Category Archives: Kids Blog

Call for Entries for 2016 LegacyQuest International Children’s Film and Video Festival

Letter of Intent Deadline- December 11, 2015

Final Entry Submission Deadline- February 26, 2016

View our invitational video below and scroll down for details about the festival and how your students can get involved!


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KIDS’ BLOG! The Rose in History: Power, Beauty and the Sweet Smell (and Taste) of Success

17672-red-rose-close-up-pvRoses have an ancient history. Their delicate petals, their beautiful hues, their enticing fragrances and their visual presence has inspired civilizations from time immemorial. Roses have been around for some 35 million years and evidence of their past glories have been found in the far reaches of the ancient world. Let’s explore their history further as we take a walk through the amazing Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon, where the ancient and modern find common blooming rights. To make your stroll even more memorable, steep some rose hips tea, sit back and relax to the sumptuous tones of Enya’s China Roses.

*And don’t miss the fantastic activities below the slide show! Continue reading

Fact or Fiction? Ancient Chewing Gum

Fact or Fiction curly and roundWhether it’s bubblegum, mint, cinnamon or fruity flavors, chewing gum is one of the world’s most ubiquitous habits with nearly 100,000 tons consumed per year.

Did you know that chewing gum is almost 5oo years old and used to be made out of tree leaves?

Fact or Fiction?

HOVER YOUR CURSOR HERE TO SEE THE ANSWER

*Click here to read more about the history of chewing gum. And click here to read our Kids’ Blog version.

The Slavery Project Part 2: In the Eye of the Beholder

JMW Turner's

J.M.W. Turner’s “The Slave Ship”

As we discussed in Part I: In the Eye of the Beholder, The Slavery Project (TSP) is an ongoing, interactive series of modules that incorporates lesson plans along select historical plotlines detailing slavery in a particular society during a specific period.  TSP is designed to provide students an immersive experience where a culture is explored according to the social, cultural, political and economic conditions of the time. Continue reading

AntiquityNOW Month: Make Something Monday! Bake Quinoa Cookies with an Ancient Grain

No Bake Quinoa Cookies Chocolate Peanut Butter and Almond Chocolate THE LOVE OF FOOD BLOGIt’s AntiquityNOW Month! Make delicious 5-Minute No Bake Quinoa Cookies using what the Incas’ called the “Mother of all Grains.”

AntiquityNOW Month: Make Something Monday! Build Your Own Great Wall of China

great wall of chinaIt’s AntiquityNOW Month! The Great Wall of China was built more than 2,500 years and remains one of the world’s most remarkable projects of antiquity. Construct your own Great Wall of China and explore life under China’s first emperor in Yesterday’s Child.

AntiquityNOW Month: Make Something Monday! Paint by Number Minoan Fresco

Dan's dolphinIt’s AntiquityNOW Month! Create a beautiful mural with artist Dan Fenelon’s paint by number design for AntiquityNOW inspired by the Minoan “Fresco of the Dolphins” on the island of Knossos near the north coast of Crete.

Strata: Portraits of Humanity, Episode 6, “The Somerset Levels and Moors” and “Euskal Jaiak”

StrataImage-webEpisode 6 of the documentary series Strata:  Portraits of Humanity, produced by AntiquityNOW’s partner, Archaeological Legacy Institute, comprises two films that explore the forces that bind us as a people in a particular society. Continue reading

KIDS’ BLOG! Picture This: Pictograms and Petroglyphs and the Stories They Tell

An example of Aboriginal hand stencil rock art.

An example of Aboriginal hand stencil rock art.

Update! This post was originally published on July 23rd, 2013. In the post below we explore the ancient history of rock art and how we’re still using pictograms to communicate today. Recently, ancient petroglyphs have been back in the news with the discovery of an ancient Aboriginal site in a suburb of Sydney, Australia. Researchers say the site is tens of thousands of years old and has probably been dismissed by locals as graffiti.[1] Actually, it is kind of like ancient graffiti and it helps us see into the past and get a glimpse of what life was like for the ancient people living in the area. The art is made up of hand stencils of things that were a part of everyday life, such as “eels, a spearhead and a crescent-shaped moon.”[2] The images are a particularly advanced form of aboriginal hand stencils in which numerous hands combine to form a particular shape.[3] There’s a waterhole nearby and the petroglyphs are on a rock overhang so the artists were probably living in this spot, using the rock for shelter and fishing out of the waterhole. Because of the size of the hands, researchers have concluded that this site was created by women and children.[4] Continue reading