When I went to the Parthenon last year...

This is my blog entry from my trip to Greece last April...

This morning we woke up early to hike to the center of historical Athens, the acropolis. The acropolis is the high fortified point of the city where the center of political and religious life was. There is the world-famous temple to the goddess Athena known as the Parthenon. I have to tell you that it was every bit as huge and spectacular as I imagined it would be.

Also high on the acropolis is the temple of Nike, the goddess of victory. The Athenians built these great structures to celebrate the failure of the Persians to take over Greece and the Greek victory at the Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. This began the Golden Age of Athens.

The Parthenon itself is an engineering masterpiece. It only took 9 years to build, but cost billions of dollars (in today's money) to complete it. Inside would have been a giant statue of the goddess Athena made of ivory and gold.



For more information about the Parthenon, click here.



For more of my pictures of the acropolis, click here.

"All About My Culture" Day

Next Thursday, March 29th is "All About My Culture" Day in Cluster 2. Parents are invited to attend from 8:00-9:30 A.M. Here is the letter we sent out:

Greetings Cluster 2 Families,

You’re invited to Cluster Two's All About My Culture Day.  We’re hoping that a member from each family can join us here in Cluster 2 from 8:00-9:30 on Thursday, March 29th.

We're all very excited about the day as it gives us an opportunity to accomplish three main goals:

1.  Strengthen the home-school connection:  It is our hope that your children have come home and asked about your family history.  Further, we hope that this has generated a conversation about some of the great things that are happening in sixth grade and some of the great things that are coming up for Cluster 2.


2.  Community Building:  We strongly feel that whole—cluster events bring us closer as a community of learners and help to create our own culture.  To that end, students will have an opportunity to talk about themselves, their history and exciting topics that are generated from conversations with you!


3.  A sense of Global Awareness:  As part of the Social Studies curriculum, students will be asked to identify (on a world map) some of the locations of their classmates’ origins.  The final result will be a large, mural-sized world map that will be posted in the Cluster 2 corridor that identifies all of the countries of origin of everyone in Cluster 2! 

In order to prepare for this exciting day, students have been asked to bring the following materials to school:

On Thursday March 29th, students will bring to school a large, decorated, paper bag with the following attached:

• your name in large, clearly written letters
• a map of each country of your heritage
• a map of the world with the continents/countries of your heritage marked
• a flag for each country of your heritage

and with the following inside:

• a recipe that demonstrates part of your culture
• 6 artifacts that symbolize different aspects of your culture
• examples: clothing, pastimes, hobbies, traditions, literature, language, inventions, attitudes, family photos, music, customs, and beliefs, art, history, etc.

Lastly, as you may have heard, all students are asked to bring in a recipe and an optional sampling of food from their own culture.  For the recipe, "culture" really has a loose definition:  new traditional recipes, recipes that are passed down, special event recipes, as well as food passed down from a specific country of origin all are great additions to the All About My Culture climate that we are hoping for on Culture Day.  The amount is largely up to you and should be whatever you feel is appropriate.

We do ask that all food be nut free and have a detailed ingredient list on the template provided. Per Needham Public School guidelines, we need to have these ingredient lists ahead of Culture Day.

It is our intent to take this collection of recipes (one or two from each student), bind them, and give one packet of recipes from around the world to each student in June as they leave Cluster 2 and sixth grade. 

As always, thank you for your continued effort and support.  Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or need any additional info.

Regards,

Cluster 2 Teachers


Here are the assignment guidelines and the scoring rubric for students, as well as the template for preparing the recipe.

The Rubric (click for a larger image)

The Recipe Template (click for a larger image)

Ancient Greece Vocabulary

Here are the vocabulary words and definitions for our Greece unit:

peninsula
a piece of land that is surrounded by water on three sides
Examples: Peloponnesus, Florida, Italy

island
a piece of land that is completely surrounded by water
Examples: Martha's Vineyard, Crete

monarchy
a government which puts the decision-making power in the hands of one person

oligarchy
a government in which the decisions are made by a small,  select group of people

democracy
a government in which all citizens make decisions by voting

 tyrant
a single person who seizes power by force

oracle
A prediction about the future; also the person who makes such a prediction, believed to come from a god or ancestor

philosophy
The pursuit of wisdom through intellectual investigation and moral discipline; the love of wisdom

architecture
The art and science of designing and constructing buildings

citizen
A resident of a city or town, especially one allowed to vote and enjoy other privileges there.

