Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

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hands on history

How to Make an Easy Roman Helmet & Shield & A Set of Printable Wings

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

How to Make an Easy Roman Helmet & Shield and A Set of Printable Wings was easy to make. Also, look at my Ancient Rome Lapbook for Kids and Fun Hands-on Ideas for more fun.

It has never been a secret that I don’t sew and barely craft.

So when it came time to get Tiny ready for our year end co-op when studying Ancient Civilizations, I turned to cardboard and duct tape.

How to Make an Easy Roman Helmet & Shield & A Set of Printable Wings

Ancient Rome was a powerful civilization, and it influenced many things in our modern world.

And you’ll love how to make an easy Roman helmet doesn’t really take so long.

HOW TO MAKE AN EASY ROMAN HELMET

Supplies List

  • 2 Large pieces of cardboard. I got mine from Target when they were throwing the boxes away. I knew I wanted one piece tall enough to be a shield for Tiny.
  • Gold and red duct tape or your choice of colors.
  • Silver Sharpie
  • 1 piece of red cardstock
  • About 3 pieces of poster board. We chose red color.
  • 1 men’s extra large red t-shirt
  • Scissors, a hot glue gun and a sharp craft knife like x-acto
  • We already had brown summer sandals for footwear.
  • Of course, no kid this age will go without anything under the shirt, tee hee hee and they shouldn’t so a shorter pairs of shorts works.

Just in case all of this gets gibberish sounding and because you know I love a good old picture anytime to explain anything, I put one here for you.

Easy Peazy Roman Kids Costume How To

It was all easy to make but like anything it takes a bit of time to put it together.

HOW TO MAKE AN EASY ROMAN HELMET

This took me part of 2 days or one weekend to put this together along with some help from hubby.

Helmet. The helmet was 3 pieces of cardboard, some duct tape, and red cardstock.

One piece of cardstock I measured to go around the head or as a headband.

One to go over the top so the “feathers” can adhere to it and then the front part that was free drawn by hand and then colored with a silver sharpie.

It was glued on the headband.

Easy Roman Costume
Easy Roman Shield

Then I took the red cardstock and made a crease in the center and then cut it into strips but not cut all the way through.

Then glued it on the top of the cardboard piece of the helmet.

Easy Roman Shield
How to Make an Easy Peazy Roman Costume

Here is a side angle of it.

After you glue it on the top strip coming over the helmet, just work with the cut strips until you get them to stick up how you like.

KIDS ANCIENT ROME COSTUME WITH CARDBOARD

I cut some up thicker and others thinner to make it more rustic and real looking.

Easy Roman Shield

Tiny was pleased with it and we worked next on some “armor” for the shoulders and chest.

Shoulder & Chest Armor. This was quiet a bit easier. I just used soft poster board, duct tape and leather shoe strings. I laid the soft poster board across his shoulders, did an eyeball measure and taped it with duct tape.

It is two pieces after I cut a circle for his head and I taped the back side. I left the front open so he could slip it on.

Easy Roman Shield
Easy Roman Shield

 One view is of the top in the picture above and if you turn it over it didn’t look so hot on the underneath, but hey nobody sees that anyway. I just used more tape to hold it.

This was the very last piece put on so that I could put duct tape around the neck or the other side of the circle.

I used leather shoe strings around a piece of gold poster for his chest armor.

Shield. This didn’t take long either. The hardest part was cutting it. I thought about painting it but didn’t really want to mess with waiting for it to dry.

That was one option though. Instead we just covered it with red poster board and used duct tape to cover the edges.

Easy Roman Shield
Easy Roman Shield

I think I change my mind but maybe the hardest part was finding a good set of “wings” that were approved by Tiny.

MORE ANCIENT ROME HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES

He spent almost an hour on the internet looking for some. In the end I couldn’t find any that were free on line so I made some from our clipart.

You never know when you might need one set of wings, so download here printable wings.

Easy Roman Shield
Easy Roman Shield

Add a foil covered bowl to the center and we were done.

It was the back that took just a little longer because I made some cardboard  holders for him to put his arm through and one for him to hold.

So in all the back had 2 holders to keep up his shield.

