“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph, but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered, but to have fought well.” -Olympic Creed
I absolutely LOVE the Olympics – both summer and winter Olympics are fun and exciting to watch. From the Opening Ceremonies to the time the torch is extinguished, I simply cannot get enough. Of course I enjoy the sporting events themselves, but what I truly enjoy is learning about many other cultures from all over the world. Hearing amazing stories about real people who overcame tremendous obstacles to achieve their goals is simply inspirational