Preparing for Rome

In preparation for our trip to Rome,  we decided to have a few lesson with the kids to prepare and teach them about some of the things we would see. We started out with Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel.  We learned that it took Michelangelo over 4 years to paint the Sistine Chapel and contrary to popular belief, he did not lie down and down the painting, but stood on his feet with his arm up and head tilted back.  He said that after spending all that time in that position, it caused him to have several health problems.  He didn't really want to paint the chapel in the first place, he was more of a sculptor.  We looked at paintings of the Sistine Chapel and talked about Vatican City and what we would see there.  For our activity, we taped coloring pages to the underside of our table and let the kids try their hand at coloring them.  They really got into it, bringing out their blankets and pillows and even the next day kept at it.  It was a fun activity.

For our next activity, we talked about Ancient Rome.  We showed the kids pictures of some of the Roman Ruins that we would visit.  We talked about what the area use to look like when it was first built.  We also talked about the Colosseum and about some of it's history.  We showed the kids a short clip on Gladiators and then we hosted our own Gladiator battle.  One of the big entertainment shows back then was the gladiators fighting animals.  So, we set the kids up with a "sword and shield" and threw all their stuffed animals at them.  Then we battled it out with Noah's foam swords. 

 For another activity, we watched Roman Holiday.  I haven't seen this movie for a very long time and I had forgotten that it is rather slow.  The kids lost interest a little, but were still excited about seeing some of the places we would visit.  They were especially excited about the Mouth of Truth and eating Gelato on the Spanish Steps.