Again I lifted the shield and measured about where he would hold it and made some cardboard “holders” and used duct tape to keep them in place.

Kids Roman Shield from Cardboard

After that hubby helped to make a sword “holder”  out of a left over piece of cardboard and a bracelet or two and we were done.

Helmet, shield, chest armor, shoulder armor and a sword holder. What more could a kid want for his Roman soldier costume? Try one!

Ancient Phoenicia MinibookModern Day Lebanon

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

The Phoenicians were famous seaman and founded colonies all over the Mediterranean Sea. When we studied the ancients this time, I tried to focus on making it matter by tying it to its modern day location which is Lebanon. 

Though the boys enjoyed reading about Beirut and understanding that Beirut is the capital of Lebanon, I think they enjoyed it a little more when we made the glass blowing connection. After we studied it last time, we focused on the Phoenicians craft of glass making.

Because I like to keep my units with some hands-on activities, I collected a few activities about Ancient Phoenicia at the bottom of this post.  That way we both have some resources when we review this again.

Phoenicians Ancient Civilization

Today, I also have the next minibook on Ancient Phoenicia. It is a tab book and I have a map included in this download that glues on the inside and a few facts too if you want to use them.

Ancient Civilization Lapbook

It is book 6 and it goes placed at the top right side.  We did revisit our glass blowing lapbook to make it somewhat hands-on.

Ancient Phoenicia Craft Roundup

I rounded up a few other hands-on ideas because it really makes learning about any topic a bit more lively. Even something simple is more memorable than a worksheet.

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Look at this fun boat made by the kids at Creekside Learning..They also made purple dye. Pic. Att: Satori Smiles) Over at Satori Smiles they used an expired bag of frozen blueberries to make the dye.

Glass Blowing Lapbook

My glass blowing lapbook ties in with this unit too. Click here to go there.

phoenician464
Lovelearnplay
Ancient Phoenicia MinibookModern Day Lebanon

The Phoenician alphabet. I could see making a code of some sort to make this more interactive.

The Artful Parent has some beautiful ideas for doing some glass activities that would make studying this topic take an art trail. Click here to go there.

Then some links we marked/found helpful.

I hope some of these ideas help to spark your creative ideas or add to enrich your study about the Ancient Phoenicians.

HOW TO GET THE ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS II LAPBOOK

Now, how to grab the freebie. It’s a subscriber freebie.

1) CLICK HERE ON THIS LINK TO SIGN UP ON MY EMAIL LIST & TO GET THIS FREEBIE.

2) Grab the freebie instantly.

3) Last, look for all my emails in your inbox. Glad to have you following me!

Free Minoan and Mycenaean Minibook for an Ancient Civilization Study

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Our year end co-op is always worth the time that it “distracts” me. Making a Roman shield and helmet compliments of some free cardboard and an easy costume equals a memorable day for Tiny. I promise to share all the easy how-to tips in upcoming posts.

But now that its May–YIKES– that means curriculum planner updates are coming soon too.  Hold on to your britches as I switch between topics in the upcoming weeks like my home management binder + my unit study printables + adding in my curriculum planner updates and yes I even have another giveaway coming up.

Free Minoan and Mycenaean Minibook for an Ancient Civilization Study

My year end co-op is finished, my New Bee workshops are done for the year and I am feeling all energetic and zippy.

Okay—-well almost because the kids said they could use a day or two to sleep in and my house still needs to be put back together. Just sounds better if I say the kids need it.

Today, I want to share with you the next minibook in our ancient civilization unit because we did our own lapbook too while we did the Great Empires Activity Study by Home School in the Woods.

On a side note: I was excited after searching high and low for some great clip art that I actually found some to purchase. You have to love those folks making donations to the Dynamic 2 Moms site because when they donate, I buy for you. I always try to be sure they get a Thank You from me.

Our reading focused on the Minoans and Mycenaean. The Minoans settled on the island of Crete at the same time as the rise of Mesopotamia and Egypt. This civilization too has royal palaces and paved roads.

In Minoan culture, bulls were significant and vaulting off the back of bulls was a sport. The Mycenaean were skilled at using gold, built the first Greek empire and were highly civilized even though all around them were barbarian tribes.

That is enough to understand about each culture if you are trying to keep it simple. I like simple.

