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Ancient Greek ThemedOutdoor ActivitiesSome hands-on outdoor activities to bring the Ancient Greeks to life.Tree SpiritsA nymph is a kind of female nature entity/spirit in Greek mythology. They are often companions of Greek gods and goddesses. Nymphs can be divided into different kinds, such as: Dryads (trees), Naiads (fresh water) and Oreads (mountains). You will need: clay, tree trunks (or wall), natural materials (eg leaves, pine cones, sticks, berries etc)41416094430200Walk around the school grounds examining trees and the shapes and textures of their bark. Look at how natural features, such as knots, burrs and scars, seem to naturally suggest facial features. What sort of character or personality does the tree seem to have? Is the tree angry, kind, wise, tired, or sad?In small groups, use wet clay to mould facial features onto the trunk. Try and incorporate the tree’s features into the face.Use leaves and sticks and other natural materials to make the character come to life.Take pictures of the clay face with a digital camera or draw sketches of it.In groups, decide upon a name, home, occupation for the character. Why does he/she/it have the sort of features that it has been given? Think carefully about why it may need its features. Build up a character description.Each group reports back to the class by showing each character and explaining its story.Alternatively:Make a mythical tree monster and use it as a character when writing a Greek myth.44107107429500Mythical BeastsUse land art with natural materials to make creatures and characters from Greek mythology eg Cyclops, the Minotaur, Medusa, Icarus, etc.Make a MazeDesign and make a maze for the minotaur.Challenge another group to solve it.784714626700Or blindfold a child and have another navigate their way through the maze by calling out instructions. You could make it competitive by timing each child! What are the penalties for stepping on or touching the maze walls?! AlphabetUse sticks and natural materials to write the letters in the Greek Alphabet.Children can write their own names or words for others to translate.CookingWhy not cook some Greek Pita bread in a frying pan on an open fire? Serve them with feta cheese or hummus.4302760-17526000 Ancient Greek Oil LampsHere are pictures of Ancient Greek oil lamps will need: oven bake clay, olive oil, cotton rope to be the candle wick, a campfire.Take a lump of the clay and roll it into a small sphere about the size of a tennis ball. Push your thumb into the centre to create a well. Shape the ball into lamp shape by first making it a hollow ball and then slowly start pinch one side together to make the spout.Continue forming and smoothing the clay into the shape of an oil lamp, with a small spout for the wick and a hole in the top to add oil. Use small sticks to decorate with Ancient Greek patterns.Leave the pots several days to air dry before firing. They are dry enough when they stop changing colour.If clay is heated to at least 700oc, its chemical composition changes and the separate particles bind together. This is the point at which clay is transformed into ‘pottery’, and it is an irreversible process. You can fire the clay by placing in a campfire.Gently warm the air-dried lamps by the side of the campfire. Once the campfire is established and burnt down a bit, spread out the embers into a donut ring shape, so there are no embers in the middle. Place the warmed lamps into the middle. Leave for about 10 minutes so the lamps gradually come up to the temperature of the fire (this way avoids a thermal shock). Then push the embers back in towards the lamps and allow another 10 minutes to heat up. Then lay sticks across the top of the lamps so that the fire spreads over the top and gets hot. Let the fire burn down. Then gradually in small steps, move the pots slowly across the fire embers to the edge of the fire so they gradually cool down.When cool add a small amount of olive oil to the lamp’s reservoir.Place a wick into the spout making sure most of it is in the oil with just a small part sticking out of the spout. Let the wick soak for a few minutes, then light.Firing primitive pottery: clay oil lamps video: a Roman oil lamp: A laurel wreath is a circular wreath made of interlocking branches and leaves of the bay laurel (Laurus nobilis). This is an evergreen whose leaves give off a pleasant scent. The wreath is traditionally worn on the head.In Greek mythology, the god Apollo is shown wearing a laurel wreath because of the story of Apollo and Daphne. In Ancient Greece, it was given to special people, such as winners in competitions in poetry or sports, such as the Ancient Olympic Games.49758606413500Make an evergreen wreath a sticky card wreathYou will need: Card with strips of double-sided sticky tape on them, one for each child. You will need to peel off the tape at the start of the session.Children collect natural items and stick them onto the card.When turning the cards into crowns, be careful with long hair, which can also stick to the card!35788605524500228600584200022821905524500The Story of Arachne, the WeaverArachne in Greek mythology was a weaver who challenged Athena and was consequently transformed into a spider.Read the story: Make spiders webs using sticks and yarn / string and other natural materials.Take part in a team building spider web game. DialsThe Ancient Greeks developed many of the principles and forms of the sundial. SundialUse a compass to find North. Mark the direction of North on the playground.Have a child stand in the playground facing North and record the position of their feet by drawing round them in chalk.Draw round their shadow on the playground.Measure and record the length of the shadow and record the time. Can children predict the direction and length of their shadow when they next go out.Repeat several times. Show direction of North on diagram.Human Sundial activity from the Royal Observatory Greenwich: to make a sun dial: Challenge Read the story of Icarus, the boy in Ancient Greek mythology, who flew too close to the sun. Then make a wing that flies like a kite. Greek Children’s Games:44593302857500MorraIn this game, two players make a fist behind their backs, and then, when a signal is given, they extend their hands, showing a certain number of fingers. The first player to call out the correct number of fingers is the winner! 48992202734200OstrakindaIn this game, a shell was painted black on one side. The black side was ‘night’, and the unpainted side was ‘day’. Children were divided into two teams, one for ‘night’ and one for ‘day’. The shell was thrown and the team whose colour came up had to chase the other team and tag them.Knucklebones or JackstonesOriginally the "knucklebones" (actually the astragalus, a bone in the ankle, or hock) of a sheep, were thrown up and caught in various manners. According to Sophocles, Knucklebones was invented by Palamedes, who taught it to Greek soldiers fighting in the Trojan War, although it probably came from Asia originally.470924839400Find 5 small stones, preferably roundly shaped. Throw them on the ground. Then pick up one of them.Throw it in the air and quickly grab one of the other stones.You must also catch with the same hand the stone that is falling.In the same way pick up all four stones from the ground, one by one.Then the game becomes more difficult as you have to pick the stones two by two.Then you pick three stones at a time and finally you pick all four stones at a time.It can be played with one or as many players as you want.If one player fails to pick up the stones, according to the rules, he loses his turn and the next player continues. ................
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