Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

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ancient civilizations

Free Ancient Greece Can You Answer Minibook

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Free Ancient Greece true or false minibook @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I am never ashamed to admit that sometimes we school upside down, sideways and sometimes backwards, but we always go forward. The free Ancient Greece Can You Answer Minibook that I am sharing today is an example of what I mean by the way we homeschool.

We love doing our unit studies and we add lapbooks in for enrichment as we plod along and study many different things. Sometimes we speed through them and sometimes not, like the Ancient Greece lapbook.

FREE ANCIENT GREECE LAPBOOKS

Since this is my third or fourth time around studying Ancient Greece, I have focused on hands-on activities with Tiny.

Be sure you grab the Free Ancient Greece Go Fish Game, Free 4 tab minibook, the Ancient Greece Pull tab book along with the hands on math, making a chariot, making baklava, grab a list of living history books, grab a great big list of Ancient Greece freebies and do a refraction activity.

Don’t forget to grab my first Ancient Greece lapbook here and Ancient Civilization here .(Minoan and Mycenaean civilization)

I luv my followers and make it special for them here when I can.

This freebie is a subscriber only freebie! This means you get access to the exclusive area for subscribers and can download this printable there after you follow my blog.

I would love for you to follow me and give me the opportunity to help you along in your homeschool journey.

Important: IF you are already an email reader, please read this below instead of emailing me right away.

Though I love your emails, it can take a while for me to answer you.

1.) If you are a daily email reader, the private link to the subscriber’s only page was sent to you immediately when you joined my blog. Look for that email in your inbox.

2.) If you are a weekly email reader, the link is sent to you at the bottom of EVERY newsletter. If you have been getting my blog posts, then check at the very bottom of one of my recent newsletters for the link.

Hugs and love ya,

Snack Like They Did In Ancient Greece – Make Baklava (Delicious)

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Make delicious baklava when studying about Ancient Greece @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Moving on to our next hands-on activity for our newest unit study which is Ancient Greece, we decided to look for something “delicious” to do.

We also have the book, TOOLS OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS: A Kid’s Guide to the History & Science of Life in Ancient Greece (Build It Yourself), which is fantastic for hands-on ideas.

Tiny was reading about what the Greeks snacked on and some of the foods are still with us today.

Learning that the Ancient Greeks rolled out pastry real thin and made Spanakopita (spinach pie) or Baklava, we decided to try out a new recipe.

Deciding that Baklava sounded better to make because it would give us a sugar high, we opted to make it.

Baklava is a dessert made with phyllo, walnuts and honey.

I will warn you though that if you are a foodie blogger you might cringe at our substitutions and make do ingredients.

Living here in Ecuador some ingredients like phyllo dough are not even obtainable.

I read in one place on the internet when we were looking for a simple recipe that you shouldn’t even make it if you don’t have phyllo pasty dough. I am sure I am doing some awful foodie injustice.

Good thing I am not a foodie blogger because I would be fired from the hall of foodie fame deliciousness because we did substitute and make do with what we had.

Did I mention it came out super good and we had a ton of fun in the process?

Check out the ingredient list:

■phyllo pastry dough OR make it like we did. I used this easy recipe from Living in the Pie Life
■I had about 2 cups of walnuts at the house, but we could have easily used more.■About a teaspoon of cinnamon.
■We had some local honey – a small jar.
■Couple of sticks of butter melted.
■3/4 cup of sugar.
■vanilla extract to taste.

1 Baklava  2 Baklava

We made a well for our dough and added in all the ingredients.

We were so focused on getting this dough “right” that we forgot a few pictures.

But it came out perfect for us. We allowed the dough to “rest” and while it rested, we crushed the walnuts in a ziploc bag.

Then Tiny mixed the cinnamon in with the walnuts in a bowl and set it aside.

We also melted butter in a bowl and set it aside.

3 Baklava  4 Baklava

Our dough was less than perfect, but Tiny was pleased with it and so he started rolling it out.

We buttered every layer and that gave it tons of that light feeling and sweet layers. Butter fixes everything.

5 Baklava  6 Baklava

So he rolled out one piece of the dough and brushed with butter. Then he spread some of the walnut and cinnamon mixture on top.

He did that for a couple of layers. After that I cut through and made the diagonal slits.

7 Baklava  8 Baklava

While it was baking, we warmed some local organic honey and vanilla in a sauce pot.

After our baklava was baked, we let it cool down just a minute.

9 Baklava 10 Baklava

Then Tiny spooned the delicious honey sauce over the baklava and allowed the sauce to soak through.

