Little School on the Range: Social Studies

The Olympics are such a fun way to incorporate current events into the classroom! From primary grades up to high school, there are so many fun ways to mix the Olympics into your curriculum! The 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo is the perfect way to wrap up the school year or to use as a theme for summer school.

The Olympics can truly be used in all content areas. The summer games are an excellent way to bring current events into the classroom. The Social Studies classroom can get a definite boost from the Olympics. It is such a global current event that all of the world is watching at once. Learning about all of the events is so exciting for students. They love being able to watch the events after learning about them in school. Geography and map skills can easily be incorporated into a unit about the Olympics.

There are so many athletes and historical events that are a part of the Olympics. The Reading/Language Arts classroom can benefit from nonfiction passages about Olympic athletes and the history of the games.

Charts and graphs relating to the Olympics are in interactive way to add the Olympics into the Math classroom. Charts and graphs related to the medal count are easy keep track of on a daily basis. Medal count by country are updated online on a daily basis.

Check out this Olympics 2021 FREEBIE for a nonfiction text and graph relating to the Olympics! These FREE activities can be completed in the classroom OR online!

Looking for a complete no-prep unit on the 2021 Olympics? Check out the complete Tokyo 2021 Olympics Unit.

Why is teaching good citizenship so important in the primary grades? Teaching about being a good citizen not only gives students a basic understanding of how to interact as a citizen, but it also teaches them how to be a part of the classroom community.

While teaching about being a good citizen continues all year, it is especially important to teach during the first few weeks of school. It’s actually the perfect way to kick off your Social Studies block. Your classroom rules and the rules of the school are a great starting point!

Discussing classroom rules naturally leads into a lesson on rules at home and the community. The community refers to students’ neighborhoods as well as places they may visit (restaurants, movie theater, grocery stores, etc…).