Ancient Rome Lesson Plans, Classroom Activities, and Projects for elementary and middle school Teachers

For Ancient Rome: These are original Free Use lesson plans, classroom activities, interactive activities, review activities, and concluding activities and projects written by us and by other teachers for ancient Rome.

Our Free Lesson Plans

Rome as a Republic (SPQR): Can you save the Roman Republic? (Roman Reforms)

Julius Caesar: Gossip at the Forum (classroom play, 1-2 class periods)

Roman Emperors: Which emperor would you choose to be your leader?

Daily Life: Compare daily life under the Republic and under the Empire - what changed and what stayed the same?

Classroom Activities: Our Classroom Activities for Ancient Rome

Ask Mr. Donn: Ancient Rome Interactive Quiz Questions with Answers for Kids and Teachers

Free Activities and Projects by many teachers

Over 90 Ancient Rome Activities and Projects - These activities can be adjusted for any grade. We hope you'll find some ideas you can use in your classroom.

Several Free Lesson Plans under each Topic, many with activities:

Ancient Rome Map Activity (sharp school)

Ancient Rome - Complete Units and Overviews

Geography (several lesson plans)

Vocabulary Lesson Plans and Online Activities

Romulus & Remus (several)

The Etruscans (Rome as a Kingdom, several)

Punic Wars and Hannibal (several)

Roman Republic - SPQR (several)

The Twelve Tables, code of Roman law, lesson plan (sharpschool)

Roman Expansion - Roads, Legion, Provincee (several)

Cicero, Caesar, Fall of the Republic

Roman Empire & Emperors

Roman Empire Splits & the Fall of Rome (several)

Gods, Goddesses, Myths - several lesson plans

Rise of Christianity - several lesson plans

Holidays and Festivals

Daily Life, Homes, Women, School (many lesson plans)

Roman Entertainment - Circuses, Coliseums, Gladiators, Theatre - several lesson plans

Art & Architecture - several lesson plans

Achievements, Inventions (several)

Ancient Rome Unit (Mr. Roughton)

Ancient Rome Review Activity (Mrs. Masters)

These are Free activity and project ideas for kids and teachers to use in your unit study of ancient Rome. These activities can be adjusted for any grade. We hope you'll find some ideas you can use.

Rome as a Republic (SPQR): Can you save the Roman Republic? (Roman Reforms)

Struggle for Power under the Republic: Patricians vs. Plebeians, classroom simulation, Experiencing a Struggle for Power

Julius Caesar: Gossip at the Forum (classroom play, 1-2 class periods) See Pantomime/Theatre for how to behave at the theatre in ancient Rome

Roman Legionary - Drill! You might want them to learn about the Roman Legion before this activity here. Move into Groups: Make Shields and Daggers out of cardboard and construction paper - one shield, one dagger for each students, groups help each other and have a similarity in equipment, just as the ancient Romans would have. Then: March around the school in Turtle Formation. Sneak by open doors of other classrooms in groups of "turtles". (Get permission from the office first, of course.) The kids love this one. There is nothing so eye catching or so noisy as an entire classroom of 6th graders shuffling down the hall in formation without speaking a word to attract attention.

Milestone Advertising: Hand your kids the following Assignment: The Romans did a wonderful job building roads! To help people find their way, while traveling these roads, the Romans more or less invented the milestone which grew increasingly wordy, and increasingly tall, to be easily readable from a vehicle. Some are 6 feet tall. Each milestone usually gave the mileage to the nearest large city, sometimes to an intermediate place as well; and the date and perhaps who paid for the road. We're going to add business advertising! Your job is to create a business ad to add to a milestone, somewhat like billboard advertising. What would you say, to advertise your company's service or product, if you had limited advertising space on one of these ancient Roman milestones? To accomplish your job, first you must create a service or product of interest for ancient Rome, and then create an ad to advertise it. From your ad, it should be easy to figure out what service or product your company offers citizens of Rome. Remember, your ad must be very brief and to the point as you only have limited space! We used our formation skills to and from the computer lab, and one day, simply because it was that kind of day, up and down hallways.

Weigh the Evidence: Rome - Working in small groups, Research: Have students examine a series of sources to determine if Rome left the world with a positive legacy. Have students include a rating on how believable and useful each source is before making their final conclusions. List sources used to make their determination.

The Ancients Walk Amongst Us: Bring in newspapers, magazines, and old phone books. Have scissors and glue handy. Working in groups, have the kids find examples of Roman Gods and Roman Times in advertising and news articles. For example: The Venus Beauty Salon, The Mercury Cafe. Have the kids cut out the examples they find. Have each group arrange their "finds" on a large piece of construction paper or cardboard, and then post on a bulletin board or a wall.

The Roman Gazetteer. This is certainly not a new idea, but it's always fun. Have your kids create a newspaper for ancient Rome. Put all the pieces together and print copies so that each student has one completed copy. It's great review or introduction to ancient Rome, and a nice piece for students to take home and share with parents. Editorials, Classified, Sports & Entertainment, etc.
Preparation:

Take several 8½″ × 11″ pieces of paper, and plan how much room each section of your newspaper will take. (Space is limited!) Hand each student, based on the section they select, a pre-cut piece of paper. As reporters, they must accomplish their job within assigned space limits. This makes putting your newspaper together much easier! For unassigned space, or space left empty from students who do not complete this assignment, simply run an ad - this space available for advertising. Call.... And/or offer empty space as an extra credit project to interested students. As students tend to lose things, and need several copies of blank pieces of paper, have extras blanks available, based on sizing. To stay organized, number the back of various sizes with Roman Numerals. That way, you can have a blank paper stack for each size.
Under each heading, include a short paragraph of background information.
Make a sign-up sheet, that covers all newspaper headings, and post it in your classroom. Have the kids sign-up as reporters under the section they choose. For organizational purposes, note the Roman Numeral "size" next to each section. For example, the cartoon section might be called: Forum Funnies. Example: Consul Claudius sneezed today. At least he accomplished SOMETHING! The gossip section might be called "Rome Wonders"; example: New man about town! Gladiator Claudius gains freedom today! Will he replace Nero as ladies man #1? Keep your eye on this column for updates!
Information about ancient Roman daily life can be found here.

Roman Emperors: Which emperor would you choose to be your leader?

History Mystery: Cold Case Caesar - Students investigate the assassination of Julius Caesar by weighing 8 different pieces of evidence. Visually stimulating, highly engaging and perfect for Common Core.

A Day in Rome - A scripted lab where students are taken back in time to experience a day in Rome.[Teacher Script] [Student Worksheet]

Rome DBQ - A document based question exploring how similar the Roman Empire is to the United States is today. Documents

Online Game Day: Ancient Rome - Games and Interactive Learning Sites for Kids - I set this activity to work by creating a scavenger hunt sheet of things for kids to find in the sites listed on their exploration sheet. The kids have to site the source for each scavenger find for verification.

Roman Worksheets, free downloads

Choose Your Own Adventure from over 70 different classroom activities and possible assignments

Online Quiz: Free Interactive Quiz Questions with Answers about Ancient Rome for Kids and Teachers

New Teachers: Easy desk arrangements for the classroom - I move my desks around all the time, depending upon the activites I'm doing that day. It took me forever to realize I can have the kids move their desks, after I mark the spots with masking tape. You don't want to have the kids moving desks into formations all the time, but occassionally it's a smart thing to do. Tell them you need their help prior to movement. That's trust. They will want to help you.