1. Do Now
Come get a class participation sheet from the ELMO. Fill it out and put it on the back table.
Page 156: Copy vocab for:
Silk Road
Silk
Read page 156.
Respond in your DO NOW section: What was one of the challenges of traveling on the Silk Road?

2. Silk
A valuable cloth, originally made only in China from threads spun by caterpillars called silkworms
Vocab
Silk Road
An ancient trade route between China and Europe

3. Challenges
What was one of the challenges of traveling on the Silk Road?

4. The Silk Road ran from China, through central Asia, all the way to the Mediterranean Sea.
It was a series of roads, not just one, that together covered more than 4,000 miles.
New items, ideas, and inventions were traded from east to west.

5.
1. How did geography isolate early societies?
Mountains, oceans, “fear”
2. How did the Silk Road impact different societies?
Let people trade goods, religions, ideas, technologies, conflicts, increased trading, languages
3. How does global trade continue to affect us today?
Religions are spread everywhere
Inventions can be shared
We get what we want faster by boat, plane, cars, train, trucks, etc.

6. Learning Activity: The Silk Road
Include in the letter:
____ What types of land you are crossing (desert, mountains, etc.)
____ Explain some challenges of traveling on the Silk Road
____ Explain the advantages of camels
____ Some cities you visit on the way (use the map)
____ Name 1 item you have brought from China to trade
____ Name 3 items you get from trading (horses, etc.)
____ Explain why the price of goods was higher in some places than others
____ Explain what new religion you encounter and two things you learned about it
Read pages
Stop at “Tradition & Learning”
Imagine you are an ancient Chinese trader traveling west on the Silk Road.
Write a letter home to your family telling them about your journey.
9+ sentences
Draw and color 3 pictures in the boxes showing parts of your journey.

7. Closure
Who?
Did what?
To Whom?
When?
Where?
Why?
And How?

9. Do Now Please choose an appropriate seat near the front.
Take out your Silk Road letter from yesterday.

10. Learning Activity: The Silk Road
Include in the letter:
____ What types of land you are crossing (desert, mountains, etc.)
____ Explain some challenges of traveling on the Silk Road
____ Explain the advantages of camels
____ Some cities you visit on the way (use the map)
____ Name 1 item you have brought from China to trade
____ Name 3 items you get from trading (horses, etc.)
____ Explain why the price of goods was higher in some places than others
____ Explain what new religion you encounter and two things you learned about it
Read pages
Stop at “Tradition & Learning”
Imagine you are an ancient Chinese trader traveling west on the Silk Road.
Write a letter home to your family telling them about your journey.
9+ sentences
Draw and color 3 pictures in the boxes showing parts of your journey.

11. Traveling the Silk Road
What types of land you are crossing:
Desert, mountains
Challenges
Sandstorms, getting robbed, dangerous animals, being away from home
Advantages of camels:
Long distance without water, can survive sandstorms (eyelashes, feet), can carry items
Some cities you visit on the way:
Chang’an, Anxi, Turfan, Aksu, Khotan, Kuldja, Kashgar, Marakanda, Ctesiphon, Antioch
Name 1 item you have brought from China to trade
silk
Name 3 items you get from trading:
horses, grapes, walnuts, garlic, glass, ivory, woolens, linen
Explain why the price of goods was higher in some places than others
The farther the distance, the higher the price. Also, the more rare, the higher.
Describe what new religion you encounter
Buddhism

12. Line debate Globalization…what does this mean?
Is globalization more helpful or harmful to our society?

13. DO NOW DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING.
Put your stuff off to the side on the chairs.
I am giving back your quizzes.

14. Silk Road Simulation Work in groups of 5.
You are going to “travel” the Silk Road.
Each group will be trading certain items.
Each person in the group will be a # between 1-5.
Some people may need to work as a pair.
You may moved only when your number is called.
You may move only to one “trading center” at a time.
You may move in either direction, but you must move only to trading centers that are connected by tape.

15. You must cross certain obstacles when moving between trading centers.
Dunhuang and Kucha: crab walk to avoid bandits
Kucha and Kashgar: close your eyes when you reach the brown paper (desert) and keep them closed until your reach the trading center. SAND STORMS!
Kashgar and Ctesiphon: Climb carefully over the desks (mountains) that block your route.
Ctesiphon and Antioch: Hope over the pictures (lions and scorpions).
If you fail to follow any of these rules, you will return to the last trading center and miss your turn.
When you arrive at a new trading center, you may trade one of your products for a new product. Only a new arrival may trade.

16. When you have five different products, wait your turn and then begin your trip back home to your trading center.
On your return trip, you do not have to trade.
When you arrive where you began, raise your hand.
I will check your products.
Wait in your trading center until the game is over.

17. Silk Road

18. Real Life Connections
Moving to only “one” trading center at a time represents the long distances between trading centers.
Traders had to rest for several days or weeks before proceeding to the next center.
Loss of a turn represents the possibility of loss of camels or goods, or even death, if a trader was not careful when traveling the Silk Road.
Traders will arrive back at their home locations at different times- this shows the great length of time it took to travel from China to Rome.
You cannot move/trade until your number is called!

19. Debrief
Discuss the experience of traveling on the “Silk Road” with your group.
Respond to the questions on your activity sheet.

20. Silk Road Debrief
1. What did you like or dislike about this activity? Why?
2. What were some of the products that were traded along the Silk Road?
Glass, carpets, gold, silk
3. Where do you think the spices came from?
India, places with unique climates
4. What were some of the difficulties in traveling along the Silk Road?
Physical barriers such as deserts and mountains and sandstorms
Long distance
Bandits
Dangerous animals

21. Silk Road Debrief
5. Which groups had to travel the farthest to get the products they wanted?
Dunhuang and Antioch
6. What do you think happened to the price of these products (from groups in #5) when the traders sold them when they returned home?
Price was much higher than those who traveled less!
7. How many of you traveled from one end of the Silk Road to the other?
Two groups
Why do you think traders did not travel the entire route?
You could get the other items along the way
Too difficult

22. Silk Road Debrief
8. What were the benefits of traveling along the Silk Road?
Could get trade items and sell them at home at a higher cost
Could experience new ideas and cultures (food, language, etc.)
9. What were the risks or costs involved?
Loss of life
Loss of items
Cost of traveling and shelter high
10. Why do you think that trade along the Silk Road created such a productive and thriving economic system?
Connected many different cultures to each other
Cultures wanted what they couldn’t have in their homeland and were willing to pay high prices for it