The Travels of Marco Polo (1271-1295) Part I: Venice

Polo began his travels in Venice.
For the next few weeks we will be completing a leisurely study of the travels of Marco Polo, discovering the various lands he traveled through somewhat like he discovered them. We will learn about the terrain, the people and the history of the areas as we vicariously travel with Marco Polo. We will also be making a scrapbook of our projects, one page for each place we study.
Our collages of Venice were based on the picture below.

A picture of Venice in the Middle Ages.
This week we began where Polo began -in his hometown of Venice. We looked at pictures of Venice with its canal streets and lovely round topped homes lined closely together.

Using the idea I found at Laugh, Paint, Create we made collage pictures of Venice. Although the project was designed for young children, it is an interesting project for all ages. I cut out squares, triangles, half-circles and the like in advance and put them in piles on the table. After reading about Marco Polo and his getting ready for his adventures, I showed them the above map. Then I set them to work on their collages.



One student added a gondola.
One student added a waterwheel and a swan to his.
Another student's looked a little more like modern art.


Another option for older students can be this technique found at laugh paint create.

 

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