Last week all Year 4 classes used the Wii and the ‘game’ Mario and Sonic at the Olympics - this game was used to tie in with the topic The Ancient Greeks that the children are currently studying.  A couple of weekends ago, myself and the year 4 team leader sat down with the game and came up with a list of activities that could be used.  What was great for me to see was that these ideas were then taken away and the year group themselves came up with the final planning, resources, links and ideas, for me this meant that they had ownership of it, as they would be the ones using it and secondly their enthusiasm for using the games was a pleasure to watch.

Below is an overview of the activites that were completed during the week:

The children worked in teams and all had time on the Wii, instead of using the IWB, the groups used the Wii connected to portable Tvs in each class, mainly so that focus was kept within the other groups. The children really enjoyed using the game during the week and produced some fantastic work!

You can listen to one of their commentaries here Sport Stars report

We are also linked to a school in Vancouver, who are hosting the Winter Olympics in 2010, as part of the work during the week, the children replied to letters that we had been sent to us from the school.  The children shared their interests, asked questions about how Vancouver was preparing for the games and also how London was preparing.  This gave the work an international dimension.

The week really was cross-curricular, and the game element was only a small part of the overall work.