Cycle 1, Week 4: Ancient Greece resources

I can’t believe that it’s already week 4 of Classical Conversations! Here are some resources for Cycle 1, Week 4.  I have a lot of Ancient Greece resources so I’m going to list them in a separate post from the other Cycle 1, Week 4 resources. Not sure that we’ll read ALL of these, but these were some great finds that I wanted to SHARE. 🙂

Ancient Greece Activities

One of the CC resources that I got from CC Connected recommended focusing on Ancient Greece for Weeks 3 and 4. We are going to finish up some of the Ancient Greece resources that we started last week. You can see additional Ancient Greece resources from my Cycle 1, Week 3 post from last week.

• Plan your own Family Olympics– We created our Family Olympics this summer because of the 2012 Summer Olympics. It was SO FUN and a wonderful, memory-making event! Everyone in the family pitched in and planned it. You can read step-by-step instructions here about how we did so. This would be a great activity to do while studying Ancient Greece, since, after all, they created the first Olympics!

• Ancient Greece lapbook (FREE!)– Homeschoolshare.com has hundreds of lapbooks, file folder games, etc., and these resources are all FREE! I remembered that they have an Ancient Greece lapbook, which would be fun to use during our Ancient Greece studies.

Ancient Greece kid-friendly literature

• D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths–We are LOVING this book! It goes more in-depth about the individual Greek gods as well as the myths. The Usborne Greek Myths for Young Childrenthat we used last year was enjoyable with wonderful illustrations, but it did not explain the individual Greek gods. The D’Aulaire book does and also explains the origin of the Greek gods. It’s very well done, and we are enjoying this for our Read-Aloud book, which is our routine to do over lunch. Buy by clicking on the book above for 40% off the book @ Amazon!

• The Olympians: Great Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Greece (by Leonard Everett Fisher)–This book must be out of print (after seeing the prices on Amazon!), but it would be a good one to find at your library! We LOVE Leonard Everett Fisher books! We found this one at our library, and it’s EXCELLENT!! If you need a shorter-length read with summaries about the primary Greek gods and goddesses, this book is for you!The summaries are only about a paragraph long, and the illustrations are beautiful!

• Theseus and the Minotaur–You can check out this book (again!) by Leonard Everett Fisher or this version of the same story (looks like you’ll need to check your library for it! out of print?) by Warwick Hutton. My boys LOVE this story from Ancient Greece; I think they love it because of the Minotaur, a half-man and half-bull creature. I’m so excited…Lego makes a LEGO Minotaurus Game based on this Ancient Greece story!

I just bought it for my boys last week! They’re getting it for Christmas! I can’t wait to meander through the labyrinth with my boys and try to destroy the Minotaur!

We are game fanatics around our home! I love finding games that connect what we’re learning in school with some of their other loves (like Legos!). If you missed last week’s post, you should also check out this VERY educational, math-focused, Ancient Greece-themed game, Zeus on the Loose.

• The Librarian Who Measured the Earth (by Kathryn Lasky)-Another one that seems to be out of print but would be great to find at your library. This is a biography about a famous Greek man, Eratosthenes who wanted to find out how to measure the earth. He was able to discover a way to do so, and this was almost 2000 years ago when he accomplished it! His measurement was very accurate!

• You Wouldn’t Want to be a Slave in Ancient Greece (by Fiona McDonald) or You Wouldn’t Want to be a Greek Athlete (by Michael Ford)– We love the “You Wouldn’t Want to” historical series! Both of these promise to have great detail about Ancient Greece in a fun, laugh-a-minute way that your kids will love! We found the Ancient Greece slave one at our library.

Have fun exploring Ancient Greece this week! What are your favorite Ancient Greece resources? As always, check out the Cycle 1 Link Up at Half A Hundred Acre Wood for more great Week 4 resources!