Check out these ideas for the end of October/Halloween (and at other times of the year as they fit into your curriculum):

By Shirley Lowe, Wayland Middle School MA, Emerita Former President of CANE

1. Using a skeleton, Roman statuary, or line drawings:
   • Teach body vocabulary using as many words as you deem appropriate for the grade level. I always included the gender of the nouns with 7th graders and then had the students write Latin sentences with adjectives describing the body parts. Some activities: Sing “Caput, scapulae, genus, digiti” with actions; create puzzles with the words; and more.
2. Create a PowerPoint presentation using images of tombs,
   • inside and outside, including those of Augustus and Hadrian; inscriptions from tombs and tombstones (great review of present/perfect tenses, superlatives, names, dative case, Roman numerals); ancient art with monsters and skeletons (e.g. the Antioch mosaic, the one from Pompeii), memento mori mosaic. These are readily available on the Internet, if you do not already have your own photographs. The title I used for this presentation that I adopted to various grade levels was “Tomb it may concern.” A friend had given me the title and the idea!
3. Pliny’s ghost story letter about Athenodorus, Book VII. Letter 27 to Sura. I used an adaptation of this with 8th graders and used the actual letter with Latin Ill Honors students.
4. Latin phrases that fit in with these activities:
   • Habeas corpus
   • Auribus lupum teneo.
   • Manus manum lavat.
   • Rigor mortis
   • Requiescat in Pace.
   • Lapsus linguae
   • Non sum qualis eram.
   • Hic iacet…
   • Post mortem
   • AET. (Aetas)
   • Ex corde
   • Mens sana in corpore sano
   • In memoriam de mortuis nil nisi bonum
   • Mens et manus
   • Melius pede quam labi lingua.
   • Vivit et vivet per omnium saeclorum memoriam.
   • Homines amplius oculis quam auribus credunt.
   • Facilis descensus Averno…
   • Semper honos nomenque tuum laudesque manebunt.