--Winter Olympics Sports series (ages 9-12)
       Figure Skating
       Alpine and Free-style Skiing
       Speed Skating
       Snowboard
       Ice Hockey and Curling
       Biathlon, Cross Country, Ski Jumping, and Nordic Combined
       Bobsleigh, Luge, and Skeleton

--Freeze Frame: A Photographic History of the Winter Olympics by Sue Macy (Grades 4+)

--The Olympics: Legendary Sports Events by Matt Christopher (ages 9-12)

--The Mud Flat Olympics by James Stevenson (ages 4-8)

--How the Skunk Learned to Jump by Stephen Schumann

--Hour of the Olympics by Mary Pope Osborne (Magic Tree House series) and its companion book

--Figure Skating in Action by Kate Calder

--Winter Olympics by Larry Dane Brimner (ages 8-10)--expensive

--On the Ice With . . .Mario Lemieux by Matt Christopher(ages 9-11)

--The Encyclopedia of the Winter Olympics by John F. Wukovits (ages 12 and up)--expensive

--Speed Skating by Larry Dane Brimner (ages 8-10)

--Ice Skating by Cynthia Klingel (ages 5-8)--expensive

--Tacky and the Winter Games by Helen Lester -- (ages 5-8) Tacky the penguin and his friends train for the winter games.

Top

--Do a KWL chart with your class before starting your Olympic unit.

--Use the following as your  class theme:
Make it an Olympic year: Strive to do your personal best!

--Have older students research the winter sports events and explain them to younger children.

--Graph: favorite sport; favorite mascot; number of gold, silver, bronze medals won by your country

**Click here for a tally chart to vote for favorite sport**

**Click here for a medal graph**

--Keep track of the medals won by each country

--On a map record the areas that votes are being received from for our project.

--Writing: Students write as if they have won a gold medal in their favorite sport. They tell about their experiences at the Olympics. Make an illustration. (It's fun to give each student a small cut out photo of just her/his head. Students then draw their bodies participating in their favorite sport.)

--Make Olympic windsocks: Shape a 12" x 18" piece of white construction paper into a cylinder. Students color a worksheet with the Olympic rings on it (8 1/2 x 11" works well), cut it out and glue it to the cylinder. You can also write Vancouver 2010 on it. Add alternating 8" crepe paper strips in the colors of the Olympic rings. Add a hanger. These look great hanging the length of a hallway.

--Learn all about the host country of Canada.

--Study the flags of participating nations. Have each classroom (or group of children) make a different flag. Hang for display.

--Learn about the origin of the Olympic games. Make the flag of Greece.

--From Robin Koehler:
  --Compare the first Olympic Games in ancient Greece with today's games.
  --Locate different countries on a political map or by using longitutde/latitude.
  --Bring in current events (newspaper) about the 2010 Olympic Games.
  --Collect data on the temperature of Vancouver the week before, during and after the Olympic games.

--From Anita Kerbaugh: Weather permitting, make a class ice sculpture and play broom hockey outside.

--From Susan Ande-Smith: Our school is big on goal setting, so I had the class cut out big yellow circles and write Goal Medal on them (instead of gold medal). They wrote their specific goal for this marking period. Then we put gold glitter around the circles and hung them up.

***The following are ideas submitted by participants in the 2002  and 2006 projects***

--From Judy Rehmeyer: Make shoebox dioramas that depict different Olympic sports.

--From Dona Crow: Our school has a yearly Olympics. Each class chooses a country, makes a flag, and studies about the country. Many classes also do other art projects related to that country. The students are permitted to take part in only one event. The events are chosen by the Olympic Committee, a team of teachers. These events include long jump, high jump, 50 yard dash, 100 yard dash, lap racing, distance running, relay teams from each class, parent relays at the start of each day of Olympic competition, javelin toss, basketball throw, and soccer kick. Medals are awarded right after the event for each heat. Every student gets a medal. The day before the Olympics start the whole school parades around the track or through the town. There is a snack bar, and the sales from this pay for the medals. There is also a basketball playoff during the lunch hour the week before the Olympics. This year the whole event took four days--one for the parade; one for the fourth, fifth, and sixcth grade events; one for the second and third grade events; and one for the kindergarten and first grade events. It started about 8:15 and ended about 10:00 each day. The classes watched the parent relays each morning and then went to their separate events.

