Ancient Greece History Co-op - Week 9 - Columns

Week 9: We made columns - Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Caryatid.

It's incredible that these ancient structures were not constructed using cement. Instead the pieces were perfectly carved to fit together much like legos.

When the Greeks first began building temples the columns were plain, but as time progressed they became more and more fancy. Understanding the different types of columns is one way archaeologists place a structure in a particular time period. Doric columns are the simplest. Ionic have swirls at the tops and Corinthian have swirls, leafs, grapes and other decorative features. Caryatid columns were sculpted in the shape of a person, usually a woman. Examples of all four types of these columns can still be seen today on temples throughout the ancient Greek and Roman worlds.

We constructed our columns from toilet paper rolls.

 First the kids added beads of glue on some of the toilet paper rolls to create a column like texture. Then the individual features of each column were added. To create Corinthian columns, paper was cut into plain strips or strips to look like leaves, and coiled around a pencil before being glued to the column.

My daughter made a caryatid column. She surrounded her column with fleece fabric to give it texture.

She glued on a patch of white fleece for the face. Then added hair so the column would look like a woman.

Ionic, Corinthian and Caryatid columns are shown above. (Here's a memory hint. The more syllables in the column name, the fancier it is; Doric -2 syllables, Ionic - 3 syllables, Corinthian - 4 syllables.)

To see our other Greek Unit Study activities please visit our History Page.

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