Lesson video

I'm Miss Harris, welcome to today's history lesson, where we are learning about famous explorers and adventurers.

Now, today, we are learning about a famous Italian Explorer called Marco Polo.

Have you heard of him before? That's okay if you haven't heard of him before because we're going to learn about his wonderful life today.

Now, I've got my plane behind me, and I need your help, because I would like us to fly virtually across Europe to Italy, specifically to Venice, where Marco was from.

Would you like to join me? Can you give me a thumbs up if you would like to join me? Good, okay, now I need your help.

So I've got my plane behind me, as you can see, and we need to get me on the plane and then flying to Italy.

So I'm going to need some magical help.

I'm going to need you to clap to get me there, some magic claps, are you ready? So get your hands nice and magical.

So you've got to rub your hands together, rub them like this, rub them together fast, like this.

Okay, huh, are they feeling magical? Okay, good, right.

So we're going to do one clap to get me on the plane.

Once I'm on the plane, we'll do another clap, are you ready? So I'm going to ask you to clap in three, two, one, clap.

It worked, I'm on the plane, well done! Gosh, your hands really are magical, well done.

You really, really tried hard.

Would you like to come and take a seat on my plane? Yeah, come and sit down, come and sit down.

There's lots of seats ready for us to fly to Ven.

Now let's do one more clap and we will end up in Venice.

Okay, let's get ready, three, two, one, clap.

Wow, thank you so much for getting me there, I am so impressed.

Let's get started on today's lesson.

So our question of the day is who was Marco Polo? Let's find out.

So, today we all historians.

Can you remember what a historian is? Let's do the actions, a historian is a person who.

Can you remember? So a historian is a person who studies and writes about the past, well done.

Today we are recapping the seven continents.

We are going to have an introduction to Marco Polo, listen to the story of his life, look at some pictures of his life, and then we are going to draw the story of his life using a story map.

You would need an exercise book, a piece of paper, a pencil, and a teddy bear.

Your Teddy bear is going to sit with you and listen to this.

I'm sorry, I changed the slide there.

Let's do our star words.

So our star words are a really important part of the lesson to practise saying some of the words that you're going to hear a lot in the lesson.

So it's going to be my turn then your turn, are you ready? ♪ Star words, star words, star words ♪ Your turn.

Explorer.

Continent.

Can you say it like a robot? Continent.

Marco Polo.

Can you whisper? Marco Polo.

China.

Asia.

History.

Expedition.

History.

Can you say Marco Polo? But can you say it without saying it like this? Your turn.

Good job.

Let's have a look at who Marco Polo is.

So this is a picture of Marco Polo.

It's a drawing of him, because Marco Polo was a really famous Italian explorer from Venice.

He travelled to Asia along the Silk Road.

We are going to learn more about that in a moment.

Let's have a look at the seven continents so we can remember where Asia is in relation to Europe, which is where Italy is.

So take a look at the map of the seven continents.

We've done a unit on the seven continents.

So if you haven't seen that yet, don't worry, I'm going to tell you the seven continents now.

So can you remember what the light green, light green continent is, up here? So that one is North America, can you say that? Good, a so continent is a large area of land.

What is the dark green continent called? South America, well done.

Do you know what the red continent is called? Europe, fantastic.

What's the yellow one called? Africa, well done.

And the orange one? Asia, fantastic.

So you can see, Europe is the red one and Asia is the orange one.

Now China is all the way across the other side of Asia, more towards the white parts of the map, 'kay.

China is very far away Asia and there were no planes when Marco Polo was alive, so they had to travel on foot, on donkeys, and horses and carts, things like that.

They did not travel by plane so it took a really long time to get there.

And the last two continents are Australia and Antarctica at the bottom.

Now this is a picture of the world.

Italy is here in this blue circle.

He had to travel all the way to China, which you can see here pointed by my arrow.

It's a really long way away, isn't it? He travelled along something called the Silk Road.

What was it called? The.

So the Silk Road is a trading route.

So we know from books written by Marco Polo that he travelled all the way across to Asia, along the Silk Road.

It's a trading route, which means that goods had to be moved over land using pack animals.

So pack animals are things like donkeys and horses, where you can pack lots of things onto them and they can carry them for you.

Camels are also an example.

It was really important that these routes, these roads were really direct and as safe as possible.

Now, along this Silk Road, lots of trade happens.

So if you wanted my red pen, I would like you to give me something, if you want my red pen, I would like something that is of similar value to my pen.

So if I gave you a red pen, I wouldn't expect you to give me a car, because a car is much better than a pen, so it wouldn't be a fair trade.