This next minbook is a layered book about the Minoan and Mycenaean and all you do is staple on the side. As I have time you know I like to create minibooks that have text and create another set that is blank in case you want to fill in your own information. This one is no different. I have text on one set and the duplicate set is without text.

This allows you to use it with both, older and younger children, or to use the information given if you are in a bind for time. We do a lot of writing so I keep our minibooks easy because the focus is on the delight of learning not on penmanship. However, if you are working on penmanship you will enjoy having them blank. As you can see, lots of ways to use all of my minibooks

You know I told you that this lapbook is going to have many different civilizations in it. When I first started homeschooling, I focused on one civilization at a time and I still like to do that, but too after going through them with each kid or each year, sometimes its nice to have a quick glance at one time.  I think it helps younger children to get a panorama of history and its equally important for my older sons because it serves as a review. One reason also is if history is not your first love like it is for us, then looking at each ancient civilization with not so much detail keeps it from becoming overwhelming. I can’t imagine people not wanting to study history their every waking minute. Just saying.

Hugs and love ya,

Update: This lapbook is now complete.

HOW TO GET THE ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS II LAPBOOK

Now, how to grab the freebie. It’s a subscriber freebie.

1) CLICK HERE ON THIS LINK TO SIGN UP ON MY EMAIL LIST & TO GET THIS FREEBIE.

2) Grab the freebie instantly.

3) Last, look for all my emails in your inbox. Glad to have you following me!

Ancient Maya Lapbook (Free Homeschool Unit Study)

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

We have been putting the final touches on our unit study for the ancient Maya. We started off our discussion on Meso-America and narrowed our interest down to the ancient Maya.

Free Ancient Maya Lapbook and homeschool unit study @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I want to focus more on the Aztecs but Mr. Awesome and Mr. Senior 2013 are throwing out other topics for our next unit study topic.

Ancient Maya Lapbook (Free Homeschool Unit Study)

Tiny still likes this topic so we haven’t settled on our next unit study. Too, I think we may focus some on our new curriculum we just got. It’s hard for us to stay away from a good unit study for long so maybe the change to cooler weather will make them decide on a topic.

Ancient Maya Lapbook (Free Homeschool Unit Study)

In most unit studies we find an abundance of hands-on things to do but for this topic they really were focused on reading. However, we did find some hands-on things in the book Amazing Maya Inventions You Can Build Yourself that we liked.

We spent quite a few days learning about the tzolk’in calendar, also called the Sacred Round. It wasn’t as easy as the Maya made it look to line up the two circles for the calendars side by side.

Ancient Maya Lapbook (Free Homeschool Unit Study)

{tzolk’in calendar. pic att and link to learn about it.}

But we did manage to make two circles like the book said and followed the directions but I am not so sure we managed to use it like they did. It made us appreciate the advancements they made in math, building and a written language.

I added this calendar circle as a minibook in the lapbook. So here it is, the next lapbook for you. It has 9 minibooks.

Ancient Maya Lapbook (Free Homeschool Unit Study)

Then of course you know I have to make something for you to  put on the outside of your lapbook for a cover in case you don’t have wild hair and want to create one. So here are two cover choices.

Remember too all of my minibooks or downloads are usually kept separate and not one big HUGE download. I do this because it helps to keep organized when you can pick/choose what you want to download or keep on your computer.

Also, I do it this way because you may prefer to notebook and you can use individual minibooks and decorative pieces from the front cover to create your own notebooking pages. It is rare that I do one huge download. Just letting you know there is a method to my madness.

I made a few organizational changes to our school area this year and am ready to share that with you next. Here is a glimpse of one area I had to redo. I FINALLY got my teacher’s manuals for history and other subjects in a notebooking system I heart. I will have my pictures to share on the small but meaningful changes made to our area.

organization homeschool binders

You know I heart quotes each day. I find this one inspirational today as I think about you and the countless other educators as we daily give to our kids. Also, I was talking in my workshop Monday night how you do give up some things to homeschool but they seem so insignificant now when you see the blessing of your children. {sappy moment thought}. It just made me think of this today.

The things you do for yourself are gone when you are gone, but the things you do for others remain as your legacy.”

