IN THE CLASSROOM:

Thirty-six children took a lesson on ancient Greece to the Glenoaks Elementary School field Thursday, waving flags and chanting slogans for Corinth, Megara and other ancient city-states.

The sixth-graders, separated into five teams, were competing in an adapted version of the Greek Olympic games.

They had studied the Greek city-states of Athens, Argos, Corinth, Megara and Sparta and learned about the role of the Olympic games as a celebration of achievements, teacher Matthiew Hamo said.

After studying the accomplishments of each city-state, the groups made flags, chants and T-shirts in preparation for their own Olympics, Hamo said.

“Any time you can bring a standards-based activity and make it a little fun, the teachers love it and so do the students,” said Hamo, who paced the field with a clipboard and made sure each student followed his structured plan for each activity.

The students took on the final challenges Thursday of the two-day event that began Wednesday with the indoor games of boxing and wrestling, although Hamo adjusted those activities to rock-paper-scissors and arm wrestling, he said.

“Obviously we had to make some changes to make them school-appropriate,” he said.

Thursday’s activities were based on more of the original Olympic games, which included javelin, discus, horse riding and chariot racing, but Hamo tweaked those events as well.

Students cheered their teammates through paper airplane and Frisbee throws, and piggyback and human wheel-barrow races.

They ended with a relay race.

“This is what they did in Greece, like every four years,” said 12-year-old Narbe Nazaryan, of the Argos team.

Narbe won the “riding” event, along with his teammate Chaehee Han, 11, who rode on Narbe’s back for the first leg of the race, then took over the running during a dash for the finish line.

Their winning strategy was to let Narbe run first, using his speed to give the team an early lead, they said.

“We practiced every day at recess,” Chaehee said.

The big winner of the day was team Corinth, which won five of the six events.

Despite Corinth’s dominance, the other teams remained cheerful, holding banners and chanting slogans about the strengths of their city-states.

To end the event, each team gave a short performance that captured the essence of its city-state.

The Spartan team focused on three words inspired by the movie “300.”

“We — are — Sparta!” they called out, before performing a brief dance.

KIDS TALK BACK

The Glendale News-Press visited a sixth-grade class that was reenacting the ancient Olympic games and asked, “What Greek city-state did you represent for the Olympics and what made it special?”

“We are Corinth . . . since the Greeks were famous for their columns, the Corinthian column was popular in Corinth.”

MAYA RAMAMURTHY, 11

Glendale

“We’re Athens. Athens is more, like, educated than Sparta.”

MATEO MORRIS, 11

Glendale

“My city-state is Argos. We’re the best performing arts state. We reach new heights in drama, music and poetry.”

ALLISON SALTER, 12

Glendale

“Sparta, for the boys, it’s all about war. When the boys are born they’re pretty much born in the sand of war.”

GARRETT FRITZ, 11

Glendale

“I’m from Megara . . . they’re just as good as any of the other city-states. They love money and they love to be rich.”

MADELINE STAUFFER, 12

Glendale