Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Classical Kids: An Activity Guide to Life in Ancient Greece and Rome
    Classical Kids: An Activity Guide to Life in Ancient Greece and Rome
    Classical Kids: An Activity Guide to Life in Ancient Greece and Rome
    Ebook278 pages2 hours

    Classical Kids: An Activity Guide to Life in Ancient Greece and Rome

    By Laurie Carlson

    4.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Travel back in time to see what life was like in ancient Greece and Rome while having fun with hands-on activities such as making a star gazer; chiseling a clay tablet; weaving Roman sandals; making a Greek mosaic; creating Roman jewelry; throwing Greek pottery; casting a vote in a Roman-style election; and much more. Learn how these civilizations contributed to our present-day world by participating in art, math, cooking, science, and geography activities. Interesting facts and trivia are included throughout. Helpful illustrations explain project steps.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChicago Review Press
    Release dateJul 1, 1998
    ISBN9781569767795
    Classical Kids: An Activity Guide to Life in Ancient Greece and Rome

    Read more from Laurie Carlson

    Related to Classical Kids

    Related ebooks

    Children's Activity Books For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Alaskan Eats & Treats

      Sep 1, 2021

      Alaskan Eats & Treats
      3 min read

    • Article

      How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?

      Jul 1, 2020

      How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?
      3 min read

    • Article

      Wives, Mothers And Workers

      Aug 5, 2021

      In popular depictions of ancient Greece, the mythical Amazons loom large. A tribe of independent, fierce and powerful warriors, their legend is inspired by real nomadic women who lived in the Eurasian Steppe – and it’s very revealing about the roles

      5 min read

    • Article

      Syria- “Where It All Began”

      Jun 19, 2019

      Don’t they say geography is destiny? I’m going to write about Syria for the next several articles, getting eventually to the coins. I started with the Wikipedia History of Syria, where I was reminded that this country contains several oldest in the w

      9 min read

    • Article

      Democrats and Slaves

      Mar 2, 2020

      Democrats and Slaves
      5 min read

    • Article

      Making Athens Great Again

      Mar 11, 2017

      Making Athens Great Again
      13 min read

    • Article

      Home Of The First Coins

      May 29, 2023

      Home Of The First Coins
      9 min read

    • Article

      Greek Knowledge Of The Scythians

      Dec 8, 2023

      Greek Knowledge Of The Scythians
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Oldest Profession

      Sep 2, 2021

      The Oldest Profession
      2 min read

    • Article

      Ancient Greek Guide to Sex

      Mar 6, 2024

      Feeling a bit inhibited between the sheets? Well, take your inspiration from ancient Greece. Yes, they nailed philosophy, tragedy and comedy and scaled the sublime heights of architecture and sculpture with the Parthenon. But they were also much more

      3 min read

    • Article

      From Our Readers

      Oct 14, 2023

      It has been a while since an article astonished me as much as “Secrets of Egypt’s Golden Boy” (September/October 2023). I was fascinated by how Sahar Saleem used new technology to unwrap the body and even make a 3-D copy of the heart scarab that she

      2 min read

    • Article

      Magna Graecia

      Feb 14, 2022

      Magna Graecia
      6 min read

    • Article

      Down To The Piraeus

      Aug 22, 2022

      Down To The Piraeus
      6 min read

    • Article

      Fun And Games

      Aug 5, 2021

      Fun And Games
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Voices Of CHINA

      Oct 29, 2020

      The Voices Of CHINA
      6 min read

    • Article

      Readings: Roman Citizenship

      May 30, 2022

      By Ian Haynes Oxford University Press, 2013 ISBN: 978-0198795445 Blood of the Provinces provides readers with a comprehensive study on Rome famous auxilia. These soldiers were not citizens, yet they comprised more than half of Rome’s armies. This boo

      2 min read

    • Article

      Thick as Thebans

      Mar 25, 2021

      Thick as Thebans
      6 min read

    • Article

      Tunisia PART 1

      Sep 26, 2022

      Tunisia PART 1
      10 min read

    • Article

      An Athenian Aegean

      Oct 6, 2023

      An Athenian Aegean
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Classical Kids

    4.5/5

    7 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Classic Kids contains many interesting activities as well as descriptions of how these activities were influenced by Greek and Roman culture. This book provides information on how Greek and Roman culture influenced many things we do today. I would use this book in all elementary classrooms. I would use the activities occasionally but I would not put this out for everyday use. I rate this book five out of five because it contains valuable information and interesting activities.

    Book preview

    Classical Kids - Laurie Carlson

    THE ACE OF GREECE

    Ancient Greece was an area but never one nation. The people lived in city-states that were independent and were often at war with each other. Although they were sometimes competitive, all the city-states shared the same language and customs. Because of the rugged land, most people settled in river valleys or along the coast. In time the population grew too large for the food supply, so Greek city-states began to set up colonies in other places.

    Greeks sailed around the Mediterranean Sea in search of locations for new settlements.

    A landless Greek could go to a colony and become a landowner. Others just wanted to go for the adventure. The colonists took a sacred flame from the hearth of the city-state. When the new colony was built and secure, it broke ties with the city-state.

    Two city-states became the most important and powerful, Sparta and Athens. They were both homes to Greek citizens who spoke the same language, worshipped the same gods, and were located only one hundred miles apart. Yet life was very different in these two city-state.