--From Mrs. Cavaliaro: Form an Olympic Readers Club. To be eligible, students keep track of their reading on a weekly log during the period of time designated by the teacher (perhaps all of January through the end of the Olympics). If they read a total of six hours per week (an average of 30 minutes per night), they earn a gold medal. Gold medalists are permitted to choose their classroom seating arrangement for the following month (or some other treat). If the majority of the students are gold medalists, the class gets a pizza/video party at lunchttime.

--From Carrol Hockman: Collect pipe cleaners in the colors of the Olympic rings, one of each color for each child in your class. Begin by making a circle with the blue one. Twist the ends to form a smooth circle. Add the yellow pipe cleaner; form and twist a circle. Add the black, the green, and then the red, in that order. If you hold it up you will have what appears to be a chain, but if you lay it flat, you can arrange the circles to form the Olympic rings.

--AIMS has a wonderful activity called the Mini Metric Olympics. Students estimate and measure as they compete in activities such as the AIMS version of the javelin throw (using straws), shot put (using paper plates), etc. This activity is available in the book Math + Science: A Solution. This book is for grades 5 - 9. It should be available at the AIMS web site, but it is not free:
http://www.aimsedu.org

--From Phyllis Roche: Using the digital camera, I took individual pictures of the kids. I used PhotoShop to crop and make them smaller. I printed them out. We made Olympic credentials. The children pretended that they were athletes from countries and sports of their choice. They researched the country and the sport. I laminated the credentials. I punched holes in the top of each, and we hung them on the key things that are so popular now.

--From Kathy Scheck: Students research a particular sport or athlete and then present an oral report.

--From Susan Dennison: We are going to do a science project from the AIMS 2002 issue called Slip, Sliding, Sleds; along with this we will read Bobsledding and the Luge by Larry Brimner.

--From Mary Ellen Fuentes: Mary Ellen created a student template for a PowerPoint presentation. She has the Olympic rings as a background on each page. Her pages are as follows:

--My favorite Olympic sport: Student names sport.
--Here is a picture of my favorite Olympic sport: picture is scanned in
--An Olympian should . . .: Student lists 3 characteristics of an Olympian.
--A new Olympic sport I would like would be: Name and describe new sport
--A picture of the new sport: colored and scanned in
--My favorite country flag: scanned in
--Sources page

--From Melissa Warren: We will use groups to study the different sports. I am considering letting them make a trading card of an athlete in their sport, writing a sports article, and presenting a report about it. I think I will have them give an update on their sport as it takes place, using newspaper, TV, or Internet.

--Some ideas from the Perpetual Preschool web site:

--Edible Olympic Torch: You need 1 sugar cone for each child; lemon, orange, or raspberry sherbet, sugar sprinkles in yellow, orange, and red. Give each child a cone filled with sherbet (any one or combination of the flavors). Sprinkle on sugar and enjoy.
--Edible Olympic Rings: Give each child 5 vanilla wafers or coconut ring biscuits. Have children frost cookies: 1 each red, black, blue, yellow, and green. Put together as Olympic rings.
--Simple art project Olympic rings: Cut out the centers of small paper plates. Let children paint them the color of the Olympic rings. Assemble and staple. (Or scrunch appropriate colored tissue paper and glue to rings.)
--Dip toilet paper tubes into appropriate colored paints and print the Olympic rings. For larger rings use plumber plungers dipped in paint.
--Cut out a torch base. Have children make flames by tracing and cutting out their handprints in yellow and/or orange.
--After discussing the Opening Ceremonies with the children and talking about the flags of different countries, give each child a piece of construction paper -- color or their choice. Provide circles, squares, stars, stripes, etc. The children create their own flags. Dowel rods may be added for carrying.
--Olympic Dream: sung to the tune of The Oscar Mayer Theme Song (substitute other Olympic activities for running.)

Oh, I wish that I could be in the Olympics.
I wish that I could run and have some fun.
For if I could run in the Olympics,
I'm sure that I'd be number one!

