My students have always loved learning about the Olympics. It’s an
event that everyone seems to be interested in. I think the fact that students
can take what they’ve learned about the Olympics home to share with their
family is a big reason. Students also enjoy watching the Olympics at home and
discussing it the next day. There are so many ways to incorporate the Olympics
into the classroom. Here are some of my favorite ways!
Social Studies
The Olympics are a great way to talk about “Then and Now.” The first
modern day Olympics was over 100 years ago. What was the Olympics like back
then? How has it changed over the years? Here are some things to think about:
·
Compare the number of events back then and now
·
Compare the number of athletes back then and now
·
Compare who can compete compared to who could
compete then
·
Compare the medals of the past to the current
medals
·
Compare the length of the games from the past
years to the current years
·
Compare the number of countries (and their medal
counts) to the number of countries now competing
There are so many fascinating events in the Olympics! Students absolutely
LOVE learning about the various events! I like to show them a presentation
about the different events. There are sooo many that it often takes a few class
periods to discuss them. We are all familiar with the popular events, but there
are some really unique events!
We also cut out fact cards about each event. Each card has a short
summary of each event. We placed these in pockets. They could be used in interactive
notebooks, but we saved ours for making a lapbook about the Olympics.
The Olympics are also a fun way to learn about geography. We can look
at the maps of ancient Greece as well as the current map of Rio.
We use the Olympics to discuss timelines. We discuss how the modern day
Olympics has changed over the years. Then we complete an Olympics timeline for
practice.
Reading
Below are some books that we have been reading while learning about the
Olympics.
We also read some nonfiction reading passages to learn more about the
Olympics.
Math
Keeping up with the medal count is a great activity during the
Olympics. The medal count is also a super way to practice your data and
graphing skills!
Along with reading the medal count in a table, we construct:
·
Tally charts
·
Bar graphs
·
Pictographs
Complete Olympic Unit
All of the information we learned about the Olympics went into our
lapbooks to take home to share with our families.
It also could have easily fit into an interactive notebook or journal.
All of the activities above can be found in the Olympic Unit
below!
You can find the presentation at:
Or you can buy them as a BUNDLE and SAVE!
