Isaac Pastor-Chermak, 8, also chose to do a musical interpretation of what he had learned about Greek mythology. The third-grader used his cello to perform a Greek song he composed. Pastor-Chermak learned that Greek scales were different from the musical scales of today. He used only musical half-steps in his song and used his fingers to pluck the cello’s strings just as the Greeks did.
“There were no bows in ancient Greece,” he explained.
Pastor-Chermak said he also learned during his research that there are only parts of 20 Greek songs which covered 700 years of history that even exist today.
“That’s why I’ve never heard any Greek music at the concerts I’ve been to,” he said. “Because ancient Greece was so long ago, the music was buried under rock and dirt.”
Other students chose to invent board games or use drawings to show what they had learned about Greek mythology. Third-grader Lisa Saladin wrote the “Greek Daily News” for her project. Her news articles featured Greek characters, a recipe section that included the favorites of the ancient people and a gossip column written by Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty.
The column was Saladin’s favorite with Aphrodite telling one writer to “ditch the guy” who seemed to be in love with himself.
“That is one of the funnier parts,” Saladin said. “The newspaper tells a lot about what things were really like in those times.”
Klowden said she’s amazed at how quickly the students have picked up on the character traits of the gods and goddesses and learned what different phrases and symbols mean. Those are lessons they wouldn’t have had in the regular classroom until maybe high school if they hadn’t been involved in the gifted program, she said.
“Now they know things like planet names just don’t happen,” Klowden said. “They know now that the names are from 2,000 years ago and have a meaning.”
