Printable Scholar
China Country Report Kit
Everything a student needs to research and write a report on China: the reading, the maps and the pages to fill in. Nothing else to look up.
- 4 reading pages: China fun facts with the flag, History, Land and Work, and Culture and Daily Life
- 5 maps: landmarks, cities, Where in the World, outline, and rivers, lakes and neighbors
- A 9-page My Country Report booklet, from fast facts to a trip plan, a stamp to design and a written report
- A pennant to cut out and hang, two map skills sheets and a 10-question reading quiz
- Answer keys, a grading rubric and talking points for the teacher
- Two print-ready PDFs, 26 pages each, US Letter: color, and ink-saving black and white
Each student on a different country? Get every country kit for $24.
Look inside: all 26 pages
Read it, map it, write it.
The reading pages and maps hold every answer the booklet asks for. About one third of the booklet is looking things up. The rest asks students to choose, plan and explain.
What is in the China kit
To read and study
- China fun facts: six short true stories, the flag, By the Numbers and Did You Know
- History: the country’s story from its first peoples to today, with a timeline, people to know and words to know
- Land and Work: the land and climate, what people grow, make and mine, and how one leads to the other
- Culture and Daily Life: food, school, sports, holidays, music and crafts, with everyday words to say
- Five maps, including Where in the World with latitude and longitude, and a rivers, lakes and neighbors map with a letter key
To fill in and make
- My Country Report booklet: cover, Fast Facts, My Map, Culture and Daily Life, My Trip, Think Like a Geographer, Design a Stamp, Dig Deeper and My Report
- A pennant with the country’s name and outline, to color, cut out and hang
- Name the Cities and Name the Rivers and Lakes sheets, each with a word bank
- A 10-question reading quiz, answer keys, a rubric and talking points for the teacher
Free: the China History reading page
One page on the history of China for grades 3 to 5, free to print in color or black and white. It is the second reading page in the kit.
Farmers on the Yellow River
More than 7,000 years ago, people in China grew millet along the Yellow River and rice along the Yangtze (YANG-see). About 3,500 years ago, the Shang dynasty came to power. Shang kings carved questions about the future on animal bones and turtle shells. These oracle bones hold the oldest Chinese writing found so far.
The First Emperor
China was once split into kingdoms that fought each other. In 221 BC, the king of Qin (CHIN) conquered the others and united China. He called himself Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor. He made everyone use the same writing, money and measures. He joined older walls into an early Great Wall against horse riders from the north. Thousands of clay soldiers guard his tomb near Xi’an (shee-AHN).
The Han and the Silk Road
The Han dynasty ruled from 206 BC to AD 220. Traders carried Chinese silk west along the Silk Road, a chain of trade routes across Asia. Some of it reached as far as Rome. Ideas such as Buddhism came back along it. Around AD 105, a Han official named Cai Lun (tsy LOON) improved the way paper was made.
Inventions of the Tang and Song
Under the Tang and Song dynasties, between 618 and 1279, printers carved whole pages into wood blocks and pressed them onto paper. The oldest dated printed book, the Diamond Sutra, was made in 868. Sailors used the magnetic compass to find their way at sea. Chinese inventions such as paper, printing, the compass and gunpowder later spread around the world.
The Ming and the Forbidden City
In 1279, Mongol armies conquered the last of the Song, and the Mongols ruled all of China. In 1368, the Ming dynasty drove them out. Ming emperors built the Forbidden City in Beijing, a palace with hundreds of buildings, finished in 1420. Ordinary people could not go in, so it was called forbidden. The Ming rebuilt the Great Wall in stone and brick. From 1405 to 1433, Admiral Zheng He (jung HUH) led huge fleets as far as Africa.
The Last Emperor and Modern China
In 1644, the Qing (CHING) dynasty took power. It was China’s last dynasty. In 1912, China became a republic, and the last emperor, a six-year-old boy named Puyi, gave up the throne. The People’s Republic of China was founded on October 1, 1949. Today China has huge cities such as Shanghai and the world’s biggest network of high-speed trains. In 2019, a Chinese spacecraft made the first landing on the far side of the Moon.
China through time
- 1600 BC Shang dynasty begins
- 221 BC Qin Shi Huang unites China
- 105 Cai Lun improves paper
- 868 Diamond Sutra is printed
- 1279 Mongols rule all of China
- 1420 Forbidden City is finished
- 1644 Qing dynasty begins
- 1912 China becomes a republic
- 1949 People’s Republic is founded
People to know
- Confucius: Teacher whose ideas shaped China
- Qin Shi Huang: First emperor, united China
- Cai Lun: Han official who improved paper
- Wu Zetian: China’s only woman emperor
- Zheng He: Admiral who sailed as far as Africa
Free China maps
Each of these maps is free to print on its own. The kit puts its maps in one file with the reading pages and the booklet.