Tiny shocked himself because  our make do baklava was absolutely delicious with crusty and sweet layers.

It was a fun way to read some about what the Ancient Greeks ate and try a dessert too.

12 Baklava

Hugs and love ya,

Tina Signature 2015c

 

Ancient Greece Unit Study. Hands-on Activity 1. Refraction and Ancient Greece and their Contributions Pull Tab Book

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Ancient Greece Unit Study refraction activity and Ancient Greeks Pull Tab book @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Today, we did an easy science activity to begin our Ancient Greece Unit Study.

I have the book Classical Kids: An Activity Guide to Life in Ancient Greece and Rome (Hands-On History)

and so Tiny quickly opened it to find something he wanted to try.

He was reading about Ancient Greeks studying refraction.

We did this when the boys were little, but as is the case when you have younger children, they don’t remember what you did with the older kids.

This just means double fun for me because I get to do easy science activities again.

As the book brought out refraction is the way rays of light change when they pass from one thing to another that’s made of different material. That is what it means to have materials made of different density.

So this activity was super easy but cool and I love the fact that all 3 things were found in my house.

Ancient Greeks Studies Refraction – Easy Hands-on Activity 1

Here is the really short list of what you need:

Refraction Activity 1

■Pie or cake pan (dark coated, not glass or clear)
■Coin
■Pitcher of water

The activity is really easy. Tiny rounded up Mr. Awesome 2015 to help us.

Mr. Awesome placed the coin right next to the side.

While Tiny stood a distance away, so that the coin is hidden by the side.

Refraction Activity 2

Then Mr. Awesome poured the water slowly into the container.

Refraction Activity 2

As Mr. Awesome poured the water, it appeared to move to the center of the pan.

Of course the coin doesn’t move, it’s just that the light rays were distorted or bent as they passed through the water.

A bit of easy and quick science was enough to pique Tiny’s interest for the unit study.

Since that is the activity he chose to do first, we focused on reading about some Greeks and what they were famous for.

I created a giant pull tab book which is Famous Greeks and their Contributions.

Ancient Greece Giant Pull Tab @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Though there are many famous Greeks to focus on, I used the ones below and listed a bit of information about them.

It’s pretty easy to find information on the internet, but I am listing a few facts here for you too.

Aesop – storyteller; author of Aesop’s fables

Eratosthenes – geographer; first to describe the world as a globe

Euclid – mathematician; “Father of Geometry”

Aristotle – philosopher; student of Plato; tutor of Alexander the Great.

Archimedes – mathematician and inventor; calculated value of Pi; invented the lever; Archimedes Screw

For the giant pull tab book, just cut out all the pieces and write about each Greek on the box provided.

Ancient Greece Pull Tab 2 @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I have instructions on the minibook, but you will form a pocket with the two pieces and place the pull tab book inside.

Ancient Greece Giant Pull Tab @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I hope you like the first “little” giant pull tab book I have for our new unit study.

I have a sweet surprise for my email readers because I always hold something back for them and this Ancient Greece Lapbook is part of my email reader’s subscribers only.

I would love for you to follow me and give me the opportunity to help you along in your homeschool journey.

I would love for you to follow me and give me the opportunity to help you along in your homeschool journey.

This is a Subscriber’s Only Freebie because I luv my followers.

subscribe to my blog posts

Important: IF you are already an email reader, please read this below instead of emailing me right away.

Though I love your emails, it can take a while for me to answer you.

1.) The private link to the subscriber’s only page was sent to you immediately when you joined my blog.

2.) Also, the link is sent to you at the bottom of EVERY newsletter. If you have been getting my blog posts, then check at the very bottom of one of my recent newsletters for the link.

Remember, if you are following along with us, do the minibooks and then just place in a ziploc bag until the end or close to the end of the unit study.

I normally show you a layout we do for our lapbook toward the end of the unit study.

I can’t wait to share the rest of our hands-on activities and the minibooks.

Hugs and love ya,

Tina Signature 2015c

Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts – Great Big List of Ancient Greece Freebies

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I always try to kick off our unit studies with some hands-on ideas and I love rounding up great freebies and organizing them here for us.

Great Big List of Ancient Greece Freebies

Ancient Greece Big List of Freebies, Hands-On Ideas and Resources @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

This way you and I both can plod along and choose some of them to do or create our own.

So today, to kick off our newest unit study, Ancient Greece, I couldn’t resist the saying Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes or Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts to use for my great big list of Ancient Greece freebies to share with you.

greek-mythology-kids

Corny I know, but I love the saying.