acropolis
The fortified (protected) height or citadel of an ancient Greek city.

barbarian
A person considered by the Greeks as uncivilized; a non-Greek

Ancient Greece Map

In class we labeled the following areas of ancient Greece:

A Blank Map

Land Areas
Macedonia
Attica
Peloponnesus
Crete
Cyclades Islands
Anatolia
Thrace

City-States
Athens
Sparta
Knossos
Mycenae
Delphi
Troy

Seas
Aegean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
Sea of Crete
Ionian Sea

Mountains
Pindus Mountains
Mt. Olympus

Click for a larger image

Minoan Art

Tonight's homework has an activity at the bottom. In order to earn a full credit on this assignment, you'll need to complete the "Art Activity" on a separate piece of paper. Be sure you put your best effort into it.

"Art Activity: Find a picture of a Minoan wall painting in a book (or on a website) about the ancient Greeks. Using the picture as a guide, draw your own Minoan wall painting on a large piece of paper. Color the drawing with bright colored markers, crayons, paint, or colored pencils."

Here are some useful sources:

Ancient Greece.org

University of Oklahoma Fine Arts Dept

The Early Greeks

For homework, your job will be to type and revise questions 1-4 from the Blue book, page 333. Page 15 of your Greece Packet will help with the answers as well. Here are the notes from class:

1. What were some of the forces that influenced the rise of civilization in ancient Greece?

 The geography of ancient Greece was rocky, mountainous, and surrounded by seas on all sides. The climate is warm and sunny. The Greeks were able to grow great amounts of grapes and olives, but only 1/4 of their land was good for growing grain.

The Greeks learned to make the grapes into wine, and olives into olive oil. Since they lived very close to the sea, the ancient Greeks traded their wine and olive oil to the Egyptians and others for the grain they needed. Over time, the Greek city-states became very wealthy and dominated the Mediterranean economy.

2. In what ways were the Greek city-states described above similar to the cities of ancient Mesopotamia?

The Greek and Mesopotamian city-states had several characteristics in common.

• Both were independent of any nation or central authority
• They included the city itself and the surrounding farmland
• Each had its own protector god that had temples in the city
• Each city-state had its own government, customs, and culture
• They were separated from one another by geography (in Mesopotamia by long stretches of desert, in Greece by seas and mountains)

3. How did the Greeks keep their history alive during the Dark Age?

During the Dark Age (about 1100 - 800 B.C.E.), the ancient Greek city-states became isolated from each other, trade decreased, and the written language was lost. History, knowledge, customs, and other information was passed from one generation to the next by oral tradition--telling stories over time. One example is the story of the Trojan War and the wanderings of the hero Odysseus in the Iliad and the Odyssey.

4. Why did Greece develop as a group of individual city-states rather than as a unified state?

Because the geography of Greece includes seas, mountains, hills, and rocky terrain, traveling from city to city was very difficult in the ancient world. Therefore, the Greek cities developed into independent, isolated city-states.

Egypt Essential Questions

Here are the notes for the essential questions from page 1 of the Egypt Packet.

1. How did the location, geography, and climate of ancient Egypt affect the development of civilization there?

The location of ancient Egypt was in northeastern Africa along the Nile River, between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, just north of Nubia. This allowed The Egyptians great trading opportunities with lands all around the Mediterranean region, throughout the Fertile Crescent and Mesopotamia, and with civilizations further south in Africa.

The geography of Egypt consists of a huge desert with only the Nile River as its source of fresh water running through the middle. Therefore, the Egyptians all lived along the river itself, and Egypt developed as an isolated civilization without much interaction with foreigners. Later, the Egyptians use the river and seas near them as routes for trading their grain with neighbors.

The climate of ancient Egypt was extremely hot and dry, with almost no rainfall. The Egyptians depended on the Nile River for their lives, and even worshiped it as a god. Also, the Egyptians relied on the annual flooding of the Nile to grow their crops.

