Ancient Civilisations Day

On the 22nd of August the Year Sevens held the much-anticipated Ancient Civilizations Day! Over the past couple of weeks, the year sevens have been studying their assigned ancient civilization and preparing for Ancient Civilizations Day. Melba’s civilization was Greece, Maris had Egypt, Chisholm had Rome and Lyons had China.

Each table group was handed a category for their ancient civilization to research (trade, food, warfare, etc.). As well as creating informative posters about their research topic, each group had to use teamwork to construct a game, role play or interactive presentation to teach other students about their ancient civilizations. Chisolm taught us all about innovative architecture and hierarchy in Ancient Rome. We had some amazing decorations that made visitors feel like you are in a Roman house and real food to show what they would eat. We were also shown the roles each member of the family had, and the struggles women and girls would have to go through in everyday life. Melba taught us about all the different wars Greece had, their beliefs and practices as well as myths and legends. 

We had a lot of different foods and plays that showed what it was like to live in that era. In China, Lyons taught us about women rulers like Mulan and the first women emperor Wu Zetian and how women were on the bottom of the social hierarchy. Egyptian history was divided into three periods of time, the old kingdom which was when the pyramids were built, the middle kingdom is when Egypt expanded in trade and the new kingdom was created when Egypt had its first two female rulers which led to a wealthier civilization.

Towards the end the day, the Year Sevens were lucky enough to watch some traditional Chinese dancing and music with Chinese instruments in the auditorium. MGC’s own International students presented this. We also had a distinguished man who came into to teach us the art of Chinese fanning which was amazing to watch but very hard to do, as learnt by a few lucky students. Afterwards we had some very skilled MGC students performing Chinese dancing and playing ancient Chinese instruments which was a privilege to see. Overall Ancient Civilizations day was a success in proving how much we have evolved since ancient times.

And thanks to our photographers for recording the journey: Sophie Hart, Grace Illingworth and Asrin Sastradipradja.

Celebrating Ancient Civilisation Day with Year 7 students

Confucius Classroom and international students’ department participated in this activity on the 21th of August.

Kungfu Master Mr. Zhou from the Confucius Institute, University of Melbourne demonstrated Taichi and conducted a workshop with all Year 7 students. They have showed a great interest in this activity, and came to the central stage to learn some basic movements.

After Taichi performance, 7 international students from Year 10 and 11 carried out a great Chinese show. With the melody of Chinese instruments, two dancers displayed a wonderful show by dressing the traditional costume. At the end of the performance, the audience expressed their appreciation with a long applause.

Written by: Will Li, Confucius Classroom Assistant Teacher