But for the Raymond J. Fisher Middle School students, it wasn't just a game. They were simulating the ancient Greek games, complete with togas and laurel wreaths for the full effect.

"If the marble rolls off, they have to go back and start over again," said sixth-grade core teacher Sunny Lettiere.

Lettiere said students were placed on competing teams named after Greek city-states—Athens, Argos, Corinth, Megara and Sparta—which challenged each other in different subject areas, from mental to physical strengths.

The first annual Greek Festival at Fisher on May 28 also included a lecture on the Peloponnesian War by San José State University history professor Dr. Jonathan Roth, as well as an awards assembly and a Greek feast. The feast featured pita bread rollers, Greek salad, homemade baklava and grape juice prepared by parent volunteers, who also assisted in running the team challenges.

Approximately 300 sixth-graders learned from Roth that Spartans won the Peloponnesian War against Athenians because the Persian empire gave Sparta money to build a fleet of ships. His lecture and the festival tied into Greek history, from about 300 to 500 B.C., which Fisher students had been studying in their classes for the past month.

As the school day progressed, teams of students built small ships out of tinfoil (science), battled in Olympic games (physical education), participated in a trivia competition called Hellenic jeopardy (history) and took part in a code-deciphering activity using Greek numerals (math). They also presented creative monologues in which they played the roles of mythological or real Greek characters (language arts), wearing elaborate masks.

The festival was organized by sixth-grade history teachers Eric Witter and Pat Garske, along with parent coordinator Nancy DeFever. Witter said the whole goal of the festival was to help students make connections between subject areas. He added that he enjoyed seeing not just his class but the entire sixth grade learning and applying the material he's been teaching. He said there are plans for the festival to be held next year.

Sixth-grade teachers said they hoped students took away a feeling of what ancient times were like; the festival was beneficial, especially for the students who didn't relate well to historical curriculum by studying it in a textbook, but grasped it by wearing, acting and experiencing it.

Despite the misty rain, Fisher's athletic fields were transformed into an Olympic stadium. On grass—instead of water—teams of students raced each other in a "rowing" contest. Groups of four or five students lined up on two parallel wooden planks. In a walking motion, the students moved forward by lifting ropes attached to the planks. Some of the teams "rowed" across the finish line, while others fumbled at the start.

Sixth-grader Ari Bashan said he'd never rowed before, so doing it wearing a toga while staying in coordination with his teammates proved to be more difficult than it looked. Parent volunteers Geri Kennedy and Judy Applesmith were pleased with the team-building and educational value of the activities. While students experimented with the javelin throw—using bamboo sticks instead of javelins—and tried out discus throwing using Styrofoam plates, sixth-grader Trevor Kennedy said he's been studying everything from mythology to Greek heroes.

"This is kind of like the Olympics, except there are only five teams," he said.

Sixth-grader Matthew Applesmith showed off his decorative toga.

"I took a normal bed sheet and added Greek symbols using a Sharpie," he said, explaining it's no easy task to fold a toga so one arm is left open and the other fits through a sleeve-like hole on the other shoulder.

Matthew, a member of the Sparta team, said he learned Athens was a peaceful state, while Sparta was warlike. Roth explained during his lecture to students that Corinth was known for its great entertainment.

Sixth-graders Rian Barth, Karly Fleming, Barr Levi and Adam Rose spent one of the sessions of the festival assembling model foil boats. Marbles that filled the boats added weight and represented people.

"[The Greeks] had rams on the boats, and they would go really fast and ram into other boats and row back really fast, and then the boat would sink," Karly said.