Sunday, June 3, 2012

Conduct your own Olympic Games in School


Olympic Games Breakdown


  1. The students will start the day by looking to see what group they have been assigned to before they enter homeroom.
  2. Once all of the morning’s activities have been completed, the students should head out into the hall and sit with their teams. The students will sit on both sides of the hall leaving the middle open for demonstrations of the day’s events.
  3. When the students are out in the hall, Mr. Duran will go over some ground rules for the Olympics such as no booing, we expect each student to stay with and cheer for other members of their team. There should be no talking with members of opposite teams. When you are not competing you should be on the sidelines cheering for other teammates.
  4. Tell all of the students that they will have one warning and that will be it. After their one warning, they will sit out of the Olympics for the remainder of the day.
  5. The weather will decide whether we go on to step six or ten. If it is not raining or wet outside, we will go on to step six.
  6. Tell the students that they will be competing outside in three different events. The events include lap racing, standing long jump, and running long jump. Mr. Duran will demonstrate each event in the hall. 
  7.    Mr. Duran will then explain the opening ceremony breakdown (we will be playing the Olympic theme music while the students march with their team in a single file down to the end of the hall and outside). The teams have an option of creating a chant or a cheer for the ceremony.
  1. Before the teams march outside, Mr. Duran will tell each team what station they are heading to first. Teams one and two will go to the standing long jump with Ms. Stewart, teams three and four will come over to the running long jump with Mr. Duran, and team five will go to the lap races with Mrs. Searles.
  2. The teams will cycle through and once the first team has completed their event, they will switch. Ms. Stewart’s students will switch to running longs jump, my students will switch to the lap race, and Mrs. Searles’ students will switch to the standing long jump.
  3. On the second day, or if it is raining out, the students will be competing in three events in the school. Paper plate discuss with Mr. Duran in the hall, Javelin straw throw in Mrs. Searles room, or the cotton ball shot put with Ms. Stewart in her room. All three events will be demonstrated by Mr. Duran prior to the start.
  4. Mr. Duran will tell each team what station they are heading to first. Teams one and two will go to the cotton ball shot put with Ms. Stewart, teams three and four will come over to the paper plate discus with Mr. Duran, and team five will go to the javelin straw throw with Mrs. Searles.
  5. After each day of games, the students will reconvene in their homerooms before they go to specials.


Olympic Events

Javelin Straw Throw –
The desks will be cleared to the middle of the room and yardsticks will be placed from end to end across the room. The contestants will throw the straw from a standing point at the end of the yardsticks. The straw is to be thrown like a spear or a javelin. The player with the longest throw as measured by Mrs. Searles and the player with the best form will win.
Cotton Ball Shot Put –
The desks will be cleared to the middle of the room and yardsticks will be placed from end to end across the room. The contestants will shot put a cotton ball from a standing point at the end of the yardsticks. The player with the longest throw as measured by Ms. Stewart and the player with the best form will win.
Paper Plate Discus –
Yardsticks will be placed down the hall to measure the distance of the paper plate discus. Each student will complete two revolutions before tossing the paper plate like a discus or Frisbee. There will be a fault line and students will be allowed one fault without a disqualification. The winner will be the student with the most distance in their throw and the student with the best form.
Lap Race –
Students will run around a set of cones in a two/three lap race depending on time. They will run against a teammate of their choice and both of their times will be recorded. If you see that things are getting backed up at your station, have students run in a larger group, maybe like four people. The student with the very best time will be the winner in this event.
Standing Long Jump –
There will be a designated area outside where the students will long jump. Ms. Stewart will watch to make sure that students jump from the designated area. She will measure the closest point to the initial jump. Look for where the back of their feet come down or where they put their hands down. The winner of this event will be the student with the furthest jump.
Running Long Jump –
This will be the same as the standing except students will get a running head start. Inform the students that if they step over the line before they jump, they will have one additional chance to jump. If they fault twice, they are done. The winner will be the student who jumps the furthest.

Project List


Ancient Greece Project Ideas


Your job is going to be to complete one of these projects over the course of our Ancient Greece unit. All projects will be graded out of 100 points using the Ancient Greece rubric.

  1. Design a Greek instrument. Stringed instruments include: Cithara, Phorminx, Lyra, Epigonion, Barbiton, Pandouris. For more information on any of these instruments ask Mr. Duran.
  2. Design a diorama of an Ancient Greek building. Buildings could include the Parthenon, any number of Greek temples, or the place where they held the Ancient Olympic games.
  3. Make a diorama of a bull-leaping match. Little is known about this famous custom of the Minoans. Use your creativity to complete a model of what you think it might have looked like based off of historical information.
  4. Write a myth. Possible subjects for your story are: Why there is rain, rainbows, waves, sunrise, lighting, clouds, phases of the moon, earthquakes, hurricanes, thunder, etc. Why different plants or animals have certain traits, why does man do certain things etc. Also include a visual representation of your myth. A drawing, painting, or computer-based drawing will do.
  5. Make an I-Movie. For those of you who have the resources necessary to complete an I-Movie, feel free to use your creativity in making one about Ancient Greece. Check with Mr. Duran on Ideas.
  6. Design an Ancient Greece PowerPoint Presentation. If you have PowerPoint at home and wish to create a project using PowerPoint, think of a topic you might want to cover and check with Mr. Duran.
  7. Design an Ancient Greek Olympics videogame. Capcom has just come to you and asked if you could design a videogame based on the Ancient Greek Olympics. Research the Ancient Greek Olympics and using historically accurate information, create a videogame that other students might enjoy playing.
  8. Research Greek Architecture. There are a number of different ideas to use when it comes to Greek Architecture. For more specific ideas or to share ideas, see Mr. Duran.
  9. Design a map of Ancient Greece. Your map must include a compass rose, a legend, a title, the mapmaker’s name (you), a scale, and the date. If you want to create a topographical map of Ancient Greece, that would be acceptable as well.
  10. Construct an Ancient Greek weapon. This must be school appropriate! If you cannot decide whether or not your weapon would be school appropriate, consult with Mr. Duran. We brainstormed a list in class and some of the weapons included spears, axes, shield, swords, etc.
  11. Make an Ancient Greek newspaper page. This is a great way to express your creativity through a number of different outlets. Your newspaper could include a headline (of a historical event), an entertainment section, want ads, a gossip column, a sports section, a comic strip, an obituary, and/or the weather. Mr. Duran has many more ideas on the Greek newspaper and would be willing to help you get started. Check with him on your headline.
  12. Construct a Medusa mask. I am sure that most of you remember Medusa as the beast with a face that could turn you to stone and hair made of snakes. Make a mask of what you think Medusa may have looked like based off of myths.
  13. Design a board game based on a myth or a topic of Ancient Greece. You can actually construct a board game that you and your friends can play. Make sure that you have a written set of rules and you supply all of the pieces needed to play the game. A few ideas of topics could include the Odyssey, the labors of Hercules, Jason and the Golden Fleece etc. Check with Mr. Duran for more ideas.
  14. Create your own Ancient Greece project. You have just read through a number of ideas. Maybe they gave you ideas of your own. I encourage you to create a project on Ancient Greece. There are many different subjects you can study and many different ways that you can study them.