This Ancient Greek Olympics homeschool lesson is a perfect addition to an Ancient Greece unit study.
One can’t study Ancient Greece without mentioning the Olympics. I didn’t want to spend a lot of time on this, but given that Britain had just put in a bid to host the 2012 Olympics, I felt we ought to at least cover it.
Ancient Greek Olympics Lesson: Resources
Non-Fiction Books
Avoid Entering the Greek Olympics (The Danger Zone) by Michael Ford
Ancient Greece and The Olympics Children’s Ancient History by Baby Professor
A Visitor’s Guide to the Ancient Greek Olympics by Neil Faulkner
Read more about why picture books are so useful as part of a well-rounded homeschool Curriculum
Fiction Books
Hour of the Olympics (Magic Tree House) by Mary Pope
Adventures in Ancient Greece (Good Times Travel Agency S.) by Linda Bailey
Our Local Triathlete
Nikki, our friend from the running shop, gave up her spare time and met up with my three older ones in the local coffee shop and took them through the modern Olympics. She had even typed up some notes and questions for them. Thanks Nikki, we were so grateful:
Lapbook Resource
History Pockets: Ancient Greece by Evan Moor
The Ancient Olympics Lapbook
Now I have to admit to not being a huge fan. I think they are weak on information, weak on writing and strong on the child improving their cutting out skills. If I’m honest that is how I feel with most lap books. However, they do have their place and for me they fitted in well with my learning goals for the children on this particular subject. We only did the pocket on the Olympics:
Clay Lucky Charms
Of course, we then had to put on our own Ancient Olympics in our back garden. But first we needed to make ourselves some ‘lucky charms’:
They prepared themselves for all the events and practiced enthusiastically throughout the week. Then came the day of the Ancient Olympics in our back garden. I had nothing to do with this, it was entirely their own idea and they planned and executed the whole thing. Loved it!
Ancient Greek Olympics Lesson: Garden Olympics!
This was such a great activity. We built it up throughout the week, encouraging our athletes to practice, practice, practice! They had made their lucky charms and donned the very best costume they could find. I sent off for some laurel crowns for all the participators.
If you’d like to learn more about the social structure of Ancient Greek done in a very hands-on fun way, check out my post
Ideas for Dress Up
Smiffys Grecian Girl Costume, Red with Robe & Headpiece, Girls Fancy Dress, Child Dress Up Costumes
Cindeer 6 Pieces Gold Leaf Crown Headband Laurel Wreath
The Ancient Greek Olympics Garden Style…
First up was the long jump:
Next the foot race:
Followed by the javelin throw:
And finally archery. But wait a minute, I hear you cry! Archery? Surely that should be wrestling. Well yes. But our Olympics wasn’t very, very authentic (maybe the fairy gave you a clue?- or even the not so long ‘long jump’?) and we knew T would win if he was pitched against the girls in wrestling so we decided to even the odds a little and have them archer instead (sorry):
I think I might have four of the most competitive children ever born! However, although T won overall, he was willing to give up his running medal to A which meant everyone won one event, making it a tie (phew!). So they all got a laurel wreathe:
Afterwards they wrote about their experience in the form of a simple newspaper report:
A simple, effective and fun way of learning about the Ancient Olympics!
Check out our two posts which are a nice precursor to this lesson. The first is an old lesson I did with my older children on the Minoans and the second is a newer lesson I did on the Ancient Minoans which my younger two.
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