Concluding Activities for Ancient Greece

For Teachers

Concluding Activity: Alexander the Great and Johnny Appleseed (classroom activity and lesson idea to transition 6th grade units, from Greece to Rome)  To emphasize apples and the Greeks, close class with the Greek myth: King Tantalus

Forehead Facts: Concluding Activity or Test Review: First, brainstorm with your class things that made them think of ancient Greece. Examples: Sparta. Tragedy. Persian Wars. Democracy. Alphabet. Anything and everything. Have some words yourself ready to fill in if needed. Then pass out 3x5 blank index cards. One per student. Have your students secretly write one word from your brainstorm session. Collect the cards. Tell the kids you are going to play Forehead Facts. Pass out the cards face down. NO PEEKING. Working in pairs or very small groups, have one person at a time hold their card face forward against their forehead so that the other players can see what is written but the person holding the card cannot. The person holding the card can ask 10 questions of their paired student or small group to try and guess the word they are holding. Then it is the other player(s) in your team or group to see if they can guess their card. The kids know this game. It's lots of fun. It's great review.

Greek Fair Concluding Activity: Fifth Grade Greek Fair

Gift Wrapped Greeks: 

• Classroom Activity, Gifts from the Greeks

• Preparation prior to class: Cut manila folders into different shapes. Write one thing the Greeks gave the world on each shape. There will be duplication; that's fine. Gift wrap each shape, in colorful, festive wrapping paper, along with a small piece of candy if allowed by your school. Bring "gifts" to class in a plastic garbage bag. (Bring extra garbage bags; you'll need them!) Gifts could include: Greek columns (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian), trial by jury, myths, democracy, sculpture, comedy, tragedy, theatre, the Olympics, epic poetry, and fables. For more gifts, see: Ancient Greek Inventions

• In Class: Pass out "gifts" from the Greeks; one "gift" per student. Tell students that these are "gifts" given to the world by the Greeks. Have students open their gifts. Have each student write a one-two paragraph report on their "gift" in the first person, explaining why "their" invention, or their gift, is of value to the world. Collect wrapping paper while students are writing. Ask if anyone would like to share their "gift" and what they wrote about their gift with the class. After some of the students read their paragraphs, post all "gifts from the Greeks" on the Gifts from the Greeks bulletin board. 

• Handout, Classroom Activity: Greek Words we use today, lesson plan with handout - Working in small groups, brainstorm and write down as many words as you can that we received as part of the many "Gifts from the Greeks". Then compare groups. Winning group has the most accurate words.

• Online: Play Kahoot! Vocabulary Words we use today from ancient Greece, Gifts from the Greeks

Ancient Greek Olympics for the Classroom 3-4 days mini-unit with student role handouts and games - If you have not done this yet during your study of the Greek Olympics, this is a great way to end the unit.  If you are doing this as a unit end activity, include the gods as much as possible. Have each city-state create a prayer to say in the temple prior to the games to one or more gods.

Ancient Greek Bingo:  This link will take you to our Egypt Bingo activity for test review or for a concluding activity. You can do the same thing for ancient Greece. Ancient Greece Review Questions and Answers or create your own.  I like to have the kids generate their own answer board from a list of answers provided on the back of the bingo board. Direct them to choose one answer per box, no duplication. There are more answers than boxes of course. This is bingo. If you play multiple games, you can direct your students to mark the corners. First game - mark A in a corner of the correct answer, if you have it. Second game - mark B in a corner. If you have time for a third and fourth game, use C & D respectively. For the final game, circle the answer or mark the box with a big X.  Start the lesson by asking for a show of hands - How many of you know how to play bingo? You will probably have to do some teaching. You need an example board anyway to show them how to make their cards and mark their corners. (This link: Ancient Egypt Bingo will take you to our Egypt Bingo activity for test review. It includes additional instructions on how we played bingo with Egypt. It works the same for Greece, with different questions and answers, of course.)