Grade Levels: 3-5, 6-8

*Click to open and customize your own copy of the Athens Lesson Plan

This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Athens, and supports the standard of describing how people create places that reflect cultural values and ideals. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Display an image of an Athenian temple, like this one on the Acropolis:

Invite students to share what they notice. Ask:

  • What might you infer about the society that built this temple? What do you wonder?

Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

  • Read the description on the Athens topic page.
  • Play the Movie, pausing to check for understanding. 
  • Have students read one of the following Related Reading articles: “Sports” or “Around the World”. Partner them with someone who read a different article to share what they learned with each other.

Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS 

Students take the Athens Challenge and Quiz, applying essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.

Step 4: DEEPEN and EXTEND

Students express what they learned about Athens while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.

  • Make-a-Movie: Produce a documentary describing the culture and contributions of Athens during its Golden Age.
  • Make-a-Map: Create a concept map identifying features of Athens during its Golden Age, including culture, government, and relationships with neighboring city states.
  • Creative Coding: Code a flag representing the cultural values of ancient Athens. 
  • Primary Source Activity: Examine the images of the Parthenon frieze and cite evidence to answer the accompanying questions. 

More to Explore 

Time Zone X: Athens: Challenge students to put historical events in chronological order in this interactive timeline game.

Sortify: Technology of the Ancients: ​​Players sort technologies and innovations by the societies of their origins in this learning game. 

Teacher Support Resources: