GREEK PHILOSOPHERS AND PYTHAGORAS

 We're doing a bit more on Ancient Greece because there's so much to learn about it. This week I've been learning a little bit about Greek philosophers and especially Pythagoras because he influenced maths and music so much.

I read about Socrates, Plato and Aristotle and to help me remember what they did and how they thought, me and my mum made up a game called Agora (which is the Greek marketplace) which is really cool and fun to play. We also made some clay coins that you have to earn by answering the questions correctly when you land on the philosopher's podium. When you have enough coins you can buy things in the stalls at the agora and the first person to buy everything on their list in the winner. I usually win because I have a better memory than my mum!

 It's always the other person who has to read out the question.

 The coins have the image of an owl on them because they're from Athens and Athena was the goddess of wisdom.

 This is one of the questions.

Then I made a lapbook to put pictures and things I'd learned in it. 

 I also learned Pythagoras' Theorem which is pretty easy, especially with a calculator!

SPARTAN ARMY

 

For our fifth History Club presentations I was a soldier in the Spartan Army. Life was pretty tough for boys then because they had to go to train and be soldiers from 7 years old and stayed in the army till they were 60.

These are the weapons I made for my presentation.

This is a sword that I made. I got the

ideas from a man that looks like he's a fan 

of the Spartans and he did very good job. 

HERE you can see his videos.

This is the result.

This is a helmet from the same man.

 

Doesn't it look good?

This is a shield that I made from a rubbish bin lid.

 Isn't it awesome!!!! 

 

They are attacking us!!!!!!!!!

 

CRETE AND THE MINOANS

For my fourth History Club presentation I wanted to talk about the Minoans and the great eruption on the island of Thera (now known as Santorini) in 1645 BC.

I made a map of some of Greece, especially of the islands and Crete to show how the sea was a very important part of their culture. I talked about their ship building and the trade between islands and then about the volcano that ended up destroying their civilization over the next 50 years.

 It was a lot of fun making the islands out of modelling clay.

I drew the islands in pencil first from an atlas I have, then pushed up the middles to make the mountains. 

 Then I painted them with a dry sponge and then I put some "grass" on the tops of the mountains.

 This was the volcano with soda I made that we exploded with vinegar at the History Club.

GREEK GODS AND STUFF

Because we're now at Ancient Greece in our Story of the World book in the History Club, I looked at some sites on the Internet about the gods and goddesses of Ancient Greece. I can't remember where I got these pictures from, but they're really cool for colouring in and I used them to make a short book of a few of the ones I liked best.

The book I wrote them in was an old First Words Book, recycled especially for the project.

THE GARDENS OF BABYLON

For my third History Club presentation, I wanted to talk about the Gardens of Babylon and the machines they must have used to water all the plants.

First I did a drawing based on one of the pictures I saw on Google, then mum helped me pull out all the styrofoam we had collected and helped me cut it so it looked like a terraced construction. Then we got some plastic flowers and plants to stick into the soft styrofoam and decorated our gardens. It looked pretty cool.

 

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We were going to put steps leading up to each terrace but it looked better without them.

Then we found out how they must have watered these gardens using machines like the Archimedes screw, chain pumps, aqueducts, shadufs and water wheels as they carried the water from the Euphrates river to the gardens. There wasn't very sophisticated machinery in the 6th century BC and they had a long way to haul the water, so nobody really knows how they did it and if the gardens really existed at all.

 I made my own Archidemes screw from a pipe and some hose. Then I covered it in sand to make it look more primitive, then covered it in varnish to make it waterproof.

 It worked really well!

 

 I also made a chain pump with recycled materials.

 That also worked really well after a few adjustments.

 I had to put plastic tongues on the edge of the "buckets" so the water could fall without dribbling.

 Then a simple water wheel that didn't work very well because it was a bit stiff.

And an aqueduct which would have been important for carrying the water from the river to the gardens.