Ancient Rome Projects

If you're a teacher, parent, or day camp counselor thinking of spending a week or so on ancient Rome, here's some ideas other people have found useful:

Costumes: For girls, a long white nightshirt or dress (it should reach her ankles), bare feet or leather sandals, and a long piece of solid-colored cotton or wool for a veil over it. For boys, an extra-large white T-shirt will do (it should come down to his knees), with a leather belt, and bare feet or leather sandals. Boys can wear a cloak (preferably wool) over the tunic, also kneelength.

Food: For a typical Roman meal, you might begin with olives and deviled eggs, and then a lentil or barley soup, or cheese pizza (without any tomato sauce), with sausage or pepperoni, or onions and garlic, on it. A green salad with radishes would also be appropriate. For dessert, walnuts or apples or melon (fresh or dried) would be pretty normal, or little cakes made with honey. The Romans said that a meal went “from eggs to apples,” the way we say “from soup to nuts.”

Activities:

* Making a mosaic
* Building an arch
* Working with cement
* Gladiators * Rome scavenger hunt

Or check out this book from Amazon.com or from your local library:

Tools of the Ancient Romans - A Kid's Guide to History and Science of Life in Ancient Rome (Nomad Books), by Rachel Dickenson (2006).

Main projects page
Main Ancient Rome page