Along the trade route, they traded things like silk, spices, glass beads, animal furs, and pottery, because back then, a long time ago when Marco Polo was alive, we didn't have things like Tesco's and Sainsbury's where you can buy loads of things from around the world.

Lots of fruits and vegetables get flown in from different countries, because they are grown in different climates.

The Silk Road was a really good way of finding lots of treasures and goods from other countries that you wouldn't normally find in your country.

So for example, bananas are not grown here in the UK, because it's not hot enough all year round for them to be grown.

So they are flown in from a different continent to be sold here in the UK.

So that's just one example.

Now I'm going to be telling you a biography.

A biography is a piece of writing that tells true facts and information about someone's life.

So today is Marco Polo.

So stay comfy, get nice and comfortable, I'm going to be telling you the story of Marco Polo's life.

Are you comfy, good, ready? So I'm going to tell you three times.

The first time I'm going to read it, the second time we're going to look at pictures, and the third time we're going to draw the picture.

If you've been following all of the lessons so far in this unit, you know exactly what we are doing today.

So Marco Polo was born in September in 1254.

That's a long time ago.

He was born in Venice in Italy.

When he was only 17 years old, Marco Polo went on an adventure to Asia.

He was an explorer from a very young age.

And this trip was with his father, his uncle as well.

It took four years to reach China.

The ruler of China, Kublai Khan, asked Marco to explore his kingdom and report back to him with what he found.

He spent 24 years working for Khan.

And Marco described Khan's palace as having walls covered with gold and silver.

The family returned to Italy after 24 years.

They were gone for so long that people didn't recognise them when they returned.

They didn't know who they were.

Marco joined the army to fight against Genoa.

He was captured and put into prison.

When Marco was in prison, he wrote a book all about the travels and things that he had seen through Asia.

It was called "The Travels of Marco Polo".

When he was released from prison, he got married and had three daughters.

But, Marco lived until he was 69 years old and he died from illness.

Did you know that Marco Polo's book about his travels to Asia influenced another great Italian Explorer called Christopher Columbus.

He took the book with him along his travels as inspiration.

Okay, now we're going to look at some photos and I'm going to read the story again.

So still sitting comfortably, do a little wiggle in case you're not comfy, lets get nice and ready.

So let's look at some pictures.

Marco Polo was born in September, 1254.

This was a really long time ago.

He was born in Venice in Italy.

As you can see here, the country Italy, looks like a boot, doesn't it? So this is a picture of what Venice looked like when Marco Polo was around.

Oh, sorry, when he was only 17 years old, Marco Polo went to an adventure to Asia.

He was an explorer from a very young age.

This trip was with his father and his uncle.

It took four years to reach China.

Gosh, that's a long time, isn't it? The Ruler of China, Kublai Khan, asked Marco to explore his kingdom and report back to him with what he had seen.

He spent 24 years working for Khan.

And Marco described his palace as being covered with gold and silver.

The family returned to Italy after 24 years.

They'd been gone so long that the Polos looked very different their all friends didn't recognise them because they'd all grown up.

Marco joins the army to fight against Genoa.

He was captured and put into prison.

When Marco was in prison, he wrote a book all about his travels through Asia.

It was called "The Travels of Marco Polo".

When he was released from prison, he got married and had three daughters.

Marco lived until he was 69 years old.

He died of an illness.

Did you know that Marco Polo's book about his travels influenced another great Italian Explorer called Christopher Columbus.

He took the book with him along his travels as inspiration.

Okay, now we've heard the story twice.

We are going to map the story of his life.

So you are going to need a sheet of paper, ready to complete this task.

If you don't have a sheet of paper, go and get one now.

So to make our story map, we are going to need nine boxes.

So first we are going to fold the sheet across and we're going to try and make these two sides roughly the same size, make a crease in the paper, and then fold it over again making a fold.

Once you open it up, you should have three columns, then you're going to turn it portrait, and you're going to do the same thing again, folding inwards, making them roughly the same, and then folding again making a crease.

And once you open it, you should have nine boxes.

We're now going to map the story of Marco Polo's life.

I'm going to draw the first three boxes, then you're going to have a chance to do them.

I'm going to do the next three, then it'll be your turn, and then the last three.

So sitting comfortably, and just watching me do the first three, then it will be your turn.

So Marco Polo was born in September, in 1254.

This was a really, really long time ago.

He was born in Venice in Italy.

So first I'm going to just draw number one, and he was born in September, 1254.

So I'm going to write that down, Sep-t-e-m-ber, 1254.

Then I'm going to draw a little cake, just so I remember that's when he was born and that's his birthday, it's in September.

So this was a really, really long time ago, and he was born in Venice in Italy.

