Catapult History Fun

This is a fun activity to do when learning about a time period in history when they used catapults when fighting. We did this when learning about Alexander the Great. Our resource book was the Usborne Encyclopedia of World History. 
Here is what we did.
On regular paper, I typed up questions that I wanted my girls to find the answers to as they read in the book. Then I cut the questions apart and crumpled them up to be little wads of paper and put those in a cup.  Those would represent the rocks that Alexander the Great used in his catapults. Then I made a simple target for the wall. The plastic spoon became the catapult, although it would be fun to also make a real catapult with craft sticks.

 The girls took turns picking a paper wad an catapulting it toward the target. After a few tries they opened the paper wad and read the question. Then they had to read the information in the book to find the answer.

After they answered all the questions they played a fun online game about Alexander the Great. The link for the game is below:

http://www.kongregate.com/games/FreeWorldGroup/alexander-the-great-game

Archery History Fun

 

This is a fun activity that can be done with any history lesson that relates to archery. Tape questions onto your arrows, shoot them off with your bow, and then retrieve them and find the answers to the questions. We used archery when learning about the Scythians in Ancient World History (700-100 BC) because they practiced archery. I chose six questions from pages 162-163 of the Usborne Encyclopedia of World History. I printed those questions and taped them onto "arrows" made of the cardboard hanger tubes (just cut the hanger wire and pull the tube off). Then the girls each took turns shooting one of the arrows with a PVC tube bow. Then they had to retrieve the arrow and read the question. Then they had to find the answer as they read through the pages of the book.