Ancient Greece: Macedonia and Hellenistic Greece, 323-31 BC and a Greek Feast

We learned about Philip II of Macedonia...

And thus the origin of the word LACONIC: a person that says a lot, using very few words (Laconia was a region of Sparta).

and his son, Alexander the Great, finishing up our study of Ancient Greece. 

Quentin's history notebook, narration at the top and copywork at the bottom

We celebrated the end of the study with a Greek alphabet quiz and a Greek Feast.

Loukoumades, a Greek doughnut fried in olive oil and drenched in honey.

This time around, we tried to research Ancient Greek eating habits and foods as opposed to modern Greek recipes. Common foods were bread dipped in wine, figs, olives, dried fish, vegetables, fruit and honey cakes. 

Some Greeks believe the popular breakfast dish tiganites was the first documented pancake in the world. Photo and recipe for this currant, honey and walnut pancake is from here.

Meat was very expensive and a sign of wealth. It was only available to poor people during religious festivals, when cows or pigs were sacrificed to the gods, and their meat was cooked and handed out to the public. The main source of protein was the fish. Beans and legumes were also eaten. Honey was used as a sweetener, as at the time, sugar was still unknown in Greece. The ancient Greeks had not yet developed eating utensils, and so they ate with their hands or used bread.

 Our feast consisted on a lentil salad, pita bread, a small amount of lamb and vegetable salad with Greek dressing,...

 fish, olives and grapes...

artichokes, asparagus, white bean dip with kalmata olives and tiganites (but ours looked nothing like theirs). We discovered that we did not like dry cured olives. Quentin gave us each a hero to be and drew out invitations to a hero's banquet.
Now we are ready to go on to Ancient Rome...

sources:

• notebook page work from History Portfolio and Write from Ancient History Level 2 Manuscript Models: A Complete Ancient History Based Writing Program for the Elementary Writer: Developing Skills ... and Dictation for Students in Grades 3 to 5 by Kimberly D. Garcia

related posts:

• A Greek Feast

Ancient Greece: Classical Greece and the Peloponnesian Wars, 510-323 BC

There is so much to study when you get to Classical Greece that we felt we just touched on it, but they were ready to move on, and so we did.There is always more time to get into more of the details the next time we get around to this period. We covered a lot of people this week. We also touched on the Peloponnesian Wars but there is not as much about them for the younger crowd as there was about the Persian wars. They mainly got the idea that they were between Sparta and Athens and why.

Pericles

Sophocles

Euripides

Herodotus

The Sophists

Phidias

Sam's reading
source

The Peloponnesian War

Hippocrates

Quentin's narration of a history reading

Aristophanes

Socrates

copywork in Quentin's history notebook

Sparta

Execution of Socrates

Thebes

Plato

Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

Ancient Greece: Persian Wars, 499-449 BC.

Cyrus the Great of Persia
Under Darius the Mede, the Persians attempt to conquer Greece.
The rebuilding of the temple.

Battles:
Ionian Revolt
Marathon, 490
Thermopylae (under Xerxes, Darius' son)
Salamis (480)
Plataea and Mycale (479)

Rulers:
Athens: Themistocles and Aristides
Sparta: Leonidas

Organization of the Delian League. Smaller states paid money to Athens for support of her navy, beginning the Athenian empire.

Ancient Greece: Archaic Period (800 BC – 480 BC)

After coming out of it's Dark Ages, the Greek culture began to revive. As mainland Greece could not grow enough food to feed all of its people, trade grew between the Greek cities and their colonies and with the Phoenicians (eastern Mediterranean).

Types of Government

By this time, mainland Greece was made up of a cluster of small city-states. During this time most of these were governed by groups of aristocrats forming an Aristocracy (oligarchy) type government. But as the middle class of merchants and craftsmen began to prosper, they resented being ruled by the aristocrats. As a peaceful measure, the people sometimes allowed one powerful leader to rule alone, forming a Tyrant type government. One such tyrant was Draco, who is known for his severe laws.

Solon was another tyrant who introduced social reform.

Cleisthenes came to power in 508 BC and introduced a new system of government called democracy.

