Hands-On Activities

Today, we made a fun and easy Ancient Greece Chariot to go with our Ancient Greece Unit Study.

Again, it was a project chosen by Tiny. And we had most of the things here in the house already.

Look at our list of what we grabbed and then we added a few other things as we figured it out.

■ cereal box (this is what we used for the body of the chariot)
■ shoe box (we used this stronger cardboard for the “tongue” of the chariot)
■ two round lids (our round lids came from two juice bottles)
■hot glue gun
■ruler
■marker
■scissors
■utility knife
■foil (we used foil to cover the wheels and “tongue” of the chariot because it is what we had and we didn’t have to glue it). Use what you like to decorate the wheels. I see even that sharpies could have worked for a creative design on the wheels.
■brown paper bag (we used a brown paper bag to cover the body of the chariot, but any material you have that you like can cover the body of the chariot). Your child can even design an Ancient Greece pattern.
■straws or wooden skewers for the axle. We used straws because we have so many.

After we gathered our supplies, Tiny took the black marker and measured approximately 3 inches from the lower corner of the box and over about 4 inches.

Ancient Greece Unit Study. Hands-on Activity 2. Ancient Greece Chariot

He did the same for the other side of the cereal box. Then he took a ruler and connected the lines on both the front and back and on the side.

This way he could see to cut all the way around.

Ancient Greece Chariot Craft

This is how it looked after he cut it out. (The open side is the back of the chariot.)

Turning it on its side, he took the ruler and measured down from the top about an inch and measured in from the bottom about half an inch and drew a black line to connect them and cut.

You are trying to give the chariot that “slanted look” for a lack of better technical terms, like in this picture we found.

We couldn’t really curve the sides, so Tiny just did a slant.

He did this for both sides of the chariot.

The part he cut off for one side he just used as a template for the second side.

So this is how it came out and he was real pleased with it.

Then because he liked the look of a brown paper bag and we had it on hand, he used it cover the chariot.

Here your child could paint or add an Ancient Greece design.

You know I told you Tiny has his limits on artsy stuff he likes to do, so I don’t push him. I let him savor what he likes to do, but there are so many possibilities for designing the body of the chariot that would be fun to do.

Let your child decide how artsy craftsy he wants to be.

After he covered and glued the brown paper bag on the chariot, he drew a T shape design on the bottom to show where the wheels or axle would cross with the tong of the chariot.

Then he took the juice lids we had and I actually did this part, which was to use a utility knife to cut a small hole in the middle of the juice lid big enough for the straw to fit through.

If you are using a dowel or skewer, just make sure the hole on the wheel is big enough for it to fit through.

Then he covered the wheels with foil and poke the hole through the foil carefully.

Next, he stuck the straw through both lids to make the axle.

I didn’t take a picture of this part, but he cut a rectangle tongue out of the shoe box cardboard and covered it with foil too.

He then glued the straw axle right onto the bottom where he made the horizontal line and glued the tongue on the vertical line under it.

Cute, cute and Tiny was pleased with his work. It was another fun and hands-on way to learn about Ancient Greece.

Hugs and love ya,