The Ancient Greeks

[learnandsay]

Hypothetically speaking I reckon it makes sense to teach young English/ (perhaps British) children about the Romans because of their influence. I'm not sure why, but the Egyptians are plain fascinating and we're already mad about them in my family. That's an unfair bias, I know. Cavemen we're into as well. But they're simple to discuss.

But the Ancient Greeks?! I'm considering skipping them altogether. My own degree is in philosophy. I've studied their writings for eons. But when it comes to explaining to young kids what the Greeks did, I get really, really stuck.

Aristotle categorised plants, animals and political systems.
Athens had one of the first democracies, and the first to be called by that name.
The Spartans had one of the earliest systems of special forces training regimes, if you don't call starving seven year old boys and whipping them to death torture. OK, sure. I admit all of it! But how does any of this help?

So, the Greeks invented school. But is that a good thing or a bad thing?

The more I think about it the more convinced I get that the Greeks are going to get skipped in our house. They gave us the inspiration for the film 300. OK but is that something to be glad about? And many of their mythologies are pretty messed up. You've only got to start with Edypus and it all goes down hill to Hades from that point.

I'm a Viking woman myself

Socrates - if for no other reason tell them about Socrates.

Tell them the story of Socrates and the oracle of Delphi, of how he wrote nothing down, how he taught, how he questioned everything, was condemned to death but wouldn't leave the city even though he could. There's so much just there to talk about.

and of course we have the Olympics in 2012 surely worth a mention

You can't skip the Greeks - you just can't. I am shocked to the core. I am like this: .

I'd drop the Egyptians if there were an unlikely Greco-Egyptian fight-off scenario - what did they ever do for us (apart from the invention of paper and a few impressive architectural skills)?

I love the Ancient Greeks!

My sister and I had this book when we were small - might provide at least a bit more of a springboard for discussions? I'm sure Ancient Greece was in there.

OK Learnandsay

I think we're going to have to agree to disagree.

Why teach about Ancient Greece KS1/ KS2:

1. The 2012 OLYMPICS - ancient Greek inspired, our modern Olympics have their foundation in ancient Greece. But the Ancient Olympics weren't just athletics (by the way just men and mostly naked!) they also include competitions reciting poetry and making pottery.

Tufts University in the USA has a lovely little website explaining more about the Olympics - and that it wasn't just limited to athleteic achievement, but celebrated poetry, art and architecture, as well as mathematics. www.perseus.tufts.edu/Olympics/

Since you're involved in teaching you should have access to Times Education Supplement: some nice Olympics posts for KS1/ KS2 here: www.tes.co.uk/ResourceDetail.aspx?storyCode=6087603

The British Museum has a lovely website about the 5 days of the festival: www.ancientgreece.co.uk/festivals/story/sto_set.html

You could link ancient Olympics events into your school's celebrations/ fundraising - so a mini marathon fundraiser (maybe £1 a lap around the school for a set time).

poetry recital contest - have each Year group memorize a poem and then have the classes divided into teams (maybe based on ancient Greek city-states like Athens, Sparta, Corinth, etc...) and have the teams select their representatives (so 4 groups of 6 and the 6 in Sparta group chose the pupil to publically perform).

Make pottery.

Maybe try sculpture (just with clay - not necessarily fired pottery - but that could be possible too!).

The judges could be dressed as Greek Gods and Goddesses (possibly played by the teachers/ Head/ DH).

2. Myths underpin literature & art in the West - knowing them helps to decode reference (artistic or literary) in future. Just as knowing Bible stories does.

Myths dodgy? So do you really want to explain how a virgin birth works? All religious myths have their dodgy moments, but don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

Greek Mythology is closely linked (although there are differences) to Roman Myth - both of which underpin a lot of major Western Artwork - so knowing myths helps people plug into the stories the painting are depicting. Also many satirists use mythology as a metaphor for what is actually occurring politically, especially when in dictatorships.

There's a lovely website for primary students by primary students here: www.meads.e-sussex.sch.uk/greek/index.htm

They myths can be exciting, daring tales (let's face it Perseus defeating Medusa is great stuff).

And many lessons for life (Midas' Touch).

Also Aesop's fables (Rabbit and the Hare or try the Cat Maiden Tale) - Great website here: www.aesops-fables.org.uk/

Achilles killing the amazon (see image & info here: www.britishmuseum.org/learning/schools_and_teachers/sessions/looking_at_greek_myths.aspx) will bring a tear to the most jaded myth-hater - in the moment the beautiful warrior Achilles spears the Amazon Queen Penthesilea their eyes meet and he falls madly in love with her as she dies in his arms.

If you're visiting a museum/ art gallery during the year - why not have the children see if they can identify elements of Greek architecture in the building and myths in the artwork. Prizes to the group that finds the most.

3. artistic/ architectural influence Teach the children about Greek Architectural styles (more info here: www.ancientgreece.com/s/Art/]] - now have them go to look at major buildings in their city/ town - town/ city hall, Churches, War Memorials, etc... - see if they can see the influence of Greek Architectural Styles.

Greek Sculpute was the first naturalistic portrayal. It's influence spans history - influencing Rome, influencing the Renaissance, etc...