(image attribution: Woojr)

Free Printables

Greek Vase Patterns

Story about Achilles Free download
Ancient Greece Map
The Birth of the Ancient Games and Map
Geography of Ancient Greece
Nice Greek Coloring Page and Greek Mythology Worksheets

Free Greek and Latin Root Activities
Ancient Greece Writing Activities
Finish the Greek Patterns
Ancient Greek Art Notebooking Pages
Mythology Teacher. Cool. Several free downloads, check out the Trojan War Find It, a pictorial search and check out the printable Trojan War Game and the reader’s theater script.

Lesson Plans & Studies

Reflections of Ancient Greece Lesson Plan with Vocabulary
Ancient Greece Unit Study
Why Study Greek Mythology?
Going Greek
Pandora’s Box

Bearing the Torch – Ancient Greece 19 page .pdf.
Alex from Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece Across the Curriculum
Ancient Greek Unit Study

Mythology Lesson on Hercules
Medicine in Ancient Greece
Greek Mythology & Activities 80 page .pdf super nice
Secrets of the Parthenon
Parthenon

Geometry and Pi
Ancient Greece Unit Study and Lapbook
Studying Greek Mythology – from The Kennedy Adventures
Ancient Greece Unit Study – from Alicia Hutchinson
Child’s Geography about Greece – 52 page download from Knowledge Quest. Nice.

Odysseus story on line and download the 42 page pdf.
Spartan timeline

Also, look at the fun and easy coloring pages!

Here is what the 20 page download contains. I put a few key words to explain each picture on the page. This way you can use the coloring pages as title pages too.

Page 3: Ancient Egypt Court,
Page 4: Ancient Egypt Spinning,
Page 5: Ancient Egypt Life of the Royals,
Page 6: Ancient Egypt Battles,
Page 7: Ancient Egypt The Nile,
Page 8: Life Along the River – The Nile,
Page 9: Metal Workers & Crafts of Ancient Egypt,
Page 10: Egyptian Hieroglyphics,
Page 11: Egyptian Queen Cleopatra,
Page 12: Aztecs Floating Gardens,
Page 13: Aztecs,
Page 14: Aztec Life,
Page 15: Mayans,
Page 16: Ancient Greece Wedding,
Page 17: Ancient Greek Galley,
Page 18: Ancient Greece Crafts,
Page 19: Ancient Greece Bank,
Page 20: Athens,
Page 21: Spartan Warrior and
Page 22: The Vikings.

Crafts and Activities

Media

Ancient Greece Videos for Kids
Music and Creativity in Ancient Greece
Who were the Ancient Greeks? Super helpful and covers a wide range of topics.
Ancient Arcade – match the god to the symbol
Ancient Athens

All About Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece – learn about the Acropolis, daily life, festivals, geography and more
The Battle of Thermopylae

Books

13 Living History Books about Ancient Greece
Books About Ancient Greece – from Triumphant Learning
10 books to hook your kids on mythology – from Adventures in Mommydom

(image attribution: Homeschool Commons)

study-ancient-greece

Free e-books

Free e-books to study Ancient Greece
Aesop’s Fables

I hope you enjoy this super list of Ancient Greece activities to get your unit study started.

Do you want some other creative ways to homeschool?

Also, you may like these other activities:

Hugs and love ya,

Ancient Egypt Homeschool Unit Study – Hands-on and FUN!

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Studying Ancient Egypt history has been anything but boring for us because I have been determined to keep it hands-on. Also, look at my page Best Homeschool Unit Studies for more unit studies.

I have to admit though it is not always easy.

When I find homeschool history programs like Project Passport: Ancient Egypt from Home School in the Woods that fits what I think history should look like, I am always delighted to share about it.

Your kids will love this Hands-on Ancient Egypt Unit Study at Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I was given a free copy of Project Passport: Ancient Egypt and I was paid for my time. Compensated for my time does not mean paid off.  ALL opinions are my own and for sure I will always tell you what is on my mind. Your experience may vary. When I do accept a review it’s because I am excited to tell you about it. Read my full disclosure here.

Hands-on Homeschool Ancient Egypt History

Though we are history lovers in our home, I know that teaching Ancient Egypt history can be quite boring if you don’t find the right resource.

Passport Project Ancient Egypt Interactive and Hands-on Unit Study @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Using Project Passport: Ancient Egypt from Home School in the Woods over the past few weeks has been by far the best curriculum we have used for studying about Ancient Egypt.