--Olympic medal ideas:

--gold paint on juice lids
--Glue gold foil-covered chocolate money onto a cardboard circle backing
--24 inches of red, white, and blue striped ribbon held together by two gold seals (usually found in office supply store as notary or leggal document seals)

--Mini-Olympics (can be modified for Winter Olympics): Can include opening ceremonies and awards ceremony

--Standing broad jump
--Javelin: Let children throws straws to see how far they go.
--Discus throw: Throw paper plates
--Shot Put: Ping pong balls
--Basketball throw
--Volleyball: Can use Little Tykes net
--Simple relay races
--Obstacle course

--From Donna Giblin (Kindergarten): We are going to make pins and trade them with each other, since pin trading is such a big event with the spectators. I am going to give my students a pre-cut circle and ask them to decorate it the best they can since they will be trading with another person. I am going to laminate the cirles and hot glue the pin to the back. On the back I am going to write "Kindergaraten Olympics 2002 -- Pin made by ________" We will trade our pins and wear them for our olympics.

--From Cathy Furlong: I am using a behavior activity for the months of January and February. It is called Going for the Gold. Each child has a 100 grid sheet that I decorated with olympic stickers and the title Going for the Gold. I have a class list on a clipboard. I put checkmarks next to a name each time that child does whatever I am checking for -- remembering their boots, library book, home/school folder, completing work, etc. At the end of the day, I count up their checkmarks and make a checkmark on their grid with a red marker. The next morning they fill in their grid to the red checkmark. When they finish one sheet, they have earned the bronze. The second sheet at 50 will be a silver; and at 100 on the second sheet, they will have a total of 200 points to earn a gold medal. On February 20th we will have an awards ceremony and the medals will be given out. I also have a certificate for each child.

--From Mr. Anderson (6th Grade):

--In groups students work on various visual and written projects trying to persuade the IOC where the Olympics should be held next.
--Students map out and discuss the participating nations.
--Students design and Olympic ticket and an Olympic pin.
--Students research different sports, graph different nations in their medal count, and discuss why those nations are successful.
--Students invent a sport to be added to the Winter Olympics.

--From Debbie Sweeney: We are having an opening and closing ceremony. Each younger grade is partnering with an older grade to learn about the Olympics. An Olympic torch bearer is coming to speak to our students. She is bringing her torch for students to be photographed with. We are passing a torch from class to class. (store-bought pretend torch)

--From Sue Reiser: The things we did in 2002 included daily charting and graphing of Olympic medal winners on a big chart and also each of the children had their own booklet to keep track of the medals. We ran off medals in yellow (gold), brown (bronze), and white (silver) for their booklets. We divided into groups and designed our own flags for our team along with a name for the country we came from. We talked about each sport and the muscles we thought they needed to strengthen to make them better at their sport. On the last day of school, we brought our flags to the lunch room and set them at our table. We each had an Olympic "pass" with our picture around our necks, and sat together as "countries". We
finished with an indoor Olympics of our own. We started with an entry into the gym as countries and then played games! We had "speed skating" (gliding across the gym floor), bobsledding (scooters), and ice hockey (floor hockey). We ended the day with everyone receiving a medal and a standing ovation (we also took their picture).

--From Krystal Nail: I teach Enrichment (creativity critical thinking, etc.) lessons for the kindergarten through third grade classes at my school. I am planning to teach them about the different sports and also a little about the history of the Olympic games and Torino, Italy. I am also going to let them create a new sport that could be part of future Winter Olympic Games. For their sport, they will have to give their sport a name and then tell about what would be needed for it (equipment, etc.), what the rules would be, how competitions would work (ex: scoring, individuals, teams, etc.), and why it would be a good sport to add to the Olympics. They will be working as a whole class, in small groups, or possibly individually. This will depend on levels the students are performing at. For Kindergarten, it will probably be done as a whole class or maybe in small groups. Third grade will probably be in small groups with the option to work individually if a student chooses to do so.

--From Cyndie McKee (6th grade science): Our sixth grade is doing an Olympic unit. We are very close to Perfect North Slopes, a skiing resort. They are having our students ski there for $10, which includes the rental of ski equipment. They will be there for 5 hours and will receive a ski lesson. We are doing this at the end of our unit. We are making crystal snowflakes, experimenting with a downhill slope actiity, and doing a metric Olympic marathon.

From Khloe Sobolik:   As a school we will be representing 14 teams from different countries. We will have an Opening Ceremony, in which each team will parade in and show their flag. During the month we will be learning about our countries, and at the end of the month we will share with all the classes what we have learned, have an Ethnic Food Fair to sample foods from other countries, and a Game Day, at which we will learn the games from the other countries. Special guests will visit and talk about countries, Olympic events, etc.

Each country (class) will keep track of its medals and a tally chart will be kept in the hallway.

Students will be reading throughout the month. The top 3 students (minutes read) in each class will earn a medal and receive those at our closiong ceremonies along with participation awards for everyone else.

