Not the Hunger Games

We had an Olympiad on the last day of school in December, a climactic run-around activity that dipped into equal parts Ancient Civilizations knowledge, collaboration, strategic thinking, and silliness.

Students were assigned to one of four Greek city-states, three of them inventions of my class: Rhazon, Barthonia and Choros were creations of our group; Zisteaunia, named by Noah Amezcua, comprised the fourth competitor.

Events included . . . . . .

MERELLUS (a Roman board game)

MORITURI TE SALUTAMUS  (thumb-wrestling)

LEXICO GRAPHICA (Ancient Civ Pictionary)

GILGAMESH SCRAMBLE (a word game)

CIRCUS MAXIMUS (a foot race around SK)

LATIN TRANSLATION (one word per team)

LOCATION LOCATION (placing Ancient Civs on a map)

LOGIC PUZZLE (imported from Math)

BREAD TOSS (again using a map of the world)

ROMAN NUMERALS (rendering Arabic numerals thus)

RECITE SOMEONE ELSE’S LINE (shouting from Gilgamesh)

PYRAMID BUILDING (another Math import)

AXE SMASH (just styrofoam,  but eminently satisfying)

I had the most fun watching Kaeli swinging that axe, but there was great passion at the thumb-wrestling arena, the Lexico Graphica sprints were shrewd, swift, and hilarious, and the shouted Gilgamesh lines got the entire atrium riled up.