We started the day by gathering in the hall to listen to a story about the Athenian and Persian war.  We learnt about how the boys and men of Sparta were treated and how the Athenian army acted in battle. 

We then split into our classes and had go at 3 different activities;

Activity 1: Ostomachion or Achimedes' Box

We were given a set of pieces and had to create a perfect square - this proved trickier than we realised! 

After we had made the square, we had to make different shapes, including right-angled triangles and elephants! 

The game is a 14-piece dissection puzzle forming a square. One form of play to which classical texts attest is the creation of different objects, animals, plants etc. by rearranging the pieces: an elephant, a tree, a barking dog, a ship, a sword, a tower etc.

Activity 2: Quiz

In our table groups we had to move around the classroom to different information boards to find the answers to different questions. We all learnt some new facts - did you know that Aristotle named both the Arctic and the Antarctic? We didn't!

Activity 3: Petteia, an ancient Greek game of pure skill

Two players face each other across a rectangular board which is marked with a grid of squares. The players each have an equal number of pieces, all of the same type, with one player's pieces differing from the other in colour. Pieces move around the board and capture one another by surrounding; a piece of one colour caught between two of the other is removed from play. The winner is the player who captures all of the opponent's pieces.

This was a brilliant game of strategy and we all loved it!