Lesson two - Greek words and their English counterparts, and artefacts activity

Ancient Greek lesson two

Part one (in classrooms): Ancient Greek language - introducing new words and simple sentences (15 mins)


Powerpoint presentation introducing a variety of ancient Greek words (mythos, barbaros, polis, idiotes) which the children can transliterate

Guess meaning of the words, discuss the story behind each one and discuss how they connect with English (we used the idea of family resemblances but there are others!)

Have a go at a couple of simple 'Zeus is a god', 'Demeter is a goddess' sentences in the presentation.

Part two (in hall): Ancient Greek civilisation - Artefact session (45/60 mins)

Introduce session to children, explaining artefacts and how researchers study them and learn about the ancient Greeks (5 mins)

Split children into 10 groups of six, and give an artefact and worksheet to each group, asking them to discuss and write answers (15 mins)

Groups rehearse for a mini-documentary (which we filmed, but it can work without!) - ask the children to think about how can you explain in an exciting way what the artefact is, and emphasise importance of every one in the group having a role (15 mins)

Each group presents their documentary to the rest of the class
(n.b. we made or sourced the artefacts from people, and they included: an arrowhead, two manuscripts, a jug, two plates, a mask, a coin, an iron horse, and a model of Orpheus. None of these was an original Greek artefact, unfortunately!)


PowerPoint presentation

The Iris Project
24 Green Ridges
