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Written by Lorna Robinson

6: THE UNDERWORLD

You'll need... worksheet with first two parts of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice.

Firstly... recap money last lesson, and discuss the sorts of things that people in Rome might have used money for. Tell them that one of the things the Romans did is when someone died, they put coins on the corpses to pay the ferryman who guarded the river Styx, which was the only way to get to the underworld! Hand them each a story about the underworld and somebody who dared to enter there before he was dead...

Secondly...the children translate the story on the sheet provided, using the vocabulary on the board. The story is split into three parts. Ask them to do just the first part.

Thirdly... Go through in class and then ask the children to pick out the verbs in the sentences (it can be helpful to project these onto the board, and ask the children to come out and circle the verbs).

Fourthly... Ask the children to have a go at the second part of the story. Do the same process with verbs in the second half. Ask the children to write down the heading "the past tense" and write out the full conjugation of the present and imperfect tense together with their meanings.

Fifthly... discuss in class what the children think might happen in the last part of the story, but don't tell them what happens! Save that for next lesson.

7: DON'T LOOK BACK!

You'll need... worksheet with third part of story of Orpheus and Eurydice; character sheets.

Firstly... recap Orpheus and Eurydice story so far, before handing out the third part of the story, and then going through the final section in class, slowly, noting imperfects as you go.

Secondly... Explain to the children the belief that the underworld was split into three sections, and show them some images of these three sections. Explain how there are various myths of how people were rewarded (or, more usually, horribly punished!). Explain that there were three judges in the underworld who made the decisions.

Thirdly... Tell the children that each group of three / four is going to be given a "myth character sheet" with the details of what a mythic character's actions on earth. They have to act as judges, and decide what they think will be the character's punishment or reward in whatever part of the underworld.
Get the children to act out the mock underworld courts in class, inviting comment from other groups, before telling them what actually was said it have happened to the character.

8: WHAT TO WEAR!

You'll need... coins made in earlier lesson; cardboard; sheet with sandal-making instructions; cloth.

Firstly... Ask the children what they think the ancient Romans wore. Take various suggestions, exploring why the children have come up with their ideas, before giving a brief overview of the clothing that would be worn by men, women, slaves and children.

Secondly... splitting the class into four groups, give each group material for clothes, sandals and jewellery, and ask them to dress one member of their group in the clothing for either a woman, man, child or slave. Encourage them to delegate the tasks, and add details such as necklaces for women, stripes on togas for men. Finally, they can add price tags to everything they have made using the Roman money system, and choosing one member of their group, the class can have a mock "catwalk" to show the finished product!

Thirdly... distributing the coins made earlier, ask the children to bid in an auction-style event for the items on sale.

9: TEMPUS FUGIT.

You'll need... plastic containers like hot chocolate tubs, plastic cups, water! A stop clock would be helpful too. Worksheet.

Firstly... Ask the class to imagine they live in ancient Rome, and have an important appointment to attend at 10:30am. How are they going to get there on time without modern clocks and the like... Let them guess - lots will say sundials - get them to explore the limitations of that (sunshine, being outdoors). Finally, after much guessing, you can reveal about the Roman water-clock!

Secondly... Show them at the front how to construct a water clock, and then split them into groups and get them to make their own water clocks.

Thirdly... Introduce them to some time expressions and vocabulary by simple sentences on a worksheet practising the imperfect tense and present tense.

10: MEGA QUIZ!

You'll need... quiz cards, dice.

Firstly... Use template from quiz above, but for team names, instead of animals, use Roman gods, or anything you think is fun. You can re-use the quiz cards you made before, but add new ones for the extra vocabulary, background and grammar they have covered since last time. Remember this is testing the whole year's work - so some grand prizes should be on offer to the winning team!