Ancient Greece Interactive Notebooks
By MARISSA DESPINS Updated April 09, 2024
Welcome to another post in my series on Interactive Notebooks. In previous posts, we talked about what interactive notebooks are. We also talked about why they are beneficial, tips and tricks for Interactive Notebook success, and using them to teach all about Mesopotamia. If you are interested in reading my previous posts, you can scroll to the bottom of this post and click on the links.
In my last post, I talked all about Mesopotamia. I mentioned some fun ways to introduce this Ancient Civilization in your middle school classroom. The next unit I thought I would talk to you about is Ancient Greece. This is one of my all time favourite units to teach!
I have found in the past that my students typically come into our unit on Ancient Greece with a lot of background knowledge. Between Disney’s Hercules cartoon, the Percy Jackson books, and countless Netflix movies, the kids all have at least some prior knowledge about this civilization. This makes it a really fun unit to teach. The kids are excited about the content before we even start.
I have a wide variety of different ready to teach Ancient Greece activities available in my TPT shop that you can download and use right away – see them all by clicking on the button below!
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Ancient Greece Teaching Ideas
Read on for some of my very favorite activities for teaching about this Ancient Civilization.
Ancient Greece Close Reading Activities
I am not a huge fan of the textbook that our school uses. I am not sure though, to be honest, if any history teacher I know actually likes the textbook they are supposed to use. If you do happen to like your textbook, please let me know the one you are using! To avoid the textbook as much as I can, I typically write up my own reading passages on different topics I want to focus on in our curriculum.
To read more about how I use these passages with my learners, check out our complete close reading guide!
Greek One Pager Activities
After reading through the passages, I have recently started giving my students templates to create their own One Pagers on the content. I like the way One Pagers ask students to process the content and then present it in creative ways. Also, I think the completed One Pagers look so much better in their Interactive Notebooks than boring old chapter questions do!
Ancient Greece Read Alouds
No unit on Ancient Greece is complete without a deep dive into the gods, goddesses, and monsters of Greek Mythology. Reading and writing Greek Myths is a great way to tie some literacy into your Social Studies curriculum!
Also, Greek Myths make great read alouds. They are typically short enough to get through in one sitting. They also have a lot of the same elements of the fairy tales kids are already familiar with. The books above are my go to selections for collections of Greek myths. However, there are also a lot of really great picture books out there featuring individual myths. If you were looking for a longer read aloud, pulling out the first Percy Jackson and the Olympians book would be an excellent choice!
For a list of great Greek Myth read alouds, check out this post on mythology activities!
Looking for ways to keep students accountable during your read aloud time? Check out our post on read aloud accountability!
Greek Gods – Foldable Research Projects
The above and below images are from a foldable research project that I have my students complete on the 12 Olympians. After completing the mini information pages, we put them all together into a foldable accordion book. It is always a fun addition to their Interactive Notebooks.
My favourite activity that I have my students do is a “Create Your own Mythological Monster” assignment. After learning all about Greek monsters, each student is given a stack of templates. Next, they must use them to create a scrapbook all about their mythical monster. The first thing we do is brainstorm some possible ideas. Check out Sam in the image below. He has some sweet abs, as well as feet for hands!
Finally, we choose our favourite and create a monster scrapbook with information all about them. This is a great time to let your creative students run wild!
To read more about the monsters of Greek Mythology, check out our post on Mythical Allusions!
For more fun foldable activities, check out our guide to Interactive Notebooks!
Is Ancient Greece part of your history curriculum? What is your favourite myth to teach? Let me know in the comments below!
Interested in trying out this Ancient Greece Interactive Notebook in your class?
You can download all of the resources I mentioned in this post by clicking on the images below!
Looking for FREE Interactive Notebook resources to use in your Ancient Greece unit?
Click on the image below for a FREE download of Interactive Notebook resources to help introduce your students to Ancient Greece!
Looking for more resources to teach all about Ancient Greece?
Click on the image below to go straight to my Teachers Pay Teachers store! I have a wide variety of resources to teach all about this Ancient Civilization!
Looking for more FREE Interactive Notebook resources?
Click on the link below to go directly to a FREE download of some of my best selling Interactive Notebook resources. These include foldables, graphic organizers, and other fun resources you can use to help get you started with using Interactive Notebooks in your classroom today!
Interested in checking out my other posts on Interactive Notebooks?
Click on the link below to go directly to my other posts!
What are Interactive Notebooks?
Interactive Notebooks: Why are they beneficial?
Tips and Tricks for Interactive Notebooks
Teaching Ancient History with Interactive Notebooks: Mesopotamia
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