Meet The Ancient Greeks Guided Reading Play Scripts

Description

Meet The Ancient Greeks Guided Reading Play Scripts. Who were weirder – Greek gods or mortals? Whether in sport, recreation or war, those Greeks certainly had some strange ‘takes’ on life – a visit to the theatre would more than confirm this view ….. if you got one, along with 20,000 others!

Units 14 and 15 The Ancient Greeks! 5 plays and 5 quizzes

This set of 5 group readers or guided reading texts cover:

• The Gods
• The Olympics – Ancient and Modern
• The Arts
• War
• Greek Theater

These mini plays are based on Units 14 (The Ancient Greeks) and 15 (How do we use Greek ideas today?) of the UK Key Stage II History curriculum and aim to cover all the major teaching points – with accompanying quizzes to assess learning.

Play 1 The Gods

Speakers: Zeus  (king of the gods), Hera (queen of the gods), Apollo (sun god), Ares (god of war), Athena (god of wisdom), Hades (god of the underworld)

Hades: But then to be bought up by a goat? Bet that made you feel a bit of a silly billy!

Zeus: You might laugh! But you‘d still be inside Kronos, along with Hestia, Demeter, Poseidon and Hera if it weren’t for me!

Hera (grudgingly): Yes, we do all owe you that one debt of gratitude. Though making Kronos sick! Couldn’t you have thought of a slightly more dignified way of getting us out!

Play 2 The Olympics – Ancient and Modern

Speakers: Sostratos (wrestler/boxer), Steve Redgrave (rower), Leonidas (runner),Mark Spitz (swimmer)

Kallipateira (boxer’s mother), Olga Korbut (gymnast)

Leonidas: Good heavens! They’ll be telling us they get their horses to perform, next!

Redgrave: Funny you should mention that! Yes we do! It’s called dressage, and horses nowadays have to jump over fences as well!

Kallipateira: What? With chariots behind them?

Play 3 The Arts

Speakers: Homer, Polyphemus (Cyclops), Socrates (philosopher), Archimedes (mathematician), Hercules (hero: 12 Tasks), Theseus (hero: Minotaur)

Polyphemus: Well, I sure had a thumping headache the morning after that other hero, Odysseus, stuck a burning stake into my eye.

Socrates: The injustice of it! Didn’t you tell him you only had the one?

Polyphemus: I don’t think he was open to that kind of discussion at the time! Not after I’d eaten half his men!

Socrates: What a shame! Another opportunity for lively discussion and debate lost. And just because you got hungry!

Homer: I don’t suppose Odysseus saw it quite like that!

Play 4 War!

Speakers: Lysander (Spartan General), Tyrtaios (Spartan Poet), Thucydides (Athenian General), Pericles (Athenian Politician), Alexander the Great (Greek), Darius III (Persian)

Alexander: Yes, my dad was a hard act to follow. But I proved myself to be every bit as much a man as him!

Darius: And wasn’t that what it was all about? It was all one long quest for ever-lasting fame with very little thought of what was right for your people.

Pericles: Or your soldiers. By the time you got to India, they’d had enough!

Play 5 Greek Theatre

Speakers: Aristophanes (comic playwright), Euripedes (tragic playwright), Tlepolemus (actor), Dionysus (god of drama), Satyr (actor with horse’s ears and tail), Chorus (narrator)             

Tlepolemus:  So what have you got for me today? Might it be Prometheus and his gift of fire?

Satyr: No, I got my beard too badly singed the last time we did that one!

Aristophanes: What a fool! Fancy thinking the flames were pretty enough to kiss?!