Jeopardy - Ancient History Edition!

When we ended our school year last week we decided to have a family Jeopardy competition instead of a unit celebration. June has shaped up to be a very busy month, and it was just easier to do a simple thing to mark the end of our year. And sometimes it's nice to have a change of pace!

I made up questions in four categories, based on our studies for the entire year. They ranged in point value from 100 (timeline 100 question: what does B.C. stand for?) to 500 (what year did the western Roman Empire fall?). No notes were allowed. (note: I am going to laminate this Jeopardy poster so it will be easy to use over and over again, but I am going to change the last category to "Daily Life" instead of "Countries".)


Daddy and the two younger boys made up one team.


And the three older children made up the other team. Team members could confer with each other before the final answer was given. To make it easier I did not have them answer with the question, as in the original TV Jeopardy.


Some of the conferring happened up in the air!


The older children's team won by a narrow margin. It was a fierce competition! Afterward we had cookies and ice cream.



A simple but fun ending to our year!

Year 1, Unit 2 and 3 Celebration!

It finally happened! Last night we had a combined celebration for units 2 and 3 of Tapestry of Grace, Year 1. That covered the time period from shortly after creation to 323 B.C., when Alexander the Great died and the Greek empire was split into three kingdoms. Note to self, that is a LOT of time to cover in one night! Try to do single unit celebrations whenever possible. :-)

We also had to wait on some food and did not start as early as I had hoped, but we had a great time, regardless. I heard from someone else about a really great idea to make passports for our young guests, with places for stickers as they heard/learned about various places throughout the evening. When I suggested it to daughter G, she took the idea and totally ran with it! These are the passports she made. Click on picture to enlarge.



Inside were several pages marked off with squares, one square for each country or civilization we mentioned.


Little Man was our first presenter. I read a short report about Ancient China, and he stood there looking as Chinese as possible. ;-) This is the little jacket I mentioned in my previous post, that I made the pattern for all by myself! I don't think it's authentic to the ancient time period, but I'm pleased with it, and he loves it! (it was nicely pressed prior to the celebration, but he wore it so much around the house it got horribly wrinkled ~ wrinkles on costumes I can live with!)



We had a member of our audience read a "fact card" about the ancient civilization in the Indus Valley (what is now Pakistan and part of Afghanistan). And then we ate. We had chicken fried rice (from the local Chinese carry out restaurant), and chicken tenders cooked in the crockpot with sesame ginger sauce. These foods represented China. We also had a selection of different types of olives, to represent Greece, as well as Greek bread and hummus. Since ancient Greeks did not use a table and chairs for their meals, many of the children ate on the floor!


After eating, we had a visit from a Mayan chief, who told us about life in the ancient Mayan civilization in what is now southern Mexico and Central America.


We then turned our attention to the Archaic period of Ancient Greece. Daughter G portrayed Penelope, long suffering wife of Odysseus, who fought for ten years in the Trojan War and then had a series of mishaps on his voyage home so that the return trip took another ten years! She read an essay she had written in writing class about Penelope.


After hearing from Penelope, we got to hear from Odysseus himself!


We moved our attention to Israel and what was happening with the Hebrews. The Philistine Goliath, of David and Goliath fame, gave a report on his people.


During King Solomon's reign he built a glorious temple in which to worship God. We talked a bit about the daily practice of animal sacrifice for the redemption of sin, and how the priests would blow the shofar (ram's horn) to announce the morning and evening sacrifice, to announce the beginning and end of Sabbath, and to announce or as part of Holy Days and festivals. Thanks to my dear grandpa, now in heaven, who made several trips to Israel during his lifetime, we were able to have a "real" shofar to blow at our celebration! Our two youngest boys can blow it best in our family.



And just fyi, about the costumes.... three of the five children did not have to change clothes completely to portray their second character, they just added something over the first costume. Most of the added pieces were not even sewn! So, super easy.

We learned that Israel split into two kingdoms, and how eventually both kingdoms were conquered by foreign nations. When Judah succumbed to Babylon, a young man by the name of Daniel was exiled to Babylon along with thousands of fellow Hebrews. Daniel told us the story of how he ate only vegetables and drank water for three weeks and ended up being the most healthy looking of all the captives in King Nebuchadnezzar's court!


After Daniel, we were graced by Esther, Queen of Persia, who told us the story of how God used her to help deliver the Jews from annihilation, and how remembering that deliverance is celebrated as the Feast of Purim each year (celebrated on March 20! So we just missed it!). We added a purple poncho over her Greek chiton (pronounced ki-ten) and a long, sheer, purple veil to transform her into Queen Esther.


The Persians later fought against the Greeks. Son G portrayed a Greek soldier from Sparta, during the time of the Peloponnesian Wars (wars between Sparta and Athens).