2. What was the impact of the Egyptian religious belief system on daily life, particularly burial practices?

The Egyptians believed in an afterlife, a life after death. This caused them to mummify their dead to preserve the "ba"as a place for the dead pharaoh's spirit to remain. Also, the Egyptians spent years building huge and elaborate tombs like the Great Pyramids of Giza or the Valley of the Kings to give the dead pharaoh a place to live after his death. Tombs were also filled with items from daily life, such as clothes, food, chariots, pets, shawabtis, and other prized possessions.

3. How were Egypt's economic, social, and political levels structured?

Egypt's economy was based on farming and trade. The bulk of working Egyptians were farmers who grew grain all along the Nile River. Because the Egyptians had a surplus of grain, they were able to trade this important product to all of the surrounding nations for goods the Egyptians needed. The Egyptians traded the Nubians forgold, ivory, animal skins, and ostrich feathers and eggs. From the Mesopotamians and other Middle Easterners, the Egyptians got metal weapons and tools though trade.

The Egyptians had a very highly structured social system, mainly based on the occupation a person had. The pharaoh was at the top of the social pyramid, followed by the royal family, then priests and nobles, then scribes and government workers, artisans (jewelers, pottery-makers, sculptors, etc.), then the largest group, farmers, and lastly came the slaves.

The political system of Egypt was very simple: the pharaoh had absolute power and ruled as a god-king. The system was a dynastic monarchy, meaning rule by a king whose son takes over from his father.

4. What advances did the Egyptians make in technology, engineering, and literacy?

The Egyptians developed new technology in terms of building, mathematics, the calendar, and medicine. The greatest accomplishments of the Egyptian engineers were the Great Pyramids of Giza and the huge temples built during the New Kingdom. Egyptians learned how to cut, shape, move, and assemble huge stones to build great monuments. The Egyptians used simple machines like ramps, sleds, levers, and chisels to create huge tombs for their leaders. The Egyptians made advances in astronomy, medical practices, and measurement and geometric fields.

In the area of literacy, the Egyptians developed a system of writing using pictures for sounds. They also invented paper, using papyrus reeds to write on. One famous work included the Book of the Dead, which described mummification and the afterlife in the ancient Egyptians' version of a Bible.

5. Who were key Egyptian pharaohs and what were their major accomplishments?

Some key Egyptian pharaohs included:

Hatshepsut - The first female pharaoh who built and restored temples, and sent trading expeditions to faraway lands. She cared about improving the lives of her people.

 Thutmose III - Took over after Hatshepsut and hated her so much he tried to remove every mention of her name. Thutmose was warlike and conquered new territories.

Akenaten - The pharaoh who shocked all of Egypt by changing the religion to monotheism, demanding that people worship the sunSHINE rather than Amon Ra, the sun god. He also changed Egyptian art to be more lifelike and less rigid.

King Tut (Tutankhamun) - Son of Akenaten who restored the old religion after his father died. King Tut died young, but his tomb was never robbed, making him one of the most famous pharaohs known to people today. 

Ramses II (the Great) - Lived longer than any other pharaoh and ruled until he was in his 90s. Ramses had more than 100 children and conquered more territory than any other Egyptian leader. He also built great monuments to himself all over Egypt.

Notes on the New Kingdom: Blue Text 199-203

Q1. What were the achievements of the Egyptians during the period of the New Kingdom?

Some important achievements of the New Kingdom:

• Hatshepsut built obelisks, monuments and temples
• A more accurate calendar
• Thutmose III greatly expanded Egypt's territory
• Medical knowledge: created the world's first medical text book
• A time of great power and wealth for Egypt
• New trade routes throughout Middle East
• Constructed Valley of the Kings (for tombs) with great works of art inside

Q2. Which Egyptian ruler was more like Sargon of Akkad in goals and achievements, Hatshepsut or Thutmose III?  How?
          
Thutmose III

• a man
• interested in conquering and war
• (Hatshepsut was more interested in trade, building, and improving lives)

 Q3. After the death of an Egyptian ruler, who usually ruled next? How does this custom explain why some texts call Hatshepsut a king?

      The next pharaoh would normally be the King's oldest son (or the next male in the family tree)

•      Queen = the wife of the king (rich lady with no power)
•      Hatshepsut = had all the power of a true pharaoh

Q4. Scholars have concluded that the Egyptians feared change and disorder. Both Hatshepsut and Thutmose III brought changes to Egypt. What changes might have worried the Egyptians?

     *Egyptians wanted ORDER out of chaos

•      Hatshepsut -- a woman pharaoh!
•      Thutmose III -- started many wars (war = violent, unpredictable, expensive, people die)

The Mummification Process

King Trout-ankhamun? Fish-shepsut? Khu-fish?

This week the students of Cluster 2 are mummifying fish. While it is a little different with human bodies, the process in essentially the same:

• Wash the body of the dead pharaoh
• Make an incision of the side of the body
• Remove the four major internal organs (liver, lungs, stomach, and intestines)
• The four organs are salted, dried, and placed in canopic jars separately
• A large hook is shoved up the nose and the brain is mushed up
• The brain is then drained out the nose
• The heart is left in the body for Anubis to weigh
• Natron (salt and baking soda) is stuffed into the body, and around it
• The body is left for 40 days to completely dry out
• The salt is changed several times
• After it is dried, the body is washed of all the natron
• Resin (tree sap) is poured on the body to seal it
• Beginning with the fingers and toes, the body is wrapped in linen strips
• Magic amulets and good luck charms are placed in the wrappings
• The body is draped in a shroud
• The body is then placed in a wooden coffin, decorated with symbols
• The coffin is placed into one or several others, equally ornate
• Lastly, the coffins are brought across the Nile to the tomb
• In the tomb, the coffins are lowered into a stone sarcophagus

Hopefully all of those Spanish sardines will have a happy afterlife!

Hatshepsut and Thutmose III

During the period of Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom, two of the most important pharaohs were related, but hated one another. The first was Hatshepsut, one of the most powerful female rulers in history. The second was Thutmose III, her stepson who hated Hatshepsut for "stealing" his throne. If a student wanted to know more about either pharaoh, here are a few useful resources:

A good starting point might be our online textbook (the Yellow Book). Log on using your user name and the password "textbook." You want to read pages 80-81

Information on Hatshepsut 

The Mummy of Queen Hatshepsut Found
Science Blog update about the identification of an unknown mummy as that of Hatshepsut

Video Tour of Hatshepsut Sculptures at the MET
A great exhibit at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art

National Geographic's Hatshepsut links
Lots of articles, video clips, and good information about the female pharaoh

Dr. Zahi Hawass's description of Hatshepsut
Scroll down to the section that says "Who Was Hatshepsut?"

Information on Thutmose III 

A basic description of who Thutmose III was
From Ancient Egypt Online, a website for kids

British Museum blurb about Thutmose III
A quick overview of the pharaoh, with links to artifacts in the museum

Ancient History in depth from the BBC
A great article from the BBC talking about the royal feud between Thutmose III and Hatshepsut

Needham Unplugged!

Each year the Youth Services department of Town Hall supports the Needham Unplugged program in the month of March. Here's how their website describes the program:


Needham Unplugged

It is so easy to get caught up into electronics --- TV, computers, Internet, Gameboy, and Nintendo are fun, entertaining, and a nice way to relax. The problem becomes when you find yourself spending 2, 4, 6 or even 8 hours a day plugged in…and little time is devoted to interacting with family and friends or simply engaging in a quiet activity such as reading or walking.

Needham Unplugged is an awareness campaign to remind Needham families and residents to “unplug their electronics” and “plug into” each other. It is a reminder that there is more to life than what is on the other side of a plug. Watch for announcements about activities that do NOT require electricity and that emphasize person-to-person interaction and health. The highlight of the program is no-homework, no-sports, and no-activities night for Needham Public School Students. In addition, there will be no town-related meetings and virtually no community and religious meetings held on that night.

In Cluster 2, we're encouraging students to participate in the program by doing at least one of the activities on the Needham Unplugged calendar. On Thursday, March 15th, there is a homework-free and electronics-free night sponsored by the town. The goal is to reconnect with family members and try doing something that doesn't require a cell phone, computer, TV, video game, or other device.