SPARTAN ARMY

 

For our fifth History Club presentations I was a soldier in the Spartan Army. Life was pretty tough for boys then because they had to go to train and be soldiers from 7 years old and stayed in the army till they were 60.

These are the weapons I made for my presentation.

This is a sword that I made. I got the

ideas from a man that looks like he's a fan 

of the Spartans and he did very good job. 

HERE you can see his videos.

This is the result.

This is a helmet from the same man.

 

Doesn't it look good?

This is a shield that I made from a rubbish bin lid.

 Isn't it awesome!!!! 

 

They are attacking us!!!!!!!!!

 

CRETE AND THE MINOANS

For my fourth History Club presentation I wanted to talk about the Minoans and the great eruption on the island of Thera (now known as Santorini) in 1645 BC.

I made a map of some of Greece, especially of the islands and Crete to show how the sea was a very important part of their culture. I talked about their ship building and the trade between islands and then about the volcano that ended up destroying their civilization over the next 50 years.

 It was a lot of fun making the islands out of modelling clay.

I drew the islands in pencil first from an atlas I have, then pushed up the middles to make the mountains. 

 Then I painted them with a dry sponge and then I put some "grass" on the tops of the mountains.

 This was the volcano with soda I made that we exploded with vinegar at the History Club.

GREEK GODS AND STUFF

Because we're now at Ancient Greece in our Story of the World book in the History Club, I looked at some sites on the Internet about the gods and goddesses of Ancient Greece. I can't remember where I got these pictures from, but they're really cool for colouring in and I used them to make a short book of a few of the ones I liked best.

The book I wrote them in was an old First Words Book, recycled especially for the project.

THE GARDENS OF BABYLON

For my third History Club presentation, I wanted to talk about the Gardens of Babylon and the machines they must have used to water all the plants.

First I did a drawing based on one of the pictures I saw on Google, then mum helped me pull out all the styrofoam we had collected and helped me cut it so it looked like a terraced construction. Then we got some plastic flowers and plants to stick into the soft styrofoam and decorated our gardens. It looked pretty cool.

 

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We were going to put steps leading up to each terrace but it looked better without them.

Then we found out how they must have watered these gardens using machines like the Archimedes screw, chain pumps, aqueducts, shadufs and water wheels as they carried the water from the Euphrates river to the gardens. There wasn't very sophisticated machinery in the 6th century BC and they had a long way to haul the water, so nobody really knows how they did it and if the gardens really existed at all.

 I made my own Archidemes screw from a pipe and some hose. Then I covered it in sand to make it look more primitive, then covered it in varnish to make it waterproof.

 It worked really well!

 

 I also made a chain pump with recycled materials.

 That also worked really well after a few adjustments.

 I had to put plastic tongues on the edge of the "buckets" so the water could fall without dribbling.

 Then a simple water wheel that didn't work very well because it was a bit stiff.

And an aqueduct which would have been important for carrying the water from the river to the gardens.

A MÉRIDA LAPBOOK

 After our trip to Mérida, I made a lapbook of all the things I remembered learning and used the photos that I took while I was there. I made the lapbook from book packaging cardboard and my mum helped me with the stone drawings inside the lapbook.

MÉRIDA

 Mérida was called Emerita Augusta when it was founded in 25 BC because of the emperor Augustus and because it was created as a place for retired soldiers as "merit" for their service.

I loved seeing all the Roman stuff that I'd only ever seen in books. Next to the old monuments there were pictures to show you how it would have looked in Roman times.

These photos are of the Temple of Diana and the Roman bridge over the river Guadiana.

 This is the walls of the Alcazaba (Moorish Citadel) completed in 838AD and is the only Muslim building left in Mérida.

The other photo is of the Arch of Trajan. It was built in granite and covered in marble.

 This was the Forum which is like a main square. There are copies of the Corinthian columns and statues.

The below photo gives a better idea of what it looked like in Roman times.

 This is the circus where they had chariot races.

 This is the theatre and an underground passage.

 These are also Corinthian columns and capitals but the statues are copies. The originals are in the museum.

 A peristyle and the amphiteatre where gladiators fought against each other and against wild animals.

 Then we went to the National Museum of Roman Art which is a really cool museum with millions of things to see, like glass, weapons, coins, mosaics, statues, tools, jewellery, pottery, etc, etc.

 

On the way out of the city we stopped to look at one of the aqueducts that are standing.