Journey Along the Silk Road

Additional Activities

By Karima Diane Alavi  - June, 2003

Each student selects two from two different learning styles in addition to writing a Rihla

1. Linguistic Learners

2. Visual Learners

3. Musical Learners

4. Body-Kinesthetic Learners

5. Math Logic Problem-Solving Learners

6. Interpersonal - People Smart Learners

7. Intrapersonal - Self Smart Learners

8. Natural World Learners

9. Existential Learners

1. Read poetry from ancient China, Persia or Africa.
2. Make a chart with five columns. At the top, write: English, Chinese, Thai, Swahili and Arabic. Under each heading, write the word they use for numbers 1 - 9.
3. Fill out a cross-word puzzle that has names of cities from along the Silk Road.
4. Find ancient names of countries- and fill them in on a map. For example:
   • Persia = Iran
   • Hindustan = India
   • Mesopotamia = Iraq
   • Siam = Thailand
5. Learn how to write your name in Arabic
6. Select a name for yourself that comes from a country along the Silk Road. Make yourself a name tag.
7. Create a newspaper called "The Battuta Bugler". Tell of Ibn Battuta's arrival home in Morocco after traveling 75,000 miles.

1. Find photographs of art and architecture along the Silk Road and make a poster of the pictures, or do a drawing of your favorite piece of art.
2. Compare the design of mosques with cathedrals in Europe. How do they differ? How are they the same?
3. Make a collage from National Geographic magazine with photos from places that Ibn Battuta would have visited.
4. Do one of the Islamic Art exercises (from the Doorways Book. See list of resources.)
5. Read some Rumi poems and make a poster that depicts what you visualized while reading the poem.
6. Draw African geometric patterns from fabrics onto cotton cloth. Hang them on the wall, or wear them if you'd like.

1. Learn songs from different parts of the world.
2. Make up a song as if you're traveling along the Silk Road from Morocco to China. Teach it to other students so you can all sing it to the class together.
3. Make a collage of various musical instruments from along the Silk Road.
4. Select music from along the Silk Road to play some during class time. Use CDs and tapes from the library, or bring in your own.
5. Study the life of Hildegard of Bingen and how she tried to stop the Crusades from happening. Play a CD of her music for the other students while you give an oral report about her fascinating life.
6. Listen to a tape of Buddhist chants and write a response sheet, telling how the sound makes you feel, what you like (or dislike) about it, and why you think these chants would be popular in much of the world, even today.

1. Teach the class how to do the Debka Dance from Arabia. (You can find information on this dance on the web.)
2. Make a wall mural of Debka dancers by having someone outline you while you lie on the floor in various positions of the Debka dance. Draw colorful costumes on the outlines of your body.
3. Build a model of a city along the Silk Road.
4. Make stained glass windows using dyed glue, brushes and plexiglas. (see instructions in "A Medieval Banquet in the Alhambra Palace. See resource list below.) If you don't have plexiglas, you can make Islamic designs on paper and hang them in the window. As the sun shows through them, they'll look like windows. (You can find Islamic art patterns in Dover books. See resource list below.)
5. Study the English Morris (Moorish) Dance and teach it to the class.
6. Make African masks from paper mache.

1. Study the history of mathematics beginning with India's use of numbers.
2. Learn to write the Arabic Numerals that we use today, in Arabic. (0 to 9)
3. Try to do this mathematical problem by using Roman Numerals: 54+12 x 2
4. Make an abacus and the learn how to use it to calculate.
5. Calculate mileage from one major city to the next on Ibn Battuta's journey. Begin with Marakkesh and finish in Canton, China.
6. Make a list of all the modes of transportation a Silk Road traveler would have used in the 13th to 15th centuries. List the modes that are available today.
7. On a map, write the mode of transportation most commonly used in the regions where you would have traveled. For instance, in the Sahara Desert, write the word Camel. On the Red Sea write the word Boat.
8. List the various geometric shapes found in African fabrics such as a Kente Cloth that was worn by Ashanti Chiefs.
9. Make a poster describing early Muslim use of "rocket science." Use the web to find information - http://www.muslimheritage.com/

1. Become an e-mail pen pal with a student who lives in a country along the Silk Road.
2. Perform a play that comes from along the Silk Road.
3. Make poster-biographies of historical characters from along the Silk Road and hang them on the class wall.
4. Study the different ethnic groups in China and mark their locations on a map. Make a list of how their lives are different in terms of
   • Language
   • Religion
   • Costume
   • Housing
   • Transportation
   • Foods they eat
   • Where they live
   • Animals they raise
5. Study the symbolism used in African ceremonial fabrics and make a poster describing what the symbols mean. (For example: Zig-zag for the power of nature, or a circled dot for the sun.)
6. Make shadow puppets out of poster board and perform a shadow play from either India, Indonesia or China.

1. Read some Tales of Aladdin and write what you think the morals of the stories are.
2. Research the life stories of some people who have traveled along the Silk Road. Make a poster about their lives and hang it on the classroom wall.
3. Put together a jigsaw puzzle that has something to do with a country that Ibn Battuta would have traveled to.
4. If you could enter a time machine and visit any place along the Silk Road where would you go. When? Why? Who would travel with you? What would you take along?
5. Study Haiku poetry and write two Haiku poems about leaving home for a long journey. Draw a picture of your departure. Think about how you feel and write it in a journal.

1. Draw plants, insects or animals from along the Silk Road.
2. Make a collage of pictures of animals, insects, birds and trees that one would encounter in their travel along the Silk Road.
3. Study the movement of the Bubonic plague and mark it on a world map, noting where it arrived and when. Use the unit from the Emergence of Renaissance book or a web site to study how the plague was treated in various parts of the world.
4. On a map, identify every mountain range, desert, river and ocean that Battuta would have crossed.
5. Study the difference between salt-water and fresh-water seas. What kind of fishes can survive in salt water? Draw them and identify them on a poster.
6. Study the history of the Coffee Bean. Trace its path from Yemen to Turkey to Europe where it became a 17th century fad. Draw a picture of the coffee plant and the bean. What different colors do coffee beans come in?
7. What does Ibn Battuta have to do with the Moon? Go to the NASA web site to find out.
8. Make a model of the moon, using chicken wire, and paper mache. On your moon, indicate ten craters that were named after Arab and Islamic scholars. Use the web to learn about them. http://www.jas.org.jo/cra.html Find out what each scholar was famous for.
9. Make a collage of animals that people would have used to travel along the Silk Road.

1. Make a chart that compares the beliefs of the major faiths along the Silk Road. Include Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Animism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism and Hinduism
2. Consider what you would have felt like if you lived in Paris during the 13th century and you knew the Bubonic Plague was on its way to your city. A meteor fell in Paris at that time, and people thought it signaled the end of time. Write a diary entry as if you lived in Paris on that day. How would you have felt? What would have been your hopes and fears? How do you think your neighbors would have reacted to the news of the "meaning" of the comet?
3. Read some Haiku poems and discuss what you think the real meaning of these poems is.
4. Study Buddhism and fill out a cross-word puzzle with words that have to do with that faith. Do the same with other religions.