Lovely website on BBC Learning here: www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/ancient_greeks/

4. mathematics I can't make the symbol - but teach them about Pi. A great video here: www.teachersmedia.co.uk/videos/pi-in-the-kitchen

The concept can be taught without precise number at first - by just having groups work out that the circumference is 3 and a bit x as long as the diameter. You can then work out what it is precisely (or just introduce it) - and then you can introduce that it's 3.14 recurring (so a line above the .14). Then link back to this was discovered by an ancient Greek - attributed to Euclid (the founder of Euclidean Geometry) who was Alexander the Great's Maths Tutor.

This is also a useful discussion topic because it is an instance where 'The West' really owes the Muslim world a huge debt of gratitude. Mainly from Spanish Moors who preserved or copied Byzantine texts (also copies most likely) recording ancient plays, poems, histories and mathematics.

Much of mathematical language has it's roots in ancient Greek. Useful webpage: www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~loxias/greeks.htm. Certainly useful in teaching the metric system and geometric shapes. A brief unit on some simple Greek number & shape vocabularly can help decode a lot of mathematical terms for students.

5. theatre (drama: comedies/ tragedies)

info here at BBC Learning: www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/ancient_greeks/arts_and_theatre/ - at the bottom of the page there's a link to a little tour of the Greek Theatre 2500 years ago.

A video introducing Greek Theatre concepts:

Another is:

powerpoint resource from TES here: www.tes.co.uk/ResourceDetail.aspx?storyCode=6097549 & nice worksheet here: www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Greek-theatre-6003692/

So yes, the Greeks may not be that important to you Learnandsay - but if you interested in accessing literature, theatre (plays/ opera/ ballet) or realising the inspiring early progress in mathematical concepts the Greeks made then perhaps you might like to reconsider your view.

Well I'm tuckered out Learnandsay - I'm just a Mum (with a vested interest in ancient history I admit) but finding these resources took just under 30 minutes - so really the only thing that's holding you back from Teaching Ancient Greece seems to be that you just don't particularly like the subject. Shame really - it's great fun. Why not give it a try.

for 'clash of the Titans' (original version ) alone you must keep Ancient Greeks in!!

Thank you pastsellbydate, brilliant stuff!

Go on this link
www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=guerber&book=greeks&story=diogenes
it has loads of great stories to read online.
I have read lots of stuff about the Greeks to my DS and he LOVES them. We read the Illiad, the Aenead, the Odyssey, Greek heroes, Greek Gods, Greek history etc.
WOnderful free site.

pastsellbydate, amazing post. Wow! I'm not a teacher. I've only got two children.

How old is your son, Idrather..
The Illiad? I'm not sure about books which start out with someone running away with someone else's wife and then glory in the killing of thousands of people, many innocent. And doesn't Achilles need to grow up and start acting his age?

I suppose there's so much beautiful legacy to revel in. The Greeks advanced mathematics. We think of Pythagoras and Euclid. But perhaps more attention should be given to the Arabic origins of so many mathematical theories. In fact that reminds me. I'll have to look into that.

Greece is where Romans went to be properly educated. I had a Greek myths fixation when I was about ten. I love how petty and human all their gods are.

My DD would be devastated if she didn't do the Greeks (Hercules obsession... It'd be great to develop that)

Mythology, art/architecture and Olympics are my reasons for wanting to keep it.

DH and I feel a bit sad that Aztecs and Mayans don't get much look in.

Great list of resources - thanks

Wow! PGCE student here loves you all for your links!

Percy Jackson and Groovy Greeks. You can't just miss em out; especially as so many of the things considered "Roman" were actually Greek.

Thanks for kind words about what was rather a rant on Greece guys - cheers me up no end, especially as I have a horrible head cold at the moment. Lovely to hear this will be of use to teachers/ PGCE students.

Apologies for multiple spelling errors in post - I was trying to get it all in before I timed out.

I've realised I didn't turn on the link for the architecture site - so here it is again: Teach the children about Greek Architectural styles (more info here: www.ancientgreece.com/s/Art/

Happy New Year (& Olympics Year)!

learn and say, my DS is just eleven and at the moment we're reading the Story of Rome, having done most of the Greek legends and histories on our fave website.
He loves the Roman stories too.

I read Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief with my Y2 class lasy year which lead into lots of work on myths and quests. We made plasticine monsters and used stop frame animation to tell our own stories and produced an encyclopaedia of mythical creatures

www.rickriordan.com/my-books/percy-jackson/explore-mythology.aspx
My class really loved this way to show off their writing

It was the Greeks who added vowel symbols to the Phoenician consonant symbols and made it possible to accurately write words phoneme by phoneme to represent their exact spoken sound.

While the Greek Alphabet is not the only sound/symbol orthographic system in use it is a major one and certainly the basis of our (English) written language system.

Maths/physics - how about Archimedes?

DS made a "Top Trumps" set of Greek Gods for a history project.

My DS has loved doing the Greeks. They had a Greek day at school and an outside company came in and ran a full day of activities. In the morning they did craft things such as makng soap and olive oil. In the afternoon they had a Greek banquet and were split into groups to perform plays of different Greek events. It was great and they all loved it.

Also - didn't they invent democracy? And the foundations of our political and educational systems?

Also - didn't they invent democracy?

They gave us the word, but I don't think they'd recognise what we've done to it! Women and slaves were, naturally, excluded from voting....

My DS has just finished a whole term on the Greeks (year 5) and he loved it. He'd already read Percy Jackson and he's fascinated by everything to do with ancient Greece.

And PastSellByDate - brilliant links, thank you!