Roman Clothing & Paper Dolls

Throughout our main Latin topics where we build vocabulary, learn grammar, and read Latin texts, I frequently bring in different mythological and history topics to help students get a better understanding of the Ancient Romans. Aside from taking notes, I also try to build in something more interactive where students get to interact with the history/culture so it feels more relevant to them. 

One of the recent historical topics we've done is Roman Clothing (you can find my presentation on my TpT account). While we've occasionally done toga parties where we dress up in Roman clothing, recently I started using these paper dolls with students.

Students decorate a femina and vir using the cutouts. While I loved paper dolls as a kid and these drawings are absolutely fantastic, I made a digital version of this activity to avoid cutting out all the pieces. Students can click/drag the items they need onto the people, then I print out a copy that they can decorate. 

And then we tie in Latin! Students write Latin sentences that describe their people. I use this with my 8th grade Latin 1 students, so our sentences stick to present tense, third person, and we use Nominative & Accusative cases. I also give a lot of help with the word order/structures - you'd be able to adjust as needed for your students.

If you're interested in doing these activities with your students, click here for a copy of the digital paper dolls with directions and click here for a copy of the sentence worksheet I give students. 

How do you try to incorporate Roman history into your Latin classes? Do you also tie in Latin writing?

- Magistra Leonard