Summer SAVY, Session 1 Day 3, Ancient Roots and Ruins (5th – 6th)
Happy Wednesday! Today was “gladiator” day in Ancient Roman Ruins! We started with a “myth-busting” activity to discern fact from fiction concerning the ancient gladiators. From there, we learned about the most famous gladiators and, of course, the Colosseum in which the gladiators performed! In order to fully understand the construction of the Colosseum, students even got to build their own versions of the Colosseum with graham crackers, and there were some impressive constructions. A few pictures are included below!
From there, we transitioned to talking about chariot racing, another sport in which many different gladiators would participate. We learned about the Circus Maximus, the rules of chariot racing, and the construction of the chariot. Then we had time for students to build their own mini chariots in groups to race them (safely) outside. Congratulations to the winning team!
In the final part of the afternoon, we continued working on our Roman city projects. Students will begin to polish those projects tomorrow to present them on Friday.
Main takeaways from today: understanding the appeal of gladiator shows in the Roman empire, discerning fact from fiction to be as educated as possible on the reality of gladiators’ lives, understanding the impressive feats of construction and engineering that went into the Roman Colosseum and chariots, and having fun with our much-anticipated “gladiator day”!
Some dinner table questions:
- What was one surprising fact you learned about gladiators?
- How was your Colosseum building project? Was it hard to construct? How did you keep everything balanced?
- How did your group decide to build your chariot, and why?
Have a lovely evening!
Ms. Waxman