Teacher's Guide for APPLESEEDS Children of Ancient Athens

Have available for students textbooks and other materials on Ancient Greece.

Mark it on the Map

Ask students to locate the Mediterranean Sea, Greece, and Athens on a world map.

Vocabulary

epic poem * myth * tragedy * comedy * odyssey * frieze * kithara * palaestra * drachma * obol * siren

Questions for Discussion

• What type of government is a democracy?
• What is the origin of the term?
• Ask students if they can name other forms of government (examples: monarchy, dictatorship, military).
• Who could be a citizen of ancient Athens?
• What ancient event was the precursor of today's marathon (encourage students to research the topic of Marathon and Pheidippides on the internet, suggested site: http://ukdb.web.aol.com/hutchinson/encyclopedia/69/M0004669.htm)?
• Ask students to name three important "gifts from the Greeks" (examples: architecture, democracy, tragedy, comedy).
• How did Athens receive its name?
• Describe an event in your location that might come close to the agora.

• After reading the article "Staying Fit in Ancient Athens," ask students to make a list of the similarities and differences between practices then and now. Was the Athenian attitude toward staying fit the same as ours today?
• Ask students to write a diary entry imagining how they would spend a day as a child in ancient Athens.
• Ask students to write and illustrate a short biography of Socrates, Plato, or Odysseus.

• Divide the class into groups and assign each group one or more of the deities listed on pages 20-21. Have each group make a copy of its deity and find a mythological tale about it. Have each group design a poster using both. The class can then assemble the posters to make a large family tree collage. Students could also research the corresponding Roman deities.
• Ask students to find images of the Parthenon and comparable buildings in Washington D.C.

Extra Credit

Write a report about mastic (possible source of information: www.chiosnet.com/tourism/h/mastic.htm).

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Updated: 5/27/12 04:19 am
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