--From Donna Caruso: One thing I have always done is to try and look at all the different countries colors and symbols. I am a big hockey fan, so I get all the teams' information--team colors, country names and mascots, if possible. We then try to make fractions out of the colors. For example, how many teams use the color red, blue, orange, etc. My special needs students like to gather this information, then categorize it. Then we look at letters--How many countries start with A, B, C, etc.

--From Carroll Hockman: Research the origins of the various winter sports included in the winter games. Lead students to the big idea that there are many ways to travel across the ice and snow. Categorize the winter games into skates, sleds, and skis.

Listen to the news, read newspaper articles to find out if any Olympians live in your town, county, or state. Utilize as another type of biography.

--From Belva Buchan: (kindergarten) We will participate in our own Classroom Olympics with a math and literacy focus.Among other things, we will measure how far we can shoot a hockey puck, unscramble Olympic events, make a sled snack, make words with the word family -ow, match skis and skiers with numerals and number words, and put together snowboard puzzles to make 3-letter words.

--From Kim Kreider: (upper elementary) Each student is doing a 5-ring research poster--who, what, when, plus 2 other facts about the sport they draw. Each child will track her/his sport and report the outcome to the class. The 5-ring posters will be displayed on a school-wide bulletin board to share the information with the rest of the school.

--From Gretchen Eichberger: We are planning a school-wide celebration to begin the second week of February. We plan to celebrate by learning about the culture of Italy, acting out an Olympic medal ceremony, and participating in our own version of the winter games with sledding, snowman making, etc.

--From Richele Repass (grade 1): We are doing some Olympic activities with our technology and PE teachers. We will slide in our socks through an obstacle course, slide frisbees with noodles, and use scooters to simulate the luge and bobsled. In the classroom we will use a race track to simulate the luge event, use pennies and popsicle sticks and a tub of ice to simulate the curling event, and use laptops to look up events and make graphs.

--From Lynn Medea (grade 3): I had my students create a mascot, along with a descriptive paragraph about their mascot. After they shared their mascots with the class, I showed them the mascots for Torino.

--From Tracey Peterson (grades K and 1): Kindergartners are making an Olympic book with pages such as: The Olympic Rings, Mascots, Flame, Map of Italy and Flag, Favorite Sport, and Medal Watch Page. They will write one sentence about each to go with the picture. First gaders will choose and study a country and monitor medal wins. They will add that information to a class graph. They will also graph school results of the "Favorite Sport" campaign.

--From Patti Birkmaier (grade1): I used several items from the Enchanted Learning website (book, word search, Olympic flag). The kids estimated how many gold, silver, and bronze medals the US will earn. We are also going to hold a mini winter Olympics with sports like snowball throwing (using paper balls), scooter races for speed skating and hockey.

--From Lisa Dryzal (grade 1): One year we created a bigbook with a third grade class with details about the winter Olympics and the meaning of many of the symbols. We also created a snack of Olympic rings by icing cookies in the colors of the rings and arranging them accordingly.

--From Christine Pressler (grade 2): I create a bulletin board with the title Going for the Gold 2006. Each word is a different color of the Olympic rings. I make gold medals out of fun foam with my students' names on them. I hang a big world map, and we locate the different countries. In the past, I have created a pictograph to display the number of medals won by each country. I would use metallic stars as the picture. (The graph can get a little long, because some countries win only one medal.)

--From Katie Lark: We are holding our own reading Olympics. Each student is asked to read for at least 10 minutes a night. The 2nd and 3rd graders are keeping track of how many hours each class reads and we are using the information to create a pictograph in our hallway.

--From Kelly Lounsberry (grade 5): We've been doing typical social studies research on countries involved in the games. We are making maps, flags, posters, or data discs, and Did You Know cards.
We are doing daily spelling tests to get medals for this area.
Math - daily review quizzes with facts, Sudoku puzzles, word problems
All these competitions are done by countries - 3 students per country
Science - daily science review questions
Reading - Competition with oldest book, longest word, longest title, thickest book, longest sentence
Gym - typical Olympic events; students compete in their countries; flags carried into gym first day along with Olympic flame and Olympic flag; Olympic theme music plays in the background

--From Marsha Yanick: Our school asked an Olympic trivia question each afternoon on the announcements. The students went home and talked with their parents to figure out the answer. The answer was announced the next day.