It’s the beginning of the school year already, eek! If you are feeling the pressure of the start of school, perhaps CANE Press can help lighten your load.
This is a perfect resource with many ideas to get students engaged and having fun in class from the start. Help your students reactivate their memories of Latin vocabulary, grammar, and cultural structures with any of the activities in the book, 28 Games and Activities for the Latin Classroom, compiled by Latin teacher James E. Bridgman.
Check out the following excerpt here, and become a member of CANE to download the full book free of charge!
Phrase of the Day/Character of the Day
In order to introduce my students to some of the more well-known Latin quotations, I often begin class with a “Phrase of the Day”, such as “Tempus fugit!” or “Cave Canem!” or “Alea iacta est.” I have found the book Amo. Amas. Amat and More! to be especially helpful in finding suitable quotations. At the beginning of the period, I write the quotation on the board. The students copy it into a section of their notebooks called “Phrases of the Day.” We discuss the meaning, both literal and figurative, and come up with a couple of English sentences which illustrate the usage of the Latin expression. (“Gertrude had gossiped on the telephone for so long that when she finally looked at the clock she exclaimed, ‘Oh my, tempus fugit, I’ve got to go.”‘) Sometimes, instead of a phrase of the day, we do a character of the day, usually someone famous from Roman history (Cincinnatus, Horatio, Catiline, etc.). In this way I am able to introduce, little by little, a variety of “stories” from Rome’s history. Periodically, (every twenty phrases, or so), we have a quiz or test on the phrases or characters studied so far. Sometimes I use phrases we’ve had several weeks past as extra credit on a test.
Pictionary
This game is like the popular TV show of several years ago called “Win, Lose or Draw!” I divide the class into two teams. A person from team one comes to the board and I whisper or point out in my book a Latin word, which he/she then illustrates on the board with pictures. The drawing must contain no letters, words or numbers. The student has sixty seconds to get his/her team members to say the correct Latin word. If time is up and no one has guessed the correct answer, the opposing team has ten seconds to discuss and come up with one possible guess. This game can be very useful for reviewing vocabulary.