Pacing Calendar
Map the year onto real dates.
Pick the Monday you'll start Week 1. The 36-week scope-and-sequence is laid out across real calendar dates, with optional break weeks so the year ends where you expect.
Year runs Mon, Aug 17, 2026 → Fri, May 21, 2027 (40 weeks including breaks).
Q1. Earliest Civilizations & the Rise of Cities
Aug 17 – Oct 16 · 9 teaching weeks
- Week 1: Geography of the Ancient World & the Rise of CitiesAug 17 – Aug 21
Why early cities formed where they did — river valleys, climate, and surplus.
- Week 2: Mesopotamia I — Sumer and the First City-StatesAug 24 – Aug 28
Ur, Uruk, cuneiform, ziggurats; the world's first writing.
From city-state to empire; one of the world's first written legal codes.
Geography of the Nile; pharaohs and the architecture of eternity.
Ma'at, the gods, and beliefs about the afterlife.
- Week 6: Egypt III — The New Kingdom & Daily LifeSep 21 – Sep 25
Hatshepsut, Tut, daily life along the Nile.
- Week 7: The Indus Valley CivilizationSep 28 – Oct 2
Harappa & Mohenjo-Daro: the planned cities of South Asia.
- Week 8: Early China — The Shang DynastyOct 5 – Oct 9
Bronze, oracle bones, and the roots of Chinese civilization.
- Week 9: Synthesis, Comparison & Q1 Culminating ProjectOct 12 – Oct 16
Compare the four river-valley civilizations across themes.
Q2. Foundations of Western Thought & the Mediterranean
Oct 19 – Jan 8 · 9 teaching weeks
- Week 10: The Aegean World — Minoans & MycenaeansOct 19 – Oct 23
Bronze-age Crete and mainland Greece; the Trojan War context.
- Week 11: Greek Dark Age & the Rise of the PolisOct 26 – Oct 30
Phoenicians and the alphabet; how the city-state emerged.
Two opposing models of citizenship and society.
- Week 13: The Persian Empire & the Persian WarsNov 9 – Nov 13
Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes; Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis.
- Thanksgiving BreakNov 16 – Nov 20
- Week 14: Athenian Democracy & the Golden AgeNov 23 – Nov 27
Pericles, the Parthenon, and the world's first democracy.
- Week 15: Greek Philosophy — Socrates, Plato, AristotleNov 30 – Dec 4
The ideas that still shape Western thought.
- Week 16: Greek Mythology, Theater & the OlympicsDec 7 – Dec 11
Tragedy, comedy, and the games.
- Week 17: Alexander the Great & the Hellenistic WorldDec 14 – Dec 18
From Macedonia to the Indus; cultural blending across three continents.
- Winter Break (1/2)Dec 21 – Dec 25
- Winter Break (2/2)Dec 28 – Jan 1
- Week 18: Beginnings of Rome & Q2 Culminating ProjectJan 4 – Jan 8
Founding of Rome; the early Republic. Mid-year synthesis week.
Q3. Empires & Encounter Across Continents
Jan 11 – Mar 12 · 9 teaching weeks
- Week 19: Rome Rising — From Republic to Mediterranean PowerJan 11 – Jan 15
Punic Wars and Roman expansion.
- Week 20: End of the Republic — Caesar, Crisis & Civil WarJan 18 – Jan 22
The fall of the Republic and the rise of one-man rule.
- Week 21: The Roman Empire & the Pax RomanaJan 25 – Jan 29
Augustus and the long Roman peace.
- Week 22: Roman Engineering & Daily LifeFeb 1 – Feb 5
Roads, aqueducts, the arch, and life in the empire.
- Week 23: Han China — Empire in the EastFeb 8 – Feb 12
Confucian governance and a contemporary of Rome.
- Week 24: The Silk Road — Connections Across ContinentsFeb 15 – Feb 19
Trade routes that linked Rome, Kushan, and Han China.
- Week 25: The Spread of BuddhismFeb 22 – Feb 26
From India along the Silk Road to East Asia.
- Week 26: The Rise of Christianity in the Roman WorldMar 1 – Mar 5
From Judea to the empire.
- Week 27: Decline of Rome & Q3 SynthesisMar 8 – Mar 12
Why empires fall; Q3 culminating project.
Q4. Medieval Worlds & Cultural Synthesis
Mar 22 – May 21 · 9 teaching weeks
- Week 28: The Byzantine Empire — Rome's Long Eastern EchoMar 22 – Mar 26
Constantinople, Justinian, and Hagia Sophia.
- Week 29: Rise of Islam — Muhammad & the Early CaliphatesMar 29 – Apr 2
The Five Pillars and the rapid spread of a new faith.
- Week 30: The Islamic Golden Age — Baghdad & CórdobaApr 5 – Apr 9
Algebra, astronomy, and the House of Wisdom.
- Week 31: Early Medieval Europe — Charlemagne to the VikingsApr 12 – Apr 16
After Rome: kingdoms, monasteries, and longships.
Lords, vassals, and the gothic cathedral.
Paper, gunpowder, the compass, movable type.
Gold, salt, and the trans-Saharan trade.
- Week 35: Mongols, Plague & the End of the Medieval WorldMay 10 – May 14
How globalization in 1300 changed everything.
- Week 36: Year-End Synthesis & the Grade 6 PortfolioMay 17 – May 21
The capstone project; looking ahead to Grade 7.
Your start date and break choices are saved to this browser only — no account required. Use Year at a Glance for the unit-by-unit overview or Daily Schedule for the within-day time blocks.