This term we went way back in time learning about the Ancient Greeks and how they have influenced the world around us today in areas such as government, language, arts, architecture, sport, science, fashion, music, mathematics and more!

Since the start of term 3, Ms. Clarke has made Ancient Greece the focus for 9I's learning.  Ancient Greece has taught 9I students about the islands and seas that surrounded the Minoan civilisation, the Minoan life, Greek letters, Greek gods, Greek Olympics, Greek pottery, the Hoplites, and finally, Alexander the Great, which we continue to focus on.

As a student of 9I, there were two particularly remarkable categories for me, because we did mini-fun tasks while learning about them instead of just writing and reading. One was the Greek Olympics, where we had two whole lessons playing games that were similar to the Greek Olympics, and for the last lesson we were able to connect with Gavin Bishop via a zoom meeting. He talked to us about the Maori books he has written which connected to our learning about Greek gods. 

Another stand-out aspect of our studies was our learning about the Hoplites. During one of our lessons, Ms. Clarke suddenly surprised us with an activity that involved crafting. We were divided into two groups and competed with each other to try to make the most presentable Hoplite armour while one of our teammates was wearing it. 

For me this was really fun but a little stressful too because we were given a limited amount of time but our design needed to be detailed. When time was up, the opposite team was named as the winner. However, my team was able to even the score by correctly naming the items that the Hoplites wear and describing how they were constructed. This created a 'tied' result so Mr Haywood acted as a guest judge and suggested two Hoplite models would do a 'cat-walk finale'. The Philippine national anthem played as the background music while our two Hoplites walked back and forth with their teammates loudly supporting them and encouraging them to put more energy into it. 

And the final result......................my team won!