Exploring the Middle Ages Class Summary 11/3/14

with Kim Rodgers

The Rise of Islam

Our focus in class on Monday was the rise of Islam and how it became an empire. We read about Muhammad’s life and what led him to begin leading people towards Allah, “the one true God”. We discussed the five pillars of the Islamic faith; faith, prayer, giving, fasting, and pilgrimage and why these things were important for following the Islamic faith. We went on to read about how Islam spread even after the death of Muhammad, with Muhammad’s friend Abu Bakr as their leader. As they conquered surrounding lands they took with them the Islamic faith and won many followers. During class we came up with symbols to remind us of the five pillars and included them in our notebooks. We also played a game where the students needed to remember details from our readings in pairs as they progressed through the board. We didn’t get a chance to finish, so we’ll take some time during class next week to conclude our game.

Coming Up: China!

Next week our focus is on The Great Dynasties of China. For homework the students have their notebooking page and two maps. There is a sub-heading on the notebooking page about Sinbad. We didn’t get to that story, so please feel free to put a line through that and use the page to summarize what we talked about. There are two maps because we covered two chapters this week. If you have any questions please let me know. 

See you next week!