    MAP OF ANCIENT GREECE

    SPARTA

    People in Sparta wanted order and stability. Nearly every part of life was controlled by the law, and the city-state was ruled by kings. Most Spartan citizens didn’t work; they lived off the proceeds from the public lands worked by slaves and noncitizens. At about age six, children were sent to live in training barracks. Boys learned military arts and virtues like discipline, obedience, toughness, and endurance. Girls learned things they needed to know to run a home and take care of a family when they grew up. Girls also spent a lot of energy on sports and athletics. Spartans wanted girls to be strong so they would bear strong children. When boys reached the age of twenty they entered the army. They could marry, but they couldn’t go live with their wives and families until age thirty. At thirty they earned the right to vote in the assembly. They served in the Spartan army until about age sixty.

    Spartans ate simple foods: black broth and mush. They wore simple, plain clothing, unless going into battle, when they wore a scarlet tunic and a polished bronze helmet. Spartans were forbidden to work in stores or trade and couldn’t make crafts or art because they needed to spend their efforts keeping fit and strong.

    No other army ever entered Spartan territory. They were the best soldiers anywhere.

    ATHENS

    The citizens of Athens enjoyed freedom and liked change and creative living. They didn’t work much either, having slaves do everything. Athens received profits from silver mines outside the city, so few citizens had to worry about money. Citizens were paid to serve on court juries or hold elected office. Athenians loved going to the theater to see plays and pageants. The government paid admission for the poor so everyone could attend.

    Athens had an army, but it was nothing like the Spartan army. Athens also had a big navy, with more than two hundred ships. Citizens were paid to be in the navy, too.

    Citizens of Athens voted for their government officials. Aristotle was an Athenian who thought that the system of voting in a democracy could become just like having a king. He said that politicians would flatter and make promises to the voters just like the members of a royal court did to a king. Then, once in office, they would serve their own interests instead of the country’s. He thought laws provided a more fair system of government than election by a majority vote. Athens had a system of laws, but the citizens voted, too. They cast their votes on pieces of broken pottery. Sometimes they voted to send a politician away for several years; however, he could come back later and run for office again.

    Athens was a democracy but only for free male citizens. Women couldn’t vote, own property, or become citizens. They had to spend nearly all of their time inside their homes; men even did the shopping. Only people born to parents who were citizens could become citizens. At age eighteen, boys applied to become citizens of Athens. If there was doubt whether a boy was freeborn, a panel of five judges determined whether he could become a citizen or not. If it appeared he had no right to become a citizen, the city sold him into slavery. When a boy was approved as a citizen, he went into the army and learned to fight, march, and drill. At the end of the second year the soldiers were sent out to patrol the country and live at guard posts. During the two years in the military they received a cloak but no pay. Fortunately, they didn’t have to pay taxes during the two years.

    Citizens of Athens were elected to many jobs. There was a treasurer of military funds, treasurers of the theater fund (all poor citizens could apply to the fund to receive money to pay for theater performances), and a superintendent of the water supply. They were elected to their positions for a term that lasted from one Panathenaea Festival to the next. The elections were held in July of each year.

    In Athens there was a law that citizens who owned little property and who were physically disabled and couldn’t work would receive money for their support from the public funds.

    Of course there were other important city-states besides Sparta and Athens. Each was a bit different from the others. People in Sybaris, in southern Italy, put a lot of emphasis on city planning, and the citizens tried to create a pleasant place to live. Noisy businesses were prohibited inside the city and city planning created a serene, comfortable town. It was the only city-state where men ate dinner with their wives and good cooks were highly paid. People in Crotone, another city-state, valued intelligence, too, so they built a major medical school.

    EPIC POETRY

    Not much is known about Greece before the seventh century B.C. Only legends survive from that time.

    One was a long poem (called an epic) titled The Iliad, written by a poet named Homer. He designed it to be recited in public. Its about the hero Achilles who fights bravely on the side of the Greeks in the Trojan War. When his friend Patroelus is killed by the enemy, Prince Hector of Troy, Achilles gets revenge by killing Prince Hector. The poem was about the loyalty of friends to each other. Another famous epic was The Odyssey. It was a story about the hero Odysseus who was returning from war (bed been gone twenty years) but had to overcome witches and giants before he made it back to the island of Ithaca. Odysseus used his clever skills to finally get home to the island of Ithaca where his wife Penelope was waiting for him. While he was away, suitors had come to Ithaca, pestering Penelope to marry one of them. Odysseus returned in a disguise, murdered the suitors, and greeted his son, Telemachus, who had grown up while he was away.

    Professional reciters would tell the stories by memory to audiences who always enjoyed it when the hero was successful.

    Hesiod was a Creek sheepherder who became a professional reciter of epics. He made up some of his own epics and also wrote an almanac, called Works and Days, which was sort of a calendar. It was full of magic and advice about saving money and working hard. Centuries later, Benjamin Franklin did the same, with Poor Richard’s Almanack.

    DRESS UP GREEK

    The Greeks wore simple, loose-fitting clothing. They didn’t want to restrict the body with tight garments, and they wanted to show off the grace and beauty of their physically fit bodies. It was a very warm climate, and keeping cool was more important than staying warm. Women wove the cloth in their homes. The type of yarns used in the weaving depended on the family’s wealth and status. The rich wore linen; the poor and those living in the colder regions of the north wore wool. No one threw out a garment until it wore out. The Greek styles were popular for more than four hundred years and then were copied by the Romans, so there were no fashion trends to keep up with.

    CHITON

    Men wore a chiton, an oblong piece of cloth mostly worn draped around the body with a hole in one side to put one’s arm through. The two ends of the open side were fastened over the other shoulder with a button or clasp. A free citizen (only boys whose parents were both citizens could become citizens) wore a chiton that fastened at both shoulders.

    Workmen, artisans, and slaves wore

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1