The Olympians

So, today I started my grade 8 English class by giving them an overview of the Greek gods. You should have heard the giggles when I told them that Hephaestus was hit by the ugly stick but that he was married to the hottest woman in the world Aphrodite. I finished up that little story by telling them that it gives some of you hope, doesn't it. When I mentioned that despite this marriage, Aphrodite was stepping out on him with her uncle Ares, they really started laughing.

I walked into the class and was initially met with "are we learning about the gods again?" and "can we do more greek stuff today". Apparently they all were all discussing it and decided that they really liked this whole mythology stuff. One boy even said "you know, this is so much cooler than I thought it would be when you told us we were going to learn this stuff". That was pretty cool.

So after we discussed each of the gods, I asked them which one they wanted to report on. Lots of people wanting Poseidon, Aphrodite, and Dionysus. So then the question came up... "what's going to happen when two of us want the same god?" My response "well, I'm glad that you asked that my fine fellow [yes, I actually said fine fellow], we are going to have THE OLYMPIC GAMES"

They all cheered and then I told them that it was going to be Mrs. L's Wild and Wacky Olympic Games! They weren't so sure anymore, but all game.

Today's events were

1. Balancing Act - because all myths have balance (monsters/heros, night/day, etc), the competitors needed to have balance. The goal was to be the last person with their eyes closed standing on one foot.

2. Weight of the World - just as Atlas had to carry the world on his back, they had to stand, arms extended over their heads and hold a basketball for as long as they could.

This was all hilarious to watch. Four of the kids lasted 13 minutes with the basketball, and then the bell rang so now we need a tie breaker tomorrow.

Some of the other events include discus using paper plates, javelin using straws, thumb wrestling, paperclip archery, and the list goes on. I expect that this will take at least a whole other hour, if not two, but the kids are into it and it relates to what we're doing in class, so it's a way to draw them in.

I'm really excited for this unit. The kids are getting really excited to read the Lightning Theif. I had my grade 6s starting Harry Potter 1 today, which they are really excited for.

If only I could draw my 9s into Romeo and Juliet in the same way... time will tell... I have a very cool CSI thing planned to start that unit.

Overall, it was a pretty good day.

On other fronts, I've decided to try to do the photo challenge that Belle at Scrambled Eggs is doing. It looks like it might be a good distraction for me - we'll see if I can stick with it, but you should check it out if you haven't already - it looks kinda fun.