Ancient Greece History Co-op - Week 12 - Athens vs Sparta

Week 12: We studied the Athenians and Spartans and then made clay pots.

Athens and Sparta were two very different city states in Ancient Greece. The Athenians appreciated art and leisure. They were educated with books and built grand temples and a navy. The Spartans were a people who bred tough warriors. Boys were taken from their mothers at the age of seven years old to enter warrior training. The two superpowers struggled to lead and conquer other Greek city states. 

We found a wealth of historical videos on youtube for our Athens vs Sparta studies.

 

Athens - Ancient Greek Supercity is a video which focuses on the building of the Parthenon and life in Athens.

Ancient Warriors - The Spartans is a three part series of videos which explains what life was life for a Spartan.

I have been reading select chapters from Our young folk's Plutarch with my eleven year old. It contains several short biographies of Ancient Greek and Roman leaders. The lives of many Greek leaders such as Themistocles, Aristides, and Lycurgus are detailed in this book.

One way archaeologists have been able to learn about the Ancient Greeks is through their pottery. Greek pottery has been found all over the ancient world and the styles change with the time periods. There were geometric designs, black figures on red backgrounds and red figures on black backgrounds.

We watched this video to see how pots were made. Then we worked on our own pottery.

Pots today come in many different shapes and sizes just as they did in ancient times. The various sizes each had specific purposes. Some were drinking cups, some were storage containers and others held oil for the body.

Our pots were made from clay.

The kids pinched and rolled them into the shapes they wanted.

This post is linked to:
Little Wonders

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