Time Travel: Ancient Greece

This year, all of our classes, from sixth grade and down, are studying the Olympics. This past Monday, my class traveled back in time to ancient Greece to learn all about the culture and lifestyle of the Greeks back at the beginning of the Olympics.

Many students came dressed in chiton, or togas. We read about what a child's life would be like in Sparta and Athens, two of the main city/states of that time period. We were amazed that the boys in Sparta were sent away to train as soldiers at the age of seven!

We looked at a map of Greece and located these two important cities. Later in the morning, we enjoyed a Greek feast. We learned that only men were allowed at the feasts and that the women were required to eat in the kitchen. (The girls were allowed to join in on our feasts, though.) We also learned that the Greeks were very into cleanliness and they would wash and perfume their feet before the start of the feast. We heard about how some Greeks ate while reclining on pillows on the floor, so we tried that by spreading out some sheets on the floor and reclining while we sampled some Greek cuisine. We ate hummus and pita bread, Greek olives, feta cheese, grapes and other fruit that would have been available back then.

The Greeks were into plays and attending the theater. We chose parts and began studying for small plays that we will be sharing in the next few days.

We also tried out two fun games that the children played in ancient Greece. We were surprised to learn that they also played a game similar to modern basketball.

To close the day, we looked at the Greek alphabet and practiced writing the letters. We found that some letters were very similar to the ones we use in writing today, but some are very different. We also noticed that some students would not be able to even spell their names if they had to use the Greek alphabet.

We learned so much about Greece through discovery and hands-on learning. It was a great day.