Polis

Athens vs. Sparta
Sparta is in control of all southern Peloponnese by 700 BC
We filled out a venn diagram comparing and contrasting Athens and Sparta.

Olympic Games

We reviewed the Olympics and how it started and the boys made notebook pages on it.

Pottery

Black Figure Pottery

 The black figure style pottery appeared in Greece in the middle to late Archaic period. It was originally a 7th century Corinthian invention. We, at first, were planning to do another Art in History project, but Quentin spied this Terracotta-colored Clay and decided that he would like to make his own project. I had him pick his favorite Greek myth to depict on the piece and he chose the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur.

He also made a jug and cup with some of the leftover clay for his Playmobil figures.

Attic red-figure pottery

The innovation of the red-figure technique was an Athenian invention of the late 6th century. The ability to render detail by direct painting rather than incision offered new possibilities to artists such as three-quarter profiles, greater detail and perspective.

Other Places During this Time

During this same time period, the prophet Daniel is living in Babylon serving Darius the Mede, who rule Babylon under Cyrus. 

Assyrian Empire is at its height, with Sargon its ruler.

Ancient Greece: Invaders and the Dark Ages (1200-800 BC)

source

During the time in which Myceneans were struck with a famine, they began to go on raids both over land and sea. The Egyptians named them the "Sea Peoples" and they went on raiding and conquering missions to the island of Cyprus, to the Hittite empire in Asia Minor (Turkey) and Egypt. It is believed that as they spread, they became the ancestors of the Etruscans and of the Philistines.

source

During this time the Dorians took advantage of the troubles in the area to increase their power. 

source

Other groups of people began leaving the Greek mainland and settled in colonies in other areas. One of these was Ionia on the coast of Asia Minor (Turkey).

Alex's (age 19, special needs) notebook page
"Ionic columns are topped with scrolls. Doric columns are flat. Corinthian columns are much more ornate."

We decided to look at Greek architecture and in particular the styles of Greek columns named after the Dorians and Ionians.

During this same time, the Israelites are settling in Canaan. This is also the time of King David and King Solomon.

Allrecipes

The scarcity of food was a continuing source of trouble. The land was rocky and mountainous. There were some olive groves, but wheat was scarce. Meat was only eaten on special occasions. Primarily their diet consisted of porridge and fruit. We decided to have some porridge (oatmeal) and fruit for breakfast.

The Greeks then went into a period in which we call the Dark Ages, as we know very little about what was happening during this time period. As they concentrated mainly on surviving, the arts and the palaces declined. 

sources and suggested reading:

• Mapping the World with Art
• Ancient History Portfolio
• Famous Men of Greece 
• D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths
• Porridge recipe from Allrecipes

Ancient Greece: Mycenaeans and the Trojan War

Map Sam drew freehand using instructions from Mapping the World with Art.
November 2009

From about 1600 BC mainland Greece was dominated by the Mycenaeans. 

Make Ancient History Models, November 2009

The Mycenaeans' important buildings were built high on a hill called an acropolis ("high City"), but most  people lived in the lower town outside the walls. 

Quentin might have remembered the paper model I made of the Mycenean Acropolis the last time we studied ancient history...

 ...because after reading about the Myceneans this time, he immediately made a paper Myceanean town and populated it with paper soldiers from Junior General.

November 2009

The Mycenaeans were great traders with trading posts all along the eastern Mediterranean coast and as far away as Scandinavia and Africa.

from James' History Notebook. Illustrations from Ancient History Portfolio.

In the second half of the 13th century BC there was a long run of poor harvests and subsequent food shortages. This led to the various groups of Myceneans attacking each other to steal food. This led to the building of defensive walls around their cities.
Most of what we know about the Mycenaeans are from the excavations by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876.

November 2009

The Iliad is an epic poem by Homer about a war between Greece and Troy, which probably took place around 1250 BC. We read about the story in Famous Men of Greece and D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths.

Our older students could reenact the Trojan war using the board game, Iliad, (but I could not find a copy of this game for you to purchase anywhere.)

Paper Trojan Horse and soldiers from Vertias Press' New Testament, Greece and Rome
November 2009

Younger students can make paper "wooden" horses and soldiers to put inside.

Or, an origami horse with figures from Junior General.

