Ancient Greece

We had an interesting class this past week, full of heroic battles and underdog wins!  We took a look back at Ancient Greece, from the forming of the city states to the Age of Pericles.  We finally got to put some dates on our Europe portion of the time lines. And we assigned everyone some people to find out about and report back to us as we study new times and places in the coming weeks.  Here are the assignments:
Michael - Homer
Siddhartha Gautama - Lydia
Confucius - Evan
Aristotle - Lyla
Alexander the Great - Celee
Asoka - Gwyn
Shihuangdi - Bella
Pericles - Olivia
Socrates - Gracie
*This does not have to be some huge report.  Just a few facts that each student can learn about their person and tell the others about.  If you'd like to find and show a picture or drawing of the person that would be great, but not required.

We worked on an Ancient Greece foldable, with the sections for Ancient Greece (Minoa and Mycenae), City-States (Athens and Sparta), Persia Invades (Battles of Marathon, Thermopylae, and Plataea), and Age of Pericles.  We didn't get to the Age of Pericles yet.
We watched an episode of Horrible Histories about the Battle of Marathon.  If you'd like to watch it again (or for the first time)  Here it is: Battle of Marathon

We watched a small portion of the History Channel documentary on the Battle of Thermopylae.  The whole thing is 1 1/2 hr. long and bloody in some spots, so we just watched some highlights.  Here is the link if you'd like to see it:  History Channel: Battle of Thermopylae

Here are some other videos and interactive sights that have some cool info about Ancient Greece.
History Channel - Crash Course on Greek Gods


Myth of Prometheus


Explore Ancient Greece


Adventures in Ancient Greece Game

Ancient Israel

  Thank you Gracie for the health lesson on Eating the Rainbow yesterday!

We had fun yesterday finding out about the Ancient Israelites.  We took a speedy tour of the past from Abraham leaving Ur in 1800 BC to the rebuilding of the Temple in 538 BC.    It was fun to let the students dress up and do a quick role play of the history.  They got to be roped into the Twelve Tribes of Israel, split into Israel and Juday, then taken over by the Assyrians, then the Babylonians, then the Persians, then the Greeks, and then back to independence again.  (We went a little farther up the timeline in our role playing to get in the Macabees kicking the Greeks out)
The kids also got to see how the Phoenicians developed an alphabet that was the beginnings of our Latin alphabet and the Hebrew alphabet.  We even practiced writing the Shema, which is prayed at least twice day.  Here is what it looks like in Hebrew and English:

For fun here is a funny video about Israel and a game about one of Israel's leaders and his lost tomb.


Israel explained in 5 minutes Video

Herod's Lost Tomb Game


History of the Phoenicians Video   

Evan is set to do the health lesson the next time we meet, which will be Jan 21st.  See you then!