Son L then portrayed Alexander the Great, who in 12 short years managed to subdue nations and grow a vast empire, spreading Greek culture to every place he conquered. He died in 323 B.C., which is where our studies in Unit 3 ended.


Last but not least, and slightly out of order, we had son C portray the Greek citizen Pythagoras, best known for developing the Pythagorean Theorem (do you remember what that is??). We wanted to portray someone from the Golden Age of Greece, during the height of Greece's philosophical, mathematical, and scientific contributions, and son C choose Pythagoras. His costume required no sewing at all (just folding and cutting, and pins at the shoulders) and the "key" pattern on the bottom edges of his tunic was drawn on with permanent marker. :-)


We displayed just a few of the many books we enjoyed during these two units, as well as some of the children's hands on projects.


Friends and guests!




It was a very fun evening! Unit celebrations make such good memories. If you've never done a unit celebration and have been on the fence, you need to just DO it! It doesn't have to be elaborate or hard. Ours never flow quite as smoothly as I envision them to in my head, but they are fun and the children LOVE them! Our daughter was completely enamored with the costumes this time and said they were the best ones we've had yet.... which is pretty high praise from a teenage girl. :-)

I am thankful for the support of family and friends who always want to come to our unit celebrations, but even if it's just for your own family, you won't regret doing one!

Making Unit Celebration Costumes (Year 1, Units 2 and 3)

We had our unit celebration(s) today!! Pics from that coming soon, but here is a little teaser....


Sculpey clay teeth, made by daughter G, for a Mayan necklace.


Me, sewing! I am *not* a seamstress, but I can sew a seam! I was actually quite pleased with a little Chinese jacket I made for Little Man. I realized I was not a good enough seamstress to make up anything as complicated as having sleeves, without a pattern. As I did not have a pattern small enough for Little Man, I made my own out of tissue paper! A front, a back, and a sleeve piece, and voila'! It worked out GREAT, and turned out to be the most "finished" looking costume of them all.


We needed a couple different shields. For a Philistine shield we covered son G's Captain America shield from last Halloween with tan/leathery fabric....


....and to make a bigger Greek hoplite shield we covered poster board with more of the leathery looking fabric. Daughter G colored the boar emblem on it with permanent markers.


Son G made his Greek hoplite helmet by paper mache-ing a balloon, blown up to slightly larger than the circumference of his head.


He drew his face on the balloon first, so he'd know what not to cover.


When it was dried to just slightly damp and was still pliable, we fit it more exactly to his head. Then we let it dry completely before spray painting it with bronze paint.

Daughter G planned all the accessories for all the costumes, and did a wonderful job helping to make many of them! We had a great time portraying characters from Unit 2 and Unit 3!

Our Week in Review - Classical Greece, part 2

Before I tell you about our history studies, I just have to share this picture from Little Man's Bible Journal..... it has a story behind it, which I find hilarious!

We are reading through Psalms and Proverbs right now, reading the chapter from each book that corresponds to each day's date. So on March 16 we read Psalm 16 and Proverbs 16. The Proverbs are so interesting to read with the children.... each verse can be its own picture and I never know what they will choose to illustrate in their Bible journals. It is pretty amazing to look through them after class and see how they have chosen to illustrate some small gem of wisdom.

Little Man, of his own accord, chose to illustrate Proverbs 16:31, which reads, "Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained by a righteous life." When he showed me this picture afterward, he said, "this is you, mommy. Your gray hair is like a crown. I think when your dye grows out this time, you should leave your hair gray and wear it like this." Hahaha! In addition to my lovely hair, I got a kick out of my pointy b**bs! I love that Little Man so much. He makes me smile.


We spent last week continuing our study of the classical period of Ancient Greece. We learned about some of the Greeks who made significant discoveries or advances in math, science, and philosophy. Fortunately for anyone with young children studying famous dead Greeks, there is a whole series of books about Greek mathematicians, scientisits, and astronomers, that are well written and very fun to read. A couple of our favorites last week were this book about Pythagoras, who developed several math formulas still in use today:


...and this one about Erasthosthenes (AIR-a-TOS-the-neez) who figured out a way to measure the circumference of the earth. Later it was realized that he came to within 200 miles of the actual distance around! Not bad!


We worked in our history notebooks last week, catching up on some explanation of architecture...



...and writing down some interesting facts we learned about other aspects of Greek life. We LOVE the lapbooks that Tapestry of Grace sells ~ what a great way for the boys to narrate back to me (and/or write down) what they have internalized from our reading!



In other news, our third grader, C, learned the difference between linear measure and the area of a square or rectangle! I guess this was appropriate since we learned about Greek mathematicians all week. At first it was hard for him to visualize, so I got the brainstorm to show him the difference between a ruler and a lego building board. That did it. He got it!


It was a great week of learning, and we are almost done with the Greeks! Very soon we will have our unit celebration and be on to the Romans!

Our Week in Review - Classical Greece

Warning: this is a long post with lots of pictures! I have fallen out of the habit of posting "our week in review" posts, so this is a combination of the last two weeks. I hope to get back in the habit because it's really encouraging to be reminded of all we did accomplish, and also a great way to share our every day school days with loved ones both near and far.

We have been studying the Classical period of Greece recently. The Archaic period (the time of Odysseus, Achilles, the Trojan War, etc) happened several hundred years before the Classical period, but the Classical period is what most people think of when they think of Ancient Greece. It's been fun to study this culture again, adding to the information we gained when we learned about the Archaic period.

I was shocked to realize that the "golden age" of Greece only lasted 47 years!! The culture itself lasted much longer and had far reaching influence on other nations and people groups, even up to the present day, but the "golden age" itself, when the culture was at its height, was very short. I don't remember ever learning that! (I love continuing to learn!)

Another amazing thing for us to learn was how the ancient Israelites, Babylonians, Persians, and Greeks were all tied together. The Israelites were conquered by the Babylonians (leading to the dispursion, or diaspora, of Jews to all other parts of the Middle East). A young man named Daniel was among those Jews sent to Babylon in exile, and he is of course the same Daniel we read about in the Bible, whose friends were thrown into the fiery furnace and miraculously saved by the Lord, who could interpret dreams and who ended up in the lion's den when he was much older (and also survived!).

The Babylonians were very shortly afterward conquered by the Persians (here is where the story of Queen Esther fits in), and the Persians became so great and powerful they decided to try and conquer the Greeks. A series of battles between the Greeks and Persians (known as the Persian Wars) ended with Persia's defeat, stopping the expansion of that empire into Europe. Then there was the "golden age" of Greece, when there was relative peace and the people had time and energy to devote to the development of the arts and sciences. Then followed the Peloponnesian War, between Sparta and Athens, which Sparta won and which began the gradual decline of Greece's greatness. All of this occurred within a span of just 165 years!! This was a huge history puzzle piece that got put in place for me, personally, during our studies.

Last week for virtual co-op, both daughter G and son G had the opportunity to make short power point presentations to share in class, covering an aspect of Greek history. Daughter G, being in virtual co-op for three years now, has made several power points. But it was son G's first time. I am so thrilled for the opportunity our children have to learn these skills early and have years to practice them. He really enjoyed it! He did his presentation on the Peloponnesian War. Here he is making it:


We discussed together (all five children) the similarities and differences between the city-states of Athens and Sparta, and made Venn diagrams to illustrate what we discussed. The ability to compare is another skill I am so thrilled to teach our children early. Everyone made a Venn diagram.....


.....even our kindergartner, Little Man! He drew a picture illustrating something unique to Sparta, something unique to Athens, and something they both shared. Then he dictated to me what they were, and I wrote for him. Click on the picture if you want to see it larger.


Despite the fact that our schoolroom makeover is far from done, it has been functioning very well for us this year. I am so thankful to have more space in which to spread out! At the back of the room we have a small table which is our "extra activities" table. I put some Greek activities on it, and then put a note in each of the children's workboxes to spend time at the activities table.


Many of the activities came from this kit: The Ancient Greece Treasure Chest.


Over the course of the last two weeks, here are some of the activities the children have worked on: (trojan horse is from the Archaic period of Greece, and doesn't belong with our Classical studies, but we made him anyway!)


They each wrote their name in Greek letters, and then stamped a Greek pattern around the edges of their paper.




They also made pictures of a Greek amphora (vase) from a template I had, and decorated them with Greek looking designs and pictures.



Such great practice for Little Man in fine motor skills!



We learned that Athens was the birthplace of democracy ~ government by the people. They instituted a council, and any citizen could serve on the council multiple times during his lifetime (of course, only male non-slaves could be citizens). To vote someone off the council required a certain number of "ostrakons" cast. An ostrakon was a broken piece of pottery, on which a name had been scratched. Many ostrakons have been found by archeologists. We get our word "ostracize" from this word! We decided to make our own ostrakons. I broke up a couple of flower pots to get us started, and that was actually kind-of fun!


The children painted them black.




When the paint was dry, they used a nail to scratch out a name in Greek letters, using this letter wheel from the Ancient Greek Treasure Chest (letter wheel showed roman sounds and their corresponding greek letter).




We ended up with five ostrakons voting Obama out of office! (click on picture to enlarge and see the writing better)


This week we are learning about some specific advances in math, science and philosophy made by the Greeks. We will have another Greek meal this Friday, rather than our usual pizza, and then next week we learn about Alexander the Great conquering the Greeks! (can't believe we are almost up to the time of Christ!)