Ancient Celt Unit Study: Activities

This is my final post on the Ancient Celts, until I cover it with my little two.  This post includes all the activities we did a few years ago, including the writing, during our Ancient Celt Unit Study.

Ancient Celt Writing Activities

Everything I set the guys to write was Celt related and independently researched.  I gave them a white board each to write their research in key words and that was a BIG hit.  They wrote a short story based on two Celtic characters, one had to be female.  They had to write about a problem and the solution to it, in story form.  I also stipulated that they must include details of what the Celt women did all day and what they wore.  The results were pure delight!  L9 wrote a story about a daughter whose mother expected her to do ALL the chores around the house (ahem!) and she reeled off all the jobs her mother made her do and the solution was that her father insisted the mother SHARED the jobs with her (had to laugh!) and then ‘peace was restored to the house forever’.  Not sure if she was trying to tell me something.  I’m fairly certain L9 doesn’t do everything.  I mean there’s T10, C9 and A3 to consider……  She assured me it wasn’t reflective of how she felt, but I must admit, it made me giggle!

For their descriptive passage I suggested they describe a male Celt.  They had to choose four things to concentrate on (clothes, adornments,weapons and hair) and write a piece entitled ‘How to Recognise a Male Celt’.  Afterwards, T10 had to dress as described.  Here is my gorgeous Celt boy:

The Celtic Knot and Other Celtic Designs

After they had designed their own costume, made jewellery and pasted on war paint, they tried their hands at tattoos.  Washable tattoos.  I seem to be under the misapprehension that something washable means it actually washes off.  Not so as it happens.  A week in and their presence was marked by the massive black smudge where a beautiful pattern used to sit.  Yuck!  My children looked permanently filthy.  No change there, then.  Although in my defence of my perpetually dirty children, it was washed off every night.  Problem is the washable tattoos don’t.  Wash off, that is.  Here are some photos pre washing:

We studied the Celtic designs in greater detail by first colouring in lots of pictures of Celts and Celtic designs.  These pictures gave us an idea of just how much they liked their bodies covered in tattoos (imagine me shuddering at the very thought…think of all that washing and scrubbing to get them off and they had no bath or shower to help):

And the children also coloured some stained glass window pictures with Celt designs on:

Painting a Celtic Shield

This was a pack we bought from the Butser Ancient Farm we visited earlier in the week.  They were basically thick card shields which were to be painted using images which looked alive and scary:

Weaving by Hand

Last but not least they tried their hands at some simple weaving using ribbon and polystyrene butcher trays (free from the local butchers):

I am looking forward to covering this once more with my younger set.

For more ideas please do take a look at my Celt Pinterest Board: