The first week at VAMPY has been a wonderful five-day experience for both the campers and teachers in Ancient Civilizations. The students have taken wonderful strides in learning about the world of the Ancient Greeks, studying everything from the facets of everyday life to the Greek system of government that provided the foundation for modern democracy.
On the first day of classes, campers were divided into four groups representing ancient Greek city-states such as Corinth and Sparta. These groups, or polises, compete against each other for Polis Points. The city-sate with the most points will be the victor at the end of our unit on ancient Greece. After all, friendly competitions such as the Olympics were frequent among the nations of the ancient world!
These groups have also been working on projects and participating in simulations of Greek daily life together over the past four days. Their activities have included debating laws in an Assembly and even writing and acting in their own renditions of classical Greek plays. The campers also researched various subjects of daily life in order to write their own commercials to present to the class.
On Friday the students once again gathered in the Assembly and learned some frightening news: a Persian army was approaching Athens, and they had to decide whether to surrender or go to war! Later they worked in their groups to construct their own Greek temples from clay and other materials, studying ancient battles and planning an Olympic Games of their own.