TBear learned that after the reign of King Solomon, around 931 B.C., the Kingdom of Israel was divided into the Northern Kingdom of Israel (with ten of the original twelve tribes) and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The Northern Kingdom endured centuries of spiritual decay and political upheaval until finally it was conquered and destroyed by the Assyrians, the people deported and scattered. Lasting a little longer, eventually Judah became more and more corrupt until God must judge them too. Judah was conquered by the Babylonians, who then deported the Jewish people to Babylon. TBear drew a beautiful picture of the Ishtar Gate in Babylon, through which conquered prisoners were marched, and I thought I had a photo of it, but I don't. (I know it's part of the A-Z History book he is compiling so when that is done, I'll post a photo of that.)
Next we noted that the Persian empire rose to conquer the Babylonians (and everyone else) and freed the Jews to return to their homeland. The Persians set their sights on lands to the west. In our study of the Persian wars we saw that the Greeks successfully prevented the Persians from conquering any of the lands west of Greece. However, after uniting to fight a common enemy, the Greeks fought between themselves, which brought our studies to the Peloponnesian Wars and the achievements of the Greeks. TBear was especially interested in the Spartans and Athenians. We spent quite some time creating armor for a Greek Hoplite warrior. He was fascinated by their weapons too, but we skipped reproducing those for now.
The first project was to create a pair of greaves, which are the shinguards worn by the Hoplites. Next he designed and made a cool shield out of foamboard. The final project was to make a helmet out of a paper paint bucket, but do you think I could find a paper paint bucket?? They make metal and plastic ones now, but the paper ones that can be cut up are hard to find around here apparently.
So we bought some poster board and he designed a helmet along the lines of a paint bucket. First he drew a circle, which he "smushed" into an oval for the top of the helmet.
Measuring the circumference of his head plus a little breathing room, he cut a rectangular piece of poster board for the side of the helmet. (The really cool thing about that was that we had just studied calculating perimeters and areas of circles. I love applied math.) Next, he cut the eyes and nose piece out, along with notches for the helmet to sit over his shoulders.
After some experimenting, we decided that gluing and taping to hold the glue till it dried worked best to assemble the top and sides of the helmet.
The flat top was made round by folding pieces of newspaper and taping it to the top.
Originally, the intention was just to papier-mache the top part, but TBear decided he wanted to make the whole helmet more rigid, so he papier-mached the whole thing.
After some brass-colored spray paint and a red plume, the helmet was finished. I thought he did a fabulous job.
Here's the whole Hoplite assembly. It really brings home the difference in climate between Maine and Greece this early in the spring! :)
Here's Sunshine watching the progress of the project with his buddies. : )
Since using the Excellence in Writing curriculum this year, TBear's writing has improved drastically. Not only that, it's a lot less painful than it used to be to get him to write. He is actually enjoying creating his A-Z History book. The paper below is about the Hoplites and their wonderful weapons, which he presented at our small celebration.
TBear made up a shopping list for me and we created a Greek meal for our celebration too. We had a nice selection of olives, feta cheese, and hummus with pita bread to start with. Then we made some grilled chicken with sourdough bread and olive oil for dipping. For dessert we had slices of pound cake with warm honey drizzled on top. We also bought some figs to try. Truth be told, we prefer them in the fig newtons. :) However, we all agreed we liked this meal a lot.
Next up, we take a look at the Etruscans and the founding of Rome. More fun projects are in store for us. TBear informed me this morning that he's already read David McCauley's book, "City" and would like to create some models of Roman architecture and engineering.It's working for me.
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