Look at some of these things that makes us swoon over this curriculum.

  • Hands-on activities like mapping Upper and Lower Egypt, creating post cards and preparing a newspaper and recipes.
  • It means a lot to me to have high quality clip art and not babyish looking quality printables for middle school kids.  The printables are high quality and are all labeled so that you can match them to the correct projects.
  • There are a variety of activities to choose from to suit any learning style.  Tiny is my strongest auditory learner of all of my boys and he really was engaged by the beautiful sounding Mp3s like Touring Down the Nile, Interview with an Embalmer and Building a Pyramid.  I haven’t really used the curriculum the way they suggested by picking and choosing.  We tried to cram it all in because each project sounded as fun as the next one. We just had to taste a bit of everything. Along with creating minibooks, we created a passport, created a luggage folder (so cute), a travel itinerary, prepared the scrapbook of sights and snapshots of moments in history (timeline).
  • It’s all laid out Stop by Stop. Even the text you need to read for each lesson is included. This makes it easy to pick up and go when you are short on time.
  • The teacher’s keys are very helpful and Tiny was able to check his work on his own. I love that part.
  • I REALLY appreciate a scope and sequence being provided so that I can plan or see what will be covered. I have to create objectives and lesson plan and the teacher in me finds this part extremely helpful.
Passport Project Ancient Egypt Interactive and Hands-on Unit Study @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Look at some of these things that you will want to know before you use Project Passport: Ancient Egypt.

Ancient Egypt Homeschool Unit Study - Hands-on and FUN!

  • Details are important to history when you want to analyze them.  Topics are covered with an eye for details and not broad strokes.  If you want details, then it’s a great fit.
  • It requires a good amount of time for start up because you will want to take time reading through all the directions for both laying out the projects and how to print them.  The payoff is rewarding but don’t look at speeding through the set up process.  This is a savor the time curriculum.
  • Like high quality printables should be, you will want to use high quality materials like cardstock and color printables.  You can print gray scale too and have the option to color. I think it’s always an advantage to have both options of coloring or gray scale printing though.  Because this curriculum is sold by CD or downloads, your printer will be busy.
  • Though I thrive in organization, having four sub-folders to navigate between might seem overwhelming.  It took me a few minutes to figure out that the Itineraries folder in the PDFs sub-folder was the place that I needed to visit at each Stop.  It has the instructions for the activities for each stop.  There are a total 25 Stops.
  • It is important to remember that the printables cannot be shrunk, which a lot of printers do. If you do this, like the instructions specifically mentions, it throws off all the printables. An important detail that is easy to forget when you start printing at each Stop. Avoid precious ink and high quality paper by minding the details on each page.

Like a comprehensive unit study should be, you will want to let go of whatever else you are studying about so that your children can enjoy the creative writing, arts and geography weaved throughout each Stop.

Passport Project Ancient Egypt Interactive and Hands-on Unit Study @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Tiny is just about out of the dress up stage but he fondly remembers our hands-on activities with Ancient Egypt  (fun with cartouche and Lego pyramid) as we have used Home School in the Woods products through the years.

With this unit study, my focus was on reading the content and listening to the MP3s to prepare him for high school.

Of course, doing as many of the other hands-on activities that we could cram in is also my objective.

Ancient Egypt Unit Study 8 @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Because I couldn’t wait to share with you about how this unit study sparks a love for learning about Ancient Egypt and because of my love for pictures too, look at my first post Ancient Egypt and look at my second one Ancient Egypt Unit Study Part 2.

I have used many laid out unit studies. 

Too, you know I have created my own lapbook printables because it has been hard to find history curriculum that has all the things I demand, which are detailed content, pristine clip art, high quality printables, an overflowing amount of hands-on activities and that can be used with multiple ages.

Project Passport: Ancient Egypt receives my highest praise and I can’t wait to grab the other projects in this series.

Thank You Home School in the Woods for the obvious time, care and detail that went into this curriculum. I am proud to be a reviewer of such an amazing product.

 Ancient History Series

Company Name: Home School in the Woods Publishing
Website: Home School in the Woods
Product Name: Project Passport: Ancient Egypt
Grades: 3rd to 8th, but I found that it could be tweaked up or down because of the numerous activities. Check out their scope and sequence to see the events
Type of Format: Download
Religious perspective but can be tweaked for a more secular version if you choose.

Passport Project Ancient Egypt Interactive and Hands-on Unit Study @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

You’ll love these other hands-on history for studying about Ancient Egypt:

Hugs and love ya,