Learning About Ancient Rome: Activities And Resources For Elementary Students

We've been studying various ancient civilizations this year. So far we've covered Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome and have plans for China and the Aztecs. We had an especially fun time with Rome so I thought I would share some of the activities we did and resources we used.

Activities:

Laurel Wreath Crowns
The ancient Romans wore crowns made of Laurel leaves as a sign of status. We made our own Laurel wreath crowns out of a paper plate and construction paper.

For this activity you will need:

-Construction paper in two different shades of green. If you don't have more than one shade of green, you can use green and yellow like we did.

-A paper plate

-Scissors

-School glue or paste

Start by cutting the edge off the plate. Discard the inner part, the edge is the part you will be using. Cut a slit in one side of the paper plate so it will better fit your head.

Look at a few pictures of Laurel leaves online (Google Images works well for this). Then draw lots of Laurel leaves onto your various colors of construction paper and cut them out.

Start gluing them onto your paper plate rim starting at one side of the slit and working your way towards the center. Then start at the other side and work towards the center again.

Once it's dry, your Laurel wreath crown is ready to wear.

Try pairing it with a homemade toga, they are pretty simple to make with an old white sheet or table cloth. All you have to do is wrap your sheet or table cloth around your body under your arms and tie two edges up over one shoulder. Add a rope around your waist and now you have a toga!

Prepare A Roman Meal
Try eating like a Roman! For our simple meal we had cheese, green olives, and ancient Roman style bread. Here's the bread recipe we tried:
Roman Spelt Slipper Bread

Other popular ancient Roman foods you could try are:
-Dates
-Fish
-Broad Beans
-Cucumbers
-Radishes
-Wheat Pancakes with honey

Ancient Roman Mosaics
Spend some time looking at ancient Roman mosaics. A quick Google Image search will give you lots. Then try making some mosaics of your own out of construction paper! For this activity you will need:

-Several colors of construction paper

-A pen

-Paste

Start by drawing a simple design or picture on a piece of black construction paper.

Choose several colors of construction paper for your mosaic and rip them up into tiny pieces.

Using your paste, glue the colored pieces of construction paper onto the design you drew to make a picture.

Additional Resources:

Learn About Ancient Roman Mythology:

-Ancient Rome- Gods and Mythology from Ducksters

-Roman Mythology from History For Kids

Learn About Ancient Roman Architecture:

-Ancient Rome- Engineering and Construction from Ducksters

-Ancient Roman Architecture from History For Kids

-Roman Aquaduct and Road STEM Activity from Lueker Munchkins- School and Play

Miscellaneous Information About Ancient Rome:

-Ancient Rome For Kids from Ducksters

-Roman Numerals For Kids Video from Homeschool Pop

-Kids Math- Roman Numerals from Ducksters

If you enjoyed this post, check out:

-Activities And Resources For Learning About Ancient Egypt

-Learning About The California Gold Rush

Follow me on:
Facebook
Pinterest
Instagram

Comments

Water Relay Races For Kids

I don't know about your kids, but mine absolutely love games involving water and getting wet in the summer time. In this post I share 5 of our favorite water relay races to play with friends. These are perfect for birthday parties, homeschool get togethers, and other group events. Sponge Relay: For this relay you will need: - 2 teams of several kids each -2 large sponges -4 small buckets or containers of some sort Divide your participants into 2 teams and have each team line up single file at a predetermined starting place. Hand out a sponge to the first participant in each line. Set a bucket of water by each team. Set an empty bucket about 20 ft away from each team. The two empty buckets should be the same size and should have a "fill line" marked half way up. On a count of 3 (or ready set go) the first participant in each line should dip their sponge in the bucket of water, run to the empty bucket, squeeze the water from their spo

STEM Art: 21 STEAM Project Ideas

My kids love STEM projects and we're always looking for ways to add more art to our homeschool days, so I decided I am going to try to dedicate one morning a week this year to STEM art activities. In this post I share some of the ideas we're planning to try, plus a few favorites we've done in the past. What is STEM Education? STEM education is a blended and often hands on approach to teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, which are some of today's fastest growing industries. STEM education offers students the opportunity to problem solve and work on real world problems and questions. Sometimes the acronym STEAM is used, to include the arts. Adding art to STEM education encourages creative thinking and problem solving skills. It can also help make the other included subjects more appealing to some students. STEM Art Projects Penny Spinners- Learn about centrifugal force and make your own spinning tops with this fun post from Teach Beside Me. Explo

Make Your Own Mineral Identification Kit

One of my family's favorite hobbies is rock hounding. We love collecting and trying to identify neat rock and mineral specimens that we come across. You can put together your own simple kit for identifying rocks and minerals with materials you likely already have around your home. In this post I will explain how to put together your own mineral identification kit and how to use it to identify rocks and minerals you find on your adventures. Making a Rock and Mineral ID Kit Grab yourself a printable Rock and Mineral Journal for recording your observations here: Printable Rock and Mineral Journal , and then gather the following supplies: -A pencil -A coin -An iron nail -A piece of glass (an old pocket mirror works well) -A ceramic tile -A small watertight bottle or container -Some vinegar -A magnet -A magnifying glass -A dropper (optional) -Rock and mineral guide (optional) -A small container or bag to keep it all in Fill the small watertight

Learning About Thailand: Activities and Resources

Thailand ended up being a really fun country to study. There are so many amazing Thai recipes to try and lots of neat buildings and monuments to learn about. My family's favorite part of this unit study was learning about Asian elephants, they are such interesting and intelligent animals! Basic Information Thailand is a country in southern Asia. It is boarderd by Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and the Andaman Sea. The northern region is mountainous while the southern region is hilly and forested. Capital- Bangkok Population- 69.6 million Size- 198,115 square miles Currency- Baht Type of Government- Constitutional Monarchy National Anthem- Phleng Chat Thai National Animal- elephant Flag Famous Places The Grand Palace- The Grand Palace in Bangkok was used as the official royal residence of Thailand from 1782 to 1925. It is still used today for ceremonies and state functions. The palace sits on the banks of the Chao Phraya River. It consists of many buildings and pavilions set around a

Learning About The Human Body Part 1: The Skeletal And Muscular Systems

At the end of each school year, I sit down with my daughter to discuss what topics she wants to learn about the next year. One of her science topics she picked to study this year was the human body. Instead of ordering a boxed curriculum set, I decided to put together my own human body unit. In this post I share some of the resources we used for learning about the human skeletal and muscular systems, plus instructions for a couple hands on learning activities. You can find my post about the human respiratory and circulatory systems here , and my post about the human digestive and nervous systems here . The Human Skeletal System Our skeletons are the frame of our body. They give us structure, without them our bodies would be limp like noodles. They also provide places for muscles to attach so our bodies can move. Why Does Your Body Need Calcium? Experiment: This is a simple experiment you can do to explore why calcium is important for our bones. You will need: -several clean

Search This Blog