So how do you remember this? I know that the country it's a bit like a boot.

So I'm going to draw Italy.

There's some smaller countries here.

And now I'm going to draw an arrow and write Italy.

He was born in Venice, okay.

Number two, when he was only 17 years old, Marco Polo went on an adventure to Asia.

He was an explorer from a very young age.

This trip was with his father and his uncle, and was to the Mongol Empire in China.

It took four years to reach China.

So that's quite a long one, but we know that Marco was 17 years old when he went on his first travels from Italy, all the way to China in Asia, the continent Asia.

So it was Marco, remember Miss Harris is just drawing a little stick man 'cause she's not the best at drawing.

Marco with big hat so we remember who he is, and his father, and his uncle.

Let's give them some hats, let's give this one a round hat, and let's give this one a pointy hat.

So they went from Italy to China, that's number two.

Number three, the ruler of China, Kublai Khan, asked Marco to explore his kingdom and report back to him with what he had observed.

He spent 24 years working for the Khan and Marco described Khan's palace as having walls covered with gold and silver, wow.

So, number two.

So, the Kublai Khan asks Marco to explore his kingdom and report back to him.

So I'm just going to draw a picture of just a man, and write Kublai Khan.

And a little speech oval saying, "Explore my kingdom." And then Marco, drawn down here, spent 24 years.

So I'm going to draw some eyes to show he spent 24 years exploring the kingdom and working for the Khan.

Number four, the family returned to Italy after being gone for so long, and the Polos looked very different.

Their old friends didn't know who they were.

So let's draw our arrows back again, so we've got from China.

Oops, sorry, number four, Asia.

And they went to Italy.

And the people there did not recognise him, I'm going to write, who are you? Sorry, I've overrun, but I don't need to pause the video.

I don't need to have a good drawing, one, two and three.

Don't worry about four because we will do that in a moment.

Pause the video and draw the first three boxes, off you go.

Okay, so Miss Harris got a bit ahead of herself.

So now we're going to do four, five and six.

So we've done number four, now we're at number five.

So Marco joined the army to fight against Genoa.

He was captured and put into prison.

I'm going to picture of Marco, sad.

I'm going to draw his square hat so we remember who he is.

Probably he wasn't allowed his hat in prison, but, so we recognise him from our story map.

I'm just drawing that he is in prison.

Okay, number five, number six, when Marco was in prison, he wrote a book all about his travels through Asia.

It was called "The Travels of Marco Polo." So I'm going to draw a picture of a book.

And back then, they didn't have pens.

They used to use ink and feathers.

I'm going to draw a feather pen.

And his book was called "The Travels of Marco Polo".

Okay, now it's your turn, pause the video, and draw boxes four, five and six, off you go.

Okay, the last three boxes done.

So number seven, when he was released from prison, he got married and had three daughters.

So I'm going to draw some rings here just to show that he got married, and he had three daughters.

So remember, this isn't going to be a masterpiece a lot.

We're just trying to remember the story.

So he had three daughters.

Number eight, Marco lived until he was 69 years old and died from illness.

So I'm going to put a cross to show that he had died when he was 69 years old.

Then I'm going to write illness over the cross to show that he died from illness, okay.

Number nine, the last box, did you know that Marco Polo's book about his travels in Asia influenced another great Italian explorer called Christopher Columbus.

Columbus took the book with him on his travels as inspiration.

So let's write the name Christopher, Chris-t-o-f, Christopher Columbus, Columbus.

And let's draw a little picture of a stick man, which is going to be our Christopher Columbus.

Them I'm going to draw the book in his hand.

He travelled all the way around the world.

Okay, it's your turn now to draw boxes eight, sorry, seven, eight, and nine.

Pause the video, have a go right now.

Now, recapping back to our first lesson where we discussed important people and how they influence us, I want you to think about which category we might put Marco Polo into.

Did he change events in time? Did he improve people's lives? Did he change people's ideas? Did he have a long lasting impact? Or was he a really good example? There's no right or wrong answer here, this is your opinion.

So I'd like you to take a moment to think about what he has done and which category you think.

There could be more than one category.

Pause the video, have a think of that now.

So my opinion, that means what I think, I think that he did two things.

I think he changed events in time because he helped to document what was going on in China, in his book.

He wrote about the things that he had seen.

So that helps us know what's happened when Marco Polo was alive, and what China was like or what Asia was like, because he travelled all over Asia.

And I also think he improved people's lives because he helped in a really, really big battle.

And his book has helped other explorers to make their own discoveries.

So I think he could be in those two.

You might have a different one, and that's okay.

Have a lovely rest of your day and I will see you for our next lesson, bye.