includes many hands-on ways to learn about Early Medieval Europe. Here are a few things you will find to do inside this unit:
- Color a map of Europe in the year 500, just a few decades after the western Roman Empire fell
- Fold a fortune teller about Justinian’s law code
- Sew (or fabric glue) your own Byzantine dalmatica and tunica to wear
- Play a printable board game about the holy wars between the Byzantines and Persians
- Make a puppet craft about the baptism of King Clovis
- Craft a paper mache seax knife
- Write up a resume for Charlemagne, to see if he’s got the skills to be elected king of the Franks
- Make toilet paper roll Viking people
- And so much more!
Layers of Learning History units include Library Lists of books on the topic, a family read-aloud suggestion, hands-on activities, printables and paper crafts, sidebars for extra learning, and tools to help you assess your student’s progress and mastery. Learn more about how Layers of Learning works.
See Inside
This is a view of a two page spread from Early Medieval Europe:
On these two pages you can see an Exploration about Viking people. The colored similes tell you this activity is for kids in the early and middle grades. Most explorations are for all ages.
There are sidebars like these on every page of the unit as well. You can use the sidebars as extras anywhere you like. The unit book is meant as a guide for the mentor in planning lessons, not a textbook for the student. So the mentor picks which explorations and which sidebars to use.
Flexibility
This unit was written to be used for a month but contains plenty of content for many more weeks of learning if you choose. This is a pick-and-choose curriculum, meant to be cycled back to in the future when your child is older. As such, it intentionally includes far more material than you can possibly cover in a month.
Early Medieval Europe is also part of the overall Middle Ages History course, the second Year of the four year Layers of Learning History cycle. If you use the program in order, it will take you through the history of the world from ancient times through the 21st century. However, each unit stands alone and can be used independently of any other unit.
Printable Pack
This unit comes with a downloadable Printable Pack that includes all the student worksheets. The printables can be copied as many times as needed for your family or class.
You can download the Printable Pack from your receipt or from your account at Layers of Learning.
Extra Resources
This unit comes with extra weblinks and a YouTube video playlist on the Middle Ages History Resources page.
leeloo66 –
This was such a fun unit! My son really enjoyed it, and even I learned some new things. His favourite was making a castle and acting out the fall of Constantinople!