~ Kalu Kalu~

How to Get the Free Lapbook Maya and Free Notebooking Pages

Now, how to grab the free maya lapbook. This is a subscriber freebie.

That means when you sign up to follow me, you get access to my subscribers library and this freebie.

However, not all my freebies are in the library (wink).

I like to keep up to date with what is valuable to you so I can give you more, some freebies you must sign up again on the form below even if you are already a follower.

And it’s the only way I have of freely delivering them to you. Just follow the steps below.

► 1) Sign up on my list.
► 2) Go to your inbox and confirm your email from the automatic reply I sent you. If you’re already a confirmed subscriber, you will not have to do this. You’ll receive the freebie instantly.
 ►3) Last step. look for my reply AFTER you’ve confirmed your email.

FBI Unit Study Experiment 2 Invisible Ink

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

Today, I have a FBI Unit Study Experiment 2 Invisible Ink. Also, you’ll love my free FBI American History Free Unit Study for more ideas.

I promise you I have not forgotten about releasing the newest free lapbook about the FBI, but it was such an extensive unit for us. I still have more to share before I release it.

FBI Unit Study Experiment 2 Invisible Ink

Today, I want to share another activity we did on the FBI unit study and that was to make invisible ink.

Of course, according to my teenagers anyway, you have to try the experiment out the way they did it on the movie, National Treasure.

INVISIBLE INK ACTIVITY FBI UNIT STUDY

There are several ways to make invisible ink and we did a couple of them.

FBI Unit Study Experiment 2 Invisible Ink

So the teens gathered some supplies and printed off some of the invisible ink activities from the internet. The one they really wanted to do was the one using cornstarch.

An iodine solution is used to reveal the writing. You make a gravy using cornstarch and write with that.

Are you looking to study modern American history? You'll love this AWESOME free FBI Lapbook and Unit Study | Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Then the message will appear purple after rubbing an iodine solution over it. The iodine binds to the starch molecules.

FBI Unit Study Experiment 2 Invisible Ink

Instead of waiting for me to get some more iodine, they decided to try it the easy way with lemon juice.

They wrote with milk too.

Do you think it would appear with just the heat of the blow dryer?

The boys determined that though the blow dryer was beneficial, they needed a much greater heat source like a hot burner or stove.

Once we got the burners going on the stove, we had messages.There are many methods to making invisible ink like white wine, vinegar, apple juice and even orange juice.

FREE FBI UNIT STUDY & LAPBOOK

Click here for making invisible ink appear if you want some recipes. This activity is an overall easy activity to do and it appeals to kids or adults of any age. They still would like to see a purple message though using iodine.

I have a few more printables to add to this growing unit.

We needed some covers for the notebooks the boys decided to use. I leave it up to my high school sons to decide whether they want to lapbook or notebook. It is such a fine line, I feel, between those two concepts because minibooks can be used in a notebook.

So it really is just a matter of how you want to present the information. Presentation is part of the grade for my high school sons so they get the say in how the cover pages are put together. For younger kids using lapbooks, the emphasis could be on crafting and decorating the outside flaps of lapbooks.

The next round of notebooking pages makes me feel better anyway preparing for the graduation of Mr. Senior 2013. The two pages can be used to track the history of the FBI from 1908 to present and/or add in world events. Just in case I missed anything in the last 100 hundred years of American History he can get the general idea of it in now before he graduates.

BEST HOMESCHOOL UNIT STUDIES

You know history is our very favorite subject and we probably didn’t miss any big events. It just comforts me when I have those moments wondering if I did enough with him.

There are just a few lines on the page to jot down the main world events and/or mix match to line up with the history of the FBI. It is meant to be used as a quick reference for history. 

Too, I think it really builds appreciation in understanding what was happening in the world around the special agents as they tried to keep up with changing times.

Are you to looking study modern American history? You'll love this AWESOME free FBI Lapbook and Unit Study | Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

By the way if you want to do some more reading about the way they did the invisible ink in the movie, National Treasure, read National Treasure – can lemon juice and hot breath reveal invisible ink. The article, National Treasure – can lemon juice and hot breath reveal invisible ink? is from The Creative Science Center.

MORE FBI UNIT STUDY ACTIVITIES