Opening Ceremony
Just like today’s modern Olympics, Greek Day begins with a ceremony of great pomp and splendor. Well, maybe just as much pomp as you can muster at eight in the morning. The Opening Ceremony does set the tone for the day, so you do have to bring the enthusiasm.
The key components of the Opening Ceremony are the Introduction, City Assignments, and Cheer Chart.
Introduction
Time to open Greek Day! Gather your students together and send them back in time to ancient Greece. Greet your students by saying, "Χαίρετε, ὦ μαθηταί(khairete o mathetai! - Hello oh students!)."
You may choose to start the ceremony with a torch run (a nod to our modern Olympics) or small burnt offering (check with your school administration, facilities manager, and the local fire department). Ancient Greeks began the games with an oath to Zeus, where they promised not to cheat, fight with other competitors, or engage in unsportsmanlike conduct. It's always good to remind students of your expectations at the beginning of an activity!
Share the schedule of the day with students, then break them into their assigned groups for the day.
City Assignments
For the day to work successfully, you will want to split your students into smaller groups. They may stay in these groups the whole day, or you may choose to organize them into different groups for different parts of the day, but these groups are helpful for activity rotations and imperative for the Olympic Games portion of the day. Groups of about 10 students work best.
Given that ancient Greece was not a unified nation, but instead initially comprised of unique city states with their own identities, your students will be divided up to represent a different city state.
Each city-state group will be led by an adult (teacher/staff member/chaperone) who takes on the persona of their patron god/goddess.
City-states of Ancient Greece to use for Greek Day: Athens, Delos, Thebes, Sparta, Rhodes, Corinth, Syracuse, Argos, etc.
Cheer Chart
Students break off into their city-state groups with their leader. The leader introduces their group to the schedule of the day and their city-state. This is also a good time to put students in any costumes/accessories they will wear for the day.
Students will then come up with a cheer that includes the name of their city-state, their patron god/goddess and their attributes. They can then create a poster representing their city state and put their cheer on the back.