The Toga: The garment that is unique to the ancient Roman is the toga.
Do your students know:
what it was made of;
why it was not a practical garment;
if there were any restrictions on who wore it;
what women wore in ancient Rome;
what was the significance of the bulla worn around the neck;
that there were different kinds of toga?

Information on this and more can be found in the WER Unit on Rome. Click here for FREE sample of papyrus.

A Roman mail order catalog: Children of today are very accustomed to mail order catalogues. These would have been very useful additions to family life in the far reaches of the Roman Empire, especially for those who wanted to keep up with fashions back in Rome. Why not encourage students to research clothing and other manufactured goods by creating a mail order catologue for a business based in ancient Rome; one that could be used by Roman families living in various parts of the Roman Empire.

How about placing an order from the Roman mail order catalogue? What is the connection between the American Pony Express and the Roman Imperial Post? See WER Unit Rome Module 3

A Fund of Ideas: The last two lessons of Module 3 in the WER Unit Rome suggest a wide variety of ideas for learning about life in ancient Rome. They cover clocks and calendars, clothing, food, mosaics, roads, water and aqueducts, trade, writing and numerals.

Mosaics: Students learn about the mosaic floors of the splendid Roman houses. However, they will only understand the skill and labor involved in the creation of these mosaic floors if they experience creating tesserae and a mosaic design of their own.

Roads: After learning about Roman roads, why not have your students write a recipe for building a Roman Road? Have them include both the ingredients and the method. This and more in the WER Unit Rome.

Example of content from Module 3 Lessons 2/3
Students study Pompeii and its destruction in the volcanic eruption of 79 C.E. through primary source documents. A story takes them on a guided tour around the excavations of Pompeii. A Guided Reading assignment asks them, from what they observe, to hypothesize on life in Pompeii at the time of the destruction.
Mapping Skills: Students follow a route around Pompeii using a street map.
Language Arts: An assignment asks students to evaluate different written accounts of the same event.
Research: Students are required to gather information from a variety of sources; a diary of events, a map, a primary source account and an informative text.
Critical Thinking Skills: Students create an escape plan, aware that they are writing with hindsight.
Rome (4 Modules) includes 8 stories with readability levels, 8 guided reading assignments, 28 activity sheets, 4 assignments targeted for monitoring and assessment, 6 map activities, 40 illustrated information sheets, 8 blackline masters, 2 review exercises, 3 colored reproductions, 16 teacher lesson guideline sheets, 4 monitoring and assessment guideline sheets.