Ancient Greeks Unit

This lesson plan was first published in Teach Primary magazine issue 18.8 You can see a copy of the article at the end of this post.

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The Ancient Greeks have long been a staple of the primary history curriculum. Celebrated as a bastion of democracy (well, mostly), we owe many great ideas and inventions to them. The following 6 lessons aim to give children lots of different ways to connect with the Ancient Greeks by comparing their lives today with theirs. The titles of the lessons can be easily adapted to other parts of the History curriculum: I have used the same key question and lesson order when beginning units on the Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings to aid with building and connecting knowledge. 

Lesson 1 Where were the Ancient Greece?

To start, give a general overview of the Ancient Greeks. Talk about their pre-history and give lots of dates so children can begin to place the Ancient Greeks within the chronological order of world history. Some of the dates should resonate with prior study of the Ancient Egyptians. This is a great time to ask lots of questions and assess prior learning from within and outside of school. Those Groovy Greeks from Horrible Histories are still popular, you may be surprised by how much your class already know!

On the PowerPoint that comes with this article, there are lots of slides of information to read through and discuss with your class. You may wish to trim this down depending on the year group you are teaching. After all that talking, we switch to watching a video and note taking. The video linked in the download gives a general overview of the Ancient Greeks. You could use a different video if you prefer, or skip this if step if time is short.

Now onto the main activity: some mapping. It may seem an odd starting point in a history unit, but the purpose of this activity is to aid in linking to prior learning and children seeing that the Ancient Greeks were not that far away from Britain. Children plot where Greece is and then plot the various locations where Ancient Greek city states could be found, building the concept that the terrain informed the culture. The city-states were a culture, not an empire, so be mindful to not embed this misconception.

Assessment: Can you accurately locate Greece on a map and at least one location their culture spread to?

Lesson 2 When were the Ancient Greeks?

A classic history lesson: break out the timelines! Having learnt where the Ancient Greeks were, we will now explore when they were and some of their key moments. First, there are some key questions for children to research and answer:

·       Ancient Greece began after the _____ culture but before the ______.

·       They were at their peak about ______ years ago.

·       The duration of the Ancient Greeks is about ______ years.

·       The Ancient Greeks will have some similarities with the Ancient Egyptians because ____________.

·       The Ancient Greeks will have some similarities with the Romans because ____________.

These questions will help children to put the dates in context and link with prior learning and history learning they will encounter in the future. A video is linked in the download which children can watch to find the answers or they could research these questions online. Answers are included in the PowerPoint (slide 24).

We then move on to plot some key events from the history of Ancient Greece. Many of these events we will explore in later lessons.  

Assessment: Can you put the Ancient Greeks within the context of their prior historical learning?

Lesson 3 Who were the Ancient Greeks?

You could fill a whole year trying to answer this question given the number of different city states the Ancient Greek culture encapsulated. Start by exploring what a city state was and dispelling the misconception that the Ancient Greeks were one homogenous culture. A great BBC resource is available to support this and a link is in the downloadable PowerPoint.

To draw a classic comparison, we then explore the opposites of democratic Athens and the monarchical (and moderately homicidal) Spartans. There is an information text for children to read through that gives an initial summary of the two cities, their cultures and how they were ruled. Children may be shocked to learn about the routine killing of sickly babies by Spartans or the keeping of slaves. Children may well have lots of their own ideas to add to the following class discussion as Athens and Sparta are often used as examples in history books and tv shows. It is important to highlight how the Spartans, whilst a martial society, were not blood crazed fighters. Some children may argue that the Spartans had a fairer society than the Athenians given their views on the roles of women.

There are then two activities that follow on from the reading. The first is to copy and sort eight statements about the city states, as they either apply to Athens or Sparta. This should be fairly simple, so you may want to make this trickier or add a few of your own ideas.

The second activity is for children to write a paragraph or two explaining whether they would rather live in Athens or Sparta. This is a good opportunity to use the Point à Evidence à Explain method of writing a short paragraph answer, drawing ideas and quotes from a text. You can never have too many opportunities to practice and apply those reading skills.

Assessment: Can you explain if you would like to live in Athens or Sparta and why?

Lesson 4 Were all Ancient Greeks the same or different?

Breaking the learning objective naming pattern, we are not asking the What or Why of the Ancient Greeks (yet). This lesson expands upon the previous one, adding in learning about more of the city states. We will be learning more about Athens and Sparta before progressing on to learn about Corinth and their famous columns; the plutocracy of Thebes; and about Delphi and its insightful oracles. Slides have been included in the download which you could read aloud to the class or have children read a portion of them each. Equally, these slides could be printed off for children to read at their own pace.

With lots to read, the provided activity is light on writing. After reading about each city state, children jot down 5 key facts that they can recall. This will test their short-term memory and ensure that they only summarise the most important or memorable facts. Take time at the end of the lesson to share on tables and then as a class. You could then curate a class set of key facts about the city states to add to a display.

If resources allow, you could have children research about these five cities instead to develop their online searching skills. I recommend keeping the five key facts activity so enough time is allowed for searching and reading.

The aim of this lesson is for children to see that each city state had a shared culture but one that equally had its own local idiosyncrasies. This lesson should also show children that the city states were independent, yet some could also be dependent on each other during times of crisis.

Assessment: Can you tell me one interesting fact about each of the 5 city states we studied this lesson from memory?

Lesson 5 What was it like to live as an Ancient Greek?

Life for the Ancient Greeks was more than olives and togas. This lesson is a chance for children to reflect on six aspects of modern life before comparing these to life in Ancient Greece. The activity for this lesson can be completed using words, pictures or both so differentiates across a range of abilities. Or you may wish for children to apply their sketching skills and take a break from writing.

Using worksheet in the download, ask children to reflect on their house, clothing, food and toys. Then they can think about their role in society (going to school, being a child in a family…) and the roles of their family members or other adults in their lives (their profession, who is in their family…). For these last two points, children should see that regardless of gender they have the same expectations. For other people, there is a whole host of different roles they can have, again these are not usually linked to gender.

There are then a series of slides you can work through (or print off) about the Ancient Greeks. Children will complete the table again, seeing that some parts of life are similar. They should see that the roles of people in society was quite different and there was a lack of freedom in life choices, especially for women. My class were shocked that girls could be married off to a man of their father’s choosing and celebrated this by sacrificing their toys to Artemis.

Allow time at the end of the lesson to compare and share which ideas children noted. You could have children write a short summary paragraph or expand on one of the boxes which they found the most interesting.

Assessment: Can you explain what role you would have had in Ancient Greece as a child and as an adult? Would your role then be the same as now?

Lesson 6 Why are the Ancient Greeks important?

A question children may have been asking since Lesson 1: why do we need to learn about the Ancient Greeks? Why are they important among the many different ancient cultures we could study (if the National Curriculum allowed…).

This lesson explores nine ways in which the Ancient Greeks have influenced our modern lives. Children then plot these ideas out into a Diamond 9 sorting activity (template provided in the download) to apply their reasoning and comparison skills.

Open the lesson with a discussion of the lesson’s question, drawing out the prior learning. If time allows, there are a few videos in the presentation for children to watch and jot notes on along with a BBC Bitesize page to explore. This is all general background ready for the 9 short summaries on the later slides. If your class has not completed a Diamond 9 before, you may want to model this in lots of detail. As you read through the slides, have children jot 1 to 9 on a whiteboard or piece of scrap paper so they can order the nine topics in importance as you read. Or you could give children a rough copy of the Diamond 9 worksheet.

Allow time for children to complete a neat copy of the Diamond 9 worksheet. This may take far more time as you realise, especially when children are deliberating between the upper pair and lower pair. This can be a great activity to foster debate between talk partners or tables.

Children can then write a few sentences explaining their most important and least important choices. A model for the writing and exemplars are on the slides.

Assessment: Can you explain why the Ancient Greeks are important to our society? Can you explain what parts of Ancient Greek society we see in Britain today?

Further lessons

This set of lessons is a great starting point to build upon. I have taught this as a unit of 10 lessons, learning more about the daily lives of Ancient Greeks and the gods and goddesses they worshiped. You could also look at the life of Alexander the Great and how he changed the ancient world too. He was one Groovy Greek.