 Using the Iliad game as the basic idea, Quentin made his own version. He made a proto-type, resolved problems in the game and then made his final version. 

He made up his own rules and his own cards for the game. (A post about the game coming up.)

sources and suggested reading:

• Mapping the World with Art
• Paper soldiers at Junior General
• Ancient History Portfolio
• Famous Men of Greece 
• D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths
• Vertias Press' New Testament, Greece and Rome
• Heritage History: The Story of Greece - Mary Macgregor,The Story of the Greeks - Helene Guerber, Story of the Greek People - E. M. Tappan, Historical Tales - Greek - Charles Morris
• Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of 'The Iliad', Rosemary Sutcliff
• The Children's Homer (the Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy), Padraic Colum
• Instructions for origami horse.
• Great Mask of Agamemnon craft at Highhill Homeschool.

Discover and Explore: The Olympics

History

from Olympic Games, March 2010

You could hold your own Olympic games, such as shot put (a ball thrown from shoulder level), standing high jump, race-in-armor (piggy-back races substitute), pentathlon {consisting of discus (or Frisbee) throw, long jump, javelin (mop handle) throw, running and wrestling (sock wrestling).} The winners (all of them) can be treated to an awards ceremony where they are presented with "laurel" leaf crowns and a banquet.

Lighting our Ice Cream Olympic Torch at Makes and Takes

Winter Olympics

A Simple Start in Chalk Pastels: Winter Olympics is available now for only $4.99 at Hodgepodge

Since the winter games are going on now, we learned about some of the winter Olympic sports.

free Winter Games Homeschool Printables at Imagine Our Life

• Ice Hockey

Ice Hockey on a Baking Sheet from Dabblingmomma

• Bob Sledding

How to Draw a Bobsled at Art For Kids!

• Skiing
• Figure Skating

Download Move Like a Figure Skater Game at Creative Family Fun

• Speed Skating
• Snowboarding
• Ski Jumping
• Luge
• Curling

See the post on how to do this at Filth Wizardry

More inspiration can be found at:

• Potato Olympics Winter Games at No Doubt Learning
• Winter Games 2014 unit study by Amanda Bennett (Review at Hodgpodge), including free lapbook
• Discover and Explore The Olympic Games with Kids

Ancient Greece: Minoans of Crete {2000-1100 BC}

from Theseus and the Minotaur, November 2009

The boys remembered the last time we studied the Minoans, named after King Minos, who lived on the island of Crete and they were able to re-tell the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. 

notebook page from History Portfolio, February 2014

I emphasized this time where the myth probably came from the Minoans and their custom or ritual of bull jumping. They would approach a charging bull and grasp its horns and catapult themselves onto the back of the bull and then onto the ground.

Minoan-style Frescoes painted on damp plaster, November 2009

Most of what we know about the Minoans is from their frescoes which depict many aspects of their lives.

They also learned that there were several factors that led to the demise of the Minoans. 

portion of James' map, February 2014

First the nearby island of Thera had a massive volcanic eruption and the tidal waves and earth tremors destroyed the palaces on Crete. Some were rebuilt, but then a fire destroyed most of the palaces and villas. It seems that some of the Minoans fled to what was left of nearby Thera. This volcanic eruption and the departure of the Minoans might have been the source of the legend of Atlantis, which the Greek philosopher mentions. It also seems that the Mycenaeans took this opportunity to take over what Minoans were left, but we will be learning more about them next time.

Next post: Mycenaeans

A Greek Feast

 Usborne Encyclopedia of World History

To end a study of a segment in history that we have been studying for weeks we like to have a feast of appropiate foods. This always 
is celebratory and it gives my boys an idea of what foods the people ate. Sometimes we talk about what they didn't eat. Today we ended our study of Ancient Greece, so we had a Greek feast, made from recipes in Classical Kids by Laurie Carlson. We had steamed asparagus.

Phyllo dough triangles with spinach and feta cheese. Seasoned fish chunks cooked in parchment paper squares. The recipe called for grape leaves instead of the parchment paper, but we could not find grape leaves.

Greek Tales can be read at  your feast.

sources and other inspiration:

• Greek Classics Lapbook Squidoo