Greek Classics for Children
Ancient Greek Civilization Resources
Any study of ancient history would be incomplete without a stop in Ancient Greece.
Why Study Ancient Greece?
The great classics of this period, including the Greek myths, The Iliad, and The Odyssey, have remained foundational works of literature for hundreds of years.
All educated Westerners should be familiar with these stories since so many other works of literature and even our very language include allusions to them.
There are a lot of great resources for studying Ancient Greece. I've compiled the best ones here. Some are free, online things. Others are retail. But the good news is that many of them are in the public domain and FREE. Whether you want a living books approach or want to make a lapbook (or maybe both), you will find some excellent materials hidden in the links below./ul>
Living Books for History
About Ancient Greece
History is an amazing subject. It can be made deadly dull or wonderfully thrilling depending on the approach taken.
Using living books and biography to teach history makes these foreign, ancient civilizations come alive. Children may not have the maturity to comprehend political movements and philosophical paradigms, but they certainly can understand and remember a good story.
Teach children about Ancient Greece through the stories of this time -- about gods and goddesses and about heroes and kings.
Notebooking Pages Ancient Greece Set
retail
Notebooking Pages has a wonderful set of 240 Ancient Greek pages covering people, places, and events in a variety of notebooking layouts.
Buy the pages directly from Notebooking Pages or from Currclick. Below are examples of Alexander the Great pages from this set which my daughter used in seventh grade.
Free Printables About Ancient Greece
for notebooking or lapbooking
Here are some of the best free printables on the Internet. Examine which ones would fit well with your unit study.
- Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
- Design a Greek pot online and print it out!
- Highland Heritage
- A unit study about Ancient Greece with suggested books, activities, writing assignments and more. Scroll down to the bottom of the page for PDFs of shape books, notebooking pages, and worksheets.
- Notebooking Nook Freebies
- Look for Ancient Greece freebies in the ancient history section such as
Legend of the Trojan Horse and The Rise of Athens and Sparta. - Ancient Greece Printables
- Several attractive, lined papers for notebooking and some printable Greek coins!
- Ancient Greece Coloring Pages
- Quite a few images from theater masks to women to warriors.
- Karen's Whimsey
- Look at the menu to the left side -- Ancient Past/Greeks -- for a plethora of public domain images, many suitable for coloring pages.
- Mystic Mills Free Coloring Pages
- Nice coloring pages for many Greek gods, goddesses and heroes.
- Greek Alphabet
- Notebooking Pages offers these free Greek alphabet strips in both upper case and lower case!
- Ancient Greece Board Game
- Wow! This is an amazing FREE resource --"Digging Up Greece" is a super high-content game about ancient Greece! The game board is a giant map of Greece, artifact cards show actual artifacts and ruins, and (multiple choice) question cards quiz you about ancient Greek history and culture. Multi-level play lets beginners play against those who've already studied Greece.
- Samutsari's Homeschool Fileshare Page
- Several Ancient Greece notebooking pages designed by a homeschooling mom: Trojan Horse, Plato & Aristotle, Alexander the Great, Phillip 2 of Macedonia, Peloponnesian War, Pericles, the Golden Age of Greece, and Socrates.
- Ancient Greece Paper Dolls
- Paper Dali (named after the great artist Salvador Dali) offers incredible FREE black and white paper doll templates to save, print, and color. Use these for narrating the great books you read aloud or for lapbooking or notebooking.
- Midisegni Coloring Pages
- This site is in Spanish, but you can easily figure out what myth is being referred to. Look at the list on the right side for some cartoon style coloring pages of Greek Myths.
- Greek Paperdolls
- Free printable doll plus five outfits from Liana's Paper Doll Blog.
- Crayola® Coloring Pages - Greek Women's Day
- A lovely coloring page of a Greek woman in profile.
- Betsy Stout's Free Printable Notebooking Pages
- Topics include Aesop, Greek Gods, Homer, Pythagoras, Athens & Sparta, and the Trojan Horse.
- Homeschool Share's FREE Ancient Greece Unit & Lapbook
- A complete unit study plus lapbook templates.
- The Twelve Olympians
- A unit study for elementary level about 12 gods and goddesses on Mount Olympus. This 40+ page PDF includes lesson plans, worksheets, puzzles, hands on activities, and more.
- Activity Village Ancient Greece Printables
- Medusa, Apollo, a hoplite soldier, ancient coins, and more.
- Free Iliad Lapbook
- Daisies and Dominos blog offers this very attractive PDF full of printable templates.
Ancient Greece Lapbook
First Grade
We love to use lapbooking in homeschool. It's a great way for creative children to record what they have learned. The slideshow below has pictures of my daughter's first grade Ancient Greece lapbook.
For ideas when planning your own Ancient Greece lapbook, look at this PDF from Mr. Mepham.
For more lapbook pictures, visit
- To Be Busy at Home where a 7th grader's Ancient Greece Lapbook is featured.
- SugarPlum's photos of her daughter's 1st grade Ancient Greece lapbook
- Through the Narrow Gate blog. This mom gives detailed descriptions of the minibooks they made.
- Greek Gods and Goddesses Lapbook slideshow
- The Dill Adademy's Ancient Greece lapbook
Ancient Greek Art
Free Printable Notebooking Pages
If you're studying the art of Ancient Greece, these three sets of notebooking pages will be an asset to your curriculum. These free printables are offered by The Notebooking Fairy.
- Ancient Greek Art Notebooking Pages
- General art pages plus one page to outline the four historical periods of Ancient Greek art.
- Ancient Greek Architecture Notebooking Pages
- The Acropolis of Athens is the main focus on these architecture pages.
- Ancient Greek Pottery and Sculpture Notebooking Pages
- This final set is about Greek pottery and sculpture.
History Pockets
If you would like a little nudge toward lapbooking or notebooking Ancient Greece, look at these History Pocket reproducibles. Evan Moor products are high quality with attractive graphics and rich factual content.
Need something NOW? CurrClick offers immediate downloads of ebooks -- unit studies, lapbooks, and notebooking pages, and Evan Moor's History Pockets.
For a peek inside the books, visit Google Books. (Books can't be saved or printed. This is for preview purposes only.)
History Pockets: Ancient Greece
Suitable for grades 4-6.
There are more History Pockets relating to Ancient Greece:
Literature Pockets, Greek & Roman Myths for Grades 4-6
History Pockets: Ancient Civilizations for Grades 1-3
Greek Myths
Your study of Ancient Greece should include stories of at least some of the major myths. If your children are like my daughter, they will want more and more of these fanciful tales.
If you are a Christian struggling with whether or not you should teach myths, read these articles:
The Loom from Tapestry of Grace
Thoughts by bloggers:
Lexi on Christians teaching myths
Kristi on mythology.
The following four books are great choices for beginners to learn about Greek mythology. Two of them are free and in the public domain.
Greek Myths
For some simple printable lapbooking components to accompany this book, visit Turtle Island Adventures.
D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths
The D'Aulaires are well respected children's books authors. This volume would make a fine addition to your homeschool library.
Usborne's Greek Myths
Greek Myths for Young Children (Stories for Young Children)
This is one of my daugher's favorite books. She loves the myths and the illustrations in this volume.
It's wonderful when your child hears an allusion to a mythical story and recognizes it because she's been reading this book in bed at night.
Gods and Heroes
by Robert Edward Francillon
The Baldwin Online Children's Project has dozens of texts in the public domain that relate to Ancient Greece. I will highlight a few of the more popular ones. But you can find the entire list here.
Public domain text for Gods and Heroes can be found at these sites:
1. The Baldwin Project
2. Archive.org
3. Google Books
Gods and Heroes: An Introduction to Greek Mythology (Yesterday's Classics)
Perseus, The Labors of Hercules, and many more myths are included in this time-proven volume.
The Heroes, or Greek Fairy Tales for My Children
by Charles Kingsley
Listen to The Heroes with free MP3 audio files downloaded from Librivox.
Public domain text for The Heroes can be found at these sites:
1. The Baldwin Project
2. Archive.org
3. Google Books
4. ManyBooks
The Heroes: or Greek Fairy Tales for My Children
Stories of Perseus, Theseus, and Jason, full of thrilling adventure will engage your children.
Audio Greek Tales
I'm a huge fan of audio learning! Why? First of all, it seems painless. You can listen as you do other tasks -- chores or crafts. Also it's entertaining in a way that engages the imagination (unlike television's visual stimulation). Supplement your study of Ancient Greece with some audio stories.
For some great FREE MP3 downloads, visit Storynory's Greek Myths page. You will find retellings of these exciting stories: The Homecoming of Odysseus, Circe the Beautiful Witch, In the Cyclops Cave, The Wooden Horse, and Troy. You can also preview the full story text before you download.
Iliad for Boys and Girls
by Alfred John Church
Memoria Press has a great article titled Why Read Homer's Iliad. Although the article assumes you are studying the Iliad in it's original Latin, many of the arguments listed are valid even for a children's version of the classic epic.
The Iliad for Boys and Girls is in audio MP3 format at Librivox.org. This is a free download!
The Iliad for Boys and Girls is available at these sites:
1. The Baldwin Project
2. Google Books
3. Archive.org
Look at the free Iliad lapbook printables at Daisies and Dominoes. It's really well done and FREE.
The Iliad for Boys and Girls (Yesterday's Classics)
I listened to this Librivox recording on my MP3 and found it very true to the original. This would be best for older elementary students.
A Story of the Golden Age of Greek Heroes
A public domain text of The Story of the Golden Age of Greek Heroes can be found at The Baldwin Project.
For some fantastic line drawings (suitable for coloring pages) of Odysseus, visit Karen's Whimsey. Be sure to go on to her next page of more Odyssey images, all in the public domain.
A Story of the Golden Age of Greek Heroes (Yesterday's Classics)
This book combines Homer's Iliad and Odyssey into a continuous narrative that is suitable for children.
More Free Public Domain Books
About Ancient Greece
ManyBooks.net is a favorite site because of the huge range of formats you can choose from including Kindle, PDF, mobi, sony reader, etc. Here are some of their Ancient Greece titles:
The Story of the Odyssey by Rev. Alfred J. Church
The Golden Fleece andd The Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles by Padraic Colum
Myths and Legendary Heroes: Young Folks Treasury, Volume 2
Aunt Charlotte's Stories of Greek History by Charlotte Mary Yonge
The Story of the Greeks by H.A. Guerber
Reader Feedback
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Being a Greek i think that this is a great lens -
Great resources! I love the lapbook. I hope to delve into Ancient Greece. I would also love to learn some Greek. I really think learning about these ancient civilizations and their languages really forms a person. -
Pinning this lens to my pinboard for EDUCATION. I like the clipart above. -
Great lens for kids. - Load More
Very nice resources on ancient Greece.