Sixth grade students at Pinetree Community School tested their athletic abilities and skills at the school’s annual Greek Week Olympics Monday.
“All of these kids have watched us do it since kindergarten so it’s a lot of fun for them,” sixth grade teacher Michael Adachi said. “It’s something we look forward to each year.”
For nearly 20 years, sixth grade students at Pinetree Community School, along with other schools throughout the Sulphur Springs Union School District, have participated in the track and field Olympics as part of the school’s Greek Week.
Greek Week is seen as a culmination for the students’ yearlong focus on social studies and ancient civilizations, like Greece and Egypt.
“We were put in groups and then he [Adachi] gave us pages in our social studies book and then we had to do a project out of that,” 11-year-old Brooke McCormick said. “Greek was our main subject this year. We did a lot of social studies, every trimester we had a project about it.”
The end of year activities include a Greek Wax Museum, the Greek Olympics, a Greek feast, an academic day and Greek Plays, all before the sixth grade student’s promotion Thursday.
This year’s Olympics events included a sprint, relay race, javelin throw, discus throw, cornhole game, long jump, soccer game, basketball game, shotput with water balloons and a socco tournament, which is a game like dodgeball.
“We’ve kept the same events,” said Adachi, who has organized the Olympics for Pinetree for the past seven years. “I tried to make it a little better. Before it was just three individuals for each event and now I make everyone do it so kids aren’t sitting around.”
In total, 80 students participated in all 10 events in three classroom teams. Students received points for their performance on each event and the team with the most points won bragging rights for the rest of the week.
Gabriel Augustine, 12, said his favorite events were the socco tournament and the baseball game.
“It’s very competitive and I like being competitive,” he said.
Former students also returned to Monday’s event to help gather students, tally points, set up events and participate in the games.
Canyon High School ninth grade students Isabella Kombrink, 13, Sierra McCormick, 13, and Brianna Daggs, 14, all returned to Pinetree for the third year to help their favorite teacher, Mr. Adachi, present the games.
“We all went to Pinetree and were all in the same class here with Mr. Adachi,” Kombrink said. “I like the teacher, he’s my favorite teacher out of all the teachers I’ve had.”
Sierra McCormick said the high schoolers also returned to watch their younger siblings, who are all in sixth grade at Pinetree, participate in the Olympics.
“We try to think that it builds a good culture of our community,” Adachi said. “We couldn’t do it without their help.”
So far throughout Greek Week, a favorite among students was the Greek Wax museum, where students chose their own Greek god or goddess or character to portray in front of their classmates.
“We picked a Greek goddess or person and then we made a poster and acted like that person and explained it to the class,” said Brooke McCormick who picked the goddess Nike. “I liked Nike because she was the goddess of speed and strength. I like to run and play sports and stuff so I picked her.”
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