Greece--Land of Myths
In winter/spring of 2002 we studied Greece in a co-op. This is what my children ages 8 and 10 used, did and learned from the co-op. The materials listed are geared towards a 5th grader.
I have to add that while we did this unit the 2002 Winter Olympics were being held in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, and just made this unit come alive. We studied the ancient Olympics and how different the Olympics are now. We did:
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Math -- What country took home the most medals per athlete? |
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Geography -- Why aren't there more winter athlete's from Africa and South America? |
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Economics -- How much does it cost to be an Olympic athlete? |
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and more. |
But I digress...look see our Olympics unit study for more information.
Please see the General History page for more books and links.
| Resources--books | Resources--websites | Projects | Writing Assignments0 |
Resources
Books
Non-Fiction--Information books:
| A Greek Temple by Fiona Macdonald (Peter Bedrick Books) |
| Arms & Armor by Michele Byam (DK, 2000; ISBN 0786458365)* |
| Ancient Greece by Chris Chelepi (troll) |
| Bulfinch's Greek and Roman Mythology: The Age of Fable (unabridged) by Thomas Bulfinch (Dover) (Used only as a source as it is very advanced for my young children.)* |
| Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece by Jan Chisholm, Lisa Miles & Struan Reid (Usborne)* |
| Footsteps in Time, The Greeks (Children's Press) |
| Famous Men of Greece by John H Haaren LL.D. & A.B. Poland, Ph.D. (revised by Cyndy & Rober Shearer) (Greenleaf Press)* |
| Greek and Norse Legends illustrated by Rodney Matthews (Usborne, 1987; ISBN 0746002408)* |
| Greek Myths for Young Children retold by Heather Amery, illustrated by Linda Edwards (Usborne)* |
| How Would You Survive as an Ancient Greek? by Fiona Macdonald, illustrated by Mark Bergin (Franklin Watts)* |
| Mythology by Neil Philip (DK, 2000; ISBN 0789490773)* |
| Parthenon by Lynn Curlee (Atheneum, 2004; ISBN 0689844905) |
| Science in Ancient Greece by Kathlyn Gay (Franklin Watts, 1998; ISBN 0531203573) |
| Spend the Day in Ancient Greece by Linda Honan, illustrated by Ellen Kosmer (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.)* |
| The Everyday Life of a Greek Potter (Peter Bedrick Books) |
| The Greece (Worlds of the Past series) |
| The Greenleaf Guide to Famous Men of Greece by Cyndy Shearer (Greenleaf Press)* |
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The Usborne Book of Greek and Norse Legends, illustrated by Rodney
Matthews (Usborne) (Two books in one, we just used the first part, The
Greek Legends.)* |
Activity Books:
| Ancient Greece! by Avery Hart & Paul Mantell, illustrated by Michael Kline (Williamson Publishing)* |
| Ancient Greece; National Geographic Map,December 1999* |
| Classical Kids: An Activity Guide to Life in Ancient Greece and Rome by Laurie Carlson ( Chicago Review) * |
| Greece by Joan Bowden (Compass Production) (This is an Activity Pop-up Book)* |
| Usborne Cut-Out Models Make This Greek Temple (Usborne)* |
Fiction:
| Favorite Greek Myths by Bob Blaisdell (Dover Children's Thrift Classics) KR* |
| Hour of the Olympics (Magic Tree House) by Mary Pope Osborne (Scholastic) KR* |
| It's All Greek to Me (Time Warp Trio) by Jon Scieszka (Puffin) KR* |
| The Children's Homer: The Adventures of Odysseus And the Tale of Troy by Padraic Colum, illustrated by Willy Pogany ( Aladdin) RA* |
| The Story of Hercules by Bob Blaisdell (Dover Children's Thrift Classics) KR* |
Audio/visual:
| Greek Myths as created and told by Jim Weiss (Greathall Productions Inc) (CD available at www.greathall.com and other fine book sellers) |
Web sites
| Lesson plans for Ancient Greece (information on the ancient Olympics can be found here) |
| This is a fun "test" for the kids (But don't stop here, scroll up and down for other fun things. I think we spent days here!) |
| Greek Costumes Find the right plate for this era (there are more than one) and click |
| Hyper History An interesting time line, worth at least a quick look |
| BBC History of Greeks and their site for kids |
| Fashion of the Greeks |
| Greek Mythology Coloring pages |
| Ancient Greece sites |
| Mr. Donn's Greece Sites (awesome!) |
| Celebration of the Olympics from teacherlink.com |
| Parthenon 3D paper craft from Cannon |
| Introduction to Modern Greek by J. David Eisenberg |
| Helaman's Academy unit on Olympics |
Projects
| Myths/legends |
| Daily Life of an Grecian |
| weapons |
| utensils/tools |
| jewelry |
| Olympics (ancient/modern) |
| food & drink |
| commerce |
| travel |
| customs |
| the fall of Greece |
| ...and more |
Assignment: Write a two page (double spaced) paper on a subject approved by your teacher, it doesn't have to be listed here. There needs to be two sources cited, remember the rules for citation. Also make some visual aide to go along for the presentation. Time allowed; 4 weeks.
Because of other things going on in our life, the project was "cancelled" for the Egyptian unit and instead they were to find a traditional food and bring that to an "Olympic Feast" we held as a group.
Writing assignments
| For the study of Egypt we used the books Favorite Greek Myths by Bob Blaisdell, It's All Greek to Me by Jon Scieszka and The Children's Homer: The Adventures of Odysseus And the Tale of Troy by Padraic Colum, illustrated by Willy Pogany . |
| Favorite Greek Myths was used as a jump off point for the children to make up their own myth. My children made a great puppet play, "How We Got Valentine's Day." Some day I will post it here. It is quite humorous; you should see the video! They were just given one week to do this and the assignment was very open in that all it said was, "Make up your own Greek-type myth." It was to be no less than half a page, double spaced. |
| It's All Greek to Me was made into a play. The children are to pick a scene (usually a chapter) and make it into a play. They were to practice and try to perform the play for friends and family within a two week period. This book lends itself very well to a play. |
| For The Children's Homer we had the children change one of the endings to the adventure of Odysseus or Achilles. They must quote at least twice from the book using proper citation notation. It was to be two pages, double spaced, with a rough and final draft. Final was due in 2 weeks. |
Completed February, 2002
November, 2006
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