Summer SAVY, Session 1 Day 4, Ancient Legacy: Exploring the Impact and Influence of the Roman Empire (5th-6th)

Posted by floresmm on Thursday, June 12, 2025 in blog, SAVY.

Happy Thursday! This morning, we began by finishing up some information from our action-packed gladiator day yesterday! From there, we transitioned to learning about daily life during the Roman Empire, especially focusing on the laws that governed daily life and the architecture of the central Roman baths and villas. As we learned about each component, students had the opportunity to add their own versions of the laws, houses, and baths to the cities that they are creating for their final projects. They also had a chance to create their own mosaics to feature in their Roman city!

In the afternoon, students had some time to keep working on their city projects. They should be nearing completion with these projects, though we will have some time to finish working in the morning before presenting the projects in the afternoon. Since we have completed our study of the government structure for both the Roman Republic and Empire, we also had a class-wide debate on which system worked more effectively.

Tomorrow is the last day of our course, so we will be having a toga party! If possible, we would love for each student to bring an old bed sheet (or something similar) to use for the toga fashion show. (We will not be drawing or coloring on the sheets, so they will come home in good condition.) We will also have extra materials for students, so it is totally fine if they are not able to bring a sheet from home.

Main takeaways from today: understanding what the day-to-day life was like in ancient Rome, detailing the styles of columns and mosaics that Romans used for decoration, and applying all of our knowledge from the week in our city project.