Session 1: Session Title s12

UKS2 Topic: Early Islamic Civilisation Block H: Important Places Session 1 Historic Cities National History: Develop a chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of world history, establishing clear Curriculum narratives within and across the periods they study. Undertake an in-depth study of a non-European society that provides contrasts with British history- early Islamic civilisation. Geography: Locate the world’s countries using maps, concentrating on their environmental regions, key physical and human characteristics, countries, and major cities. Present human and physical features using a range of methods, including sketch maps, plans and graphs, and digital technologies. Teaching To locate some of the Islamic world’s historic cities on maps. Objectives Resources Weblinks Blank maps; Timelines; https://www.freesound.org/people/thatjeffcarter/sounds/222442/ - Sound of Jerusalem Researching a historic city with call to prayer in the background; prompt sheet; Is there such a https://www.freesound.org/people/habbis92/sounds/240233/ - Sound of Piccadilly Circus in thing as an Islamic city? ppt. London; http://www.muslimheritage.com/article/introduction-islamic-city - Information about the design of Islamic cities; http://www.islamiclandmarks.com/ - Information about important places in the Islamic world.

Whole class: Sit down the class and ask them what they think they'd hear in a city e.g. traffic, shouting, car horns, rain, etc... Ask them to close their eyes and listen to the sounds of London and Jerusalem (freesound links 1 and 2). Did chn hear anything they didn't expect? In which city? What do they think it was? (Muslim call to prayer). Tell them that modern cities are similar all over the world, but that sometimes there are small differences between them. Explain that chn are going to research some cities that are important in the Muslim world and see what they were like in the past. Write up the names of the six cities chn are going to find out about on a f/c. These are: Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, Damascus, Karbala and Istanbul. Their first challenge is to work together with online mapping or atlases to find these cities (There are lots of cities called Medina, so advise chn that the one they are looking for is in Saudi Arabia). Ask them to mark their locations on a map (session resource). Give chn twenty minutes to find the cities. When most groups appear to have finished, ask chn to feedback which modern countries the cities are in (Mecca and Medina, Saudi Arabia; Jerusalem in Israel/Palestine; Damascus in Syria; Karbala is in Iraq; Istanbul in Turkey). Give each pair a city to research and a copy of the timeline (session resource). Model how to place a date on the timeline. Their job is to find out when the city was founded and mark it on the timeline. They should also find out whether the city is still there today. Allow/timetable time to research online for this section. Give them ten minutes to do this. Ask chn how accurate their date is. Is there a way of showing on the timeline that a city might have started at one point, but was definitely there by another point? (e.g. shaded for a while and then a circle or block colour?) Medium/ Hard Easy More able chn should probably be able to use Google to Chn can use research prompt sheet (session resource) to help search the city names and find out when they were them do their research online, it will give them some ideas of founded. Ask chn to think about which internet sources places to look. they are using to find out the answer, and to use at least The second page in the session resource has the answers about two reputable websites that agree. You may need to have when the cities were founded. a discussion about what makes a reputable website (e.g. has references, no adverts, isn't biased). Plenary Today, these cities are inhabited mostly by Muslims (except Jerusalem), though there are people of other religions there too. Are they Muslim cities? During the research, did children come across any information about the history of those cities that suggested a pre-Muslim past? Show ‘Is There Such a Thing as an Islamic City’ ppt (session resource). Outcomes Children will:  Locate historic cities in the Islamic world and mark these on a map.  Research online for information about the history of selected cities.  Mark dates on a timeline.

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