A Slice of Smith Life: A few Ancient Rome Activities and Art Showcase

Friday, March 18, 2011

A few Ancient Rome Activities and Art Showcase

7:35 AM | Posted by asliceofsmithlife | Edit Post

This year we are studying Ancient Rome using Famous Men of Rome text from Memoria Press. We have done some activities from this book, Spend the Day in Ancient Rome and I wanted to share a few things we have done this year.

In the above photo, my older three children are dressed in typical clothes that children wore in Roman times. My daughters are wearing stolas, which is the kind of tunic that Roman women and girls wore. The Roman stola was made of a straight piece of linen or woolen cloth, pinned at the shoulders, with a big collar hanging down nearly to the waist. Our stolas are far from looking authentic as they are made with sheets, but I just grabbed things I had from the dress up box :) My son is wearing a tunica exterior, a knee-length tunic, under his armor. This was the usual dress of children and men in Rome. Tunics were sleeveless or short-sleeved and made of wool or linen, and usually white. My kids had fun dressing up like the Romans!

My kids also made mosaic designs with cardboard and dried beans. As stated in Spend the Day in Ancient Rome, "Many Roman floors were covered with hundreds of small tiles, called tesserae. The tesserae were made from cubes of stone, so their colors were natural stone colors: gray, brown, green, brick red, white, or tan. A mosaic is a design or picture made by arranging the tesserae in a pattern."

And here are my kid's mosaics when they were done:

I am linking up this artwork to Kimberly's Art Showcase where you can link up your child's artwork each Friday! Kimberly's children did some beautiful artwork yesterday for St. Patrick's Day so be sure to check out Happy Hearts Academy and link up!

Also, this Saturday, March 19, is the Feast Day of St. Joseph. Those delicious and beautiful breads that our homeschool children made will be displayed for our St. Joseph celebration which will be this Sunday. We are looking forward to celebrating this special feast day with family and friends! I can't wait to do a post on this beautiful day sometime next week!

Please join Lynda, Anna-Marie and myself for March's No Ordinary Blog Hop (NOBH). You can link up any or all your posts for the entire month of March. The blogger with the most posts will be awarded a Star Blogger Award and each post will be an entry to a great giveaway! Click below for details!

Labels:art showcase,feast day,No Ordinary Blog Hop

15 comments:

The Adventurer said...

Those are great mosaics! We did one last year made of stones found in our garden. It took a lot longer than I planned:). But turned out great. Happy Friday:)

March 18, 2011 at 10:03 AM

Kim@stuffcould.... said...

Your kids are artists! Great pics also
kim

March 18, 2011 at 12:20 PM

Unknown said...

Very cool art project. I remember doing something like this when I was a kid. My mother always had a fun art/craft project for us, and we loved doing them. Have a wonderful weekend. (I voted for you.)

March 18, 2011 at 12:40 PM

asliceofsmithlife said...

Thanks Anna-Marie! I would love to see a picture of your stone mosaics! Do you have a picture of them you could put up on your blog? Happy Friday to you too!

March 18, 2011 at 3:56 PM

asliceofsmithlife said...

Hi Kim,
Thanks for your nice comment and stopping by!

March 18, 2011 at 3:57 PM

asliceofsmithlife said...

HI Lynda!
That's so nice that you have those fun memories of you doing art projects with your mom! That is so special :) Have a great weekend!

March 18, 2011 at 3:58 PM

Kylie said...

Hi Tracy, What a fun unit, love the mosaics.

March 18, 2011 at 7:27 PM

asliceofsmithlife said...

Hi Kylie,
Thanks for stopping in and for commenting! Hope you have a great weekend!

March 18, 2011 at 9:25 PM

Unknown said...

Hi Tracy,
I love the kids all dressed up. They look like they are having so much fun! I think it is great to take something they are learning and have them really live it. Awesome job on the mosaics. They are amazing! Thanks for linking up at the art showcase and the mention here. I am having so much fun seeing what creations are made each week. I can't wait to see your St. Joseph post. Have a happy feast day today!

March 19, 2011 at 10:58 AM

asliceofsmithlife said...

Hi Kimberly!
It's been a lot of fun linking up for your art showcase and checking out your kid's artwork and others! Thanks for your nice comments and hope you are having a blessed weekend!

March 20, 2011 at 11:22 AM