Greek Festival Project Guidelines
Greeks were always celebrating special days on their calendars. In many ways, these “festive” days
were very similar to our holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Yet the Greeks were less solemn as
they celebrated. They included contests of all kinds: reading poetry, performing dances, playing the lyre,
and acting in plays. Like the ancient Greeks, you, too, will have your Festival Day in class. Weeks from now, at the end
of the simulation, all of you will present a project that you’ve worked on for several days. The idea is to have each
Hellene show that he or she has researched some aspect of ancient Greek life and culture. The project suggested in
this handout allows for a wide variety of choice. If you don’t see anything, which appeals to you, create a project of
your own and get it approved by your teacher. To help you on your project, a MY FESTIVAL PROJECT format sheet
will be passed out later. For now, read over the general guidelines and project suggestions.
General Guidelines:
- You may work with a partner or by yourself. If you choose to work with a partner, choose wisely.
- Look over the list and select a subject to research and to eventually present.
- You must have a presentation board and a 3D object for your presentation. (See attached layout directions for the
board.) In your presentation you must have an introduction to your presentation, the presentation and a conclusion
to the presentation.
- You must have a short bibliography to give to the teacher at the end.
- You must have written down five questions you’d wish to be asked by the audience as a review of your presentation.
Try to give everyone a show!
- Determine after some reading how best to present the topic, sing it, dance it, demonstrate it, cook/bake/serve it, read
it, draw it, compose it, sew it, design it, explain it, or make it.
- Try to space out the time you have. Make a note of the deadline your teacher gives you. Set aside several
afternoons/nights to spend researching, reading, and note taking in local libraries.
- Be sure to make your planned presentations visual. Posters, pictures, slides, banners, music, costumes, etc., all will
help make it memorable.
- Make sure that you complete your project a day or two before the presentations are scheduled and that you know
exactly when you are scheduled to present your project.
- Think hard on how to be clever and catch the full and prolonged attention of your classmates. Do something
startling! Ancient Greeks tended to be an unpredictable and emotional people. Use this fact to make your
presentation more effective.
Project Suggestions:
- Research Socrates and the Socratic dialogue. Then write a one to two-page example of it. You might
perform it with a small group.
- Act out Homer’s lliad or Odyssey, either the entire epic or an important part of it. Research information about
Homer and the mythic hero, Odysseus, along with some of the myths included in the Odyssey.
- Research the Greek alphabet and explain how it came to be and how it influenced our present day alphabet.
- Make Greek food. Ancient Greeks ate simple food: fruit, olives, porridge, figs, nuts, honey, grapes, watered-down
wine, pork, fish, and limited vegetables like beans, peas, and cabbage. Cook up and serve recipes of more Modern
Greek food like gyros, baklava, spinach pie, and Greek salads. If you chose this project, please make sure you can
make the item for both your class presentation and exhibition night. Research the traditions of food and farming.
- Research Greek music and give a presentation on how it was used in Greek Culture.
- Research Greek musical instruments. If you can, make one or two and then demonstrate how they were used.
- Research dancing in ancient Greece. Then perform a dance with a narrator explaining it. Then demonstrate a
Modern Greek dance.
- Act out one or two Greek myths. Research the gods/goddesses in the myths, and why the myths were written.
- Collect pictures of Greek art and architecture, and research art and architecture. Mount them on poster board.
Explain the pictures during your presentation.
- Make a mosaic or fresco in the ancient Greek style. Research fresco or mosaic art.
- Make a Greek frieze with heroic scenes from mythology or events. Use clay, flour paste, etc. Include research
- Research Greek pottery. Then make two cotta-terra vases, one with red figures, one with black figures. You must
make the pottery.
- Make a statue of a Greek god or goddess. Use wood, wire, tape, burlap, plaster of Paris, and various
tools to complete it. Explain how you did it and all about the god/goddess
- Make a large relief map of ancient Hellas. Then explain how geography shaped the Greek character
and, for the most part, kept the Greeks disunited.
- Make a display explaining the differences between the beliefs of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.
- Make or draw the three classic column styles of ancient Greece: Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. Label the various parts
and explain the construction of Greek temples. Self-hardening clay is the material to use if you’re making them.
Small carving tools will help you shape scrolls, leaves, and other decorative elements. Include information about the
three styles.
- Write an epic poem in the Homeric style and perform it. Include research about Homer and the Homeric style of
poetry.
- Make a chart to teach how to pronounce Greek words. Then stage a dialogue in authentic ancient Greek
language between two or three students. See if the rest of the class can deduce what’s been said. Include research
about Greek language and its origins.
- Write a mini-drama about a Greek family’s life. Include research about family life for each member.
- Make a model of a Greek ship based on your research of the various kinds of ships and how the sea influenced
Greek life.
- Create a Greek daily/weekly newspaper with headlines, articles, and photos. Duplicate it and distribute it as students
come into the classroom. Choose five of your sections as each of the five paragraphs on your presentation board.
- Make a timeline of Greek history on a long piece of butcher paper. Explain it and then display it. Include five major
events on your display board with a paragraph on each.
- Make a clay model of the Trojan horse as mentioned in Homer’s lliad. Explain how the horse was used to help the
Greeks defeat the Trojans, along with information about the cause of the Trojan war.
- Make a model of a typical Greek house. Explain how different/similar home life was for the Greeks compared to
modern people.
- Make a poster and a map explaining the soldier, the phalanx, and Alexander the Great’s conquests.
- Make some Greek masks used in tragedies and comedies. Include information about Greek theater.
- Dress up like a Greek warrior. Explain the uniform, weapons, and military techniques in your paragraphs.
- Using a large poster board, make a maze and then illustrate the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. Include
information about this myth.
- Create a game board about ancient Greece. Utilize a dice roll and fate cards, but make it accurate. Invite students to
come forward during your presentation to play it. Give it a clever name. Include five main topics from your game
board for your paragraphs.
- Create a play about Spartan life. Exaggerate its harshness and its military aspects. Include information about
Spartan, women, girls, men, boys, and education on your presentation board.
- Stage the final arguments for and against Socrates as the Athenian philosopher awaits his fate in a trial. Have a
narrator set the scene and do a postscript. Possibly add a few witnesses. Include information about the life of
Socrates.
- Demonstrate how the Greeks weighed, measured, counted, and did their math. Use the chalkboard to demonstrate.
See if your fellow students can do some of the simpler problems. Include information about Pythagoras or Euclid.
- Research the odd or shady side of life. Explain how slavery functioned, how Greeks kept clean, where they “did their
business,” what happened to the homeless, how men treated women, how children were raised, their attitude about
retarded or deformed children, the practice of animal sacrifices, etc.
- Make an alphabet scroll, using dowels, ribbon, tape, glue, and black ink. Explain how you made it and how it was
used. Include information about the Greek alphabet and how it changed over time.
- Act out a Greek myth with two or three of your classmates. Utilize a narrator to explain the story. Include information
about the gods/goddesses in the myth, and why the myth was created.
Tri-Fold Project Board Example:
Title of Project
By ________
Paragraph
Paragraph
Paragraph describing your 3D item.
Paragraph
This is where your 3D item will sit. It
must be able to stand-alone and not
cover any of your other visuals or
paragraphs. Make sure it is large
enough to be seen across the
classroom. It should be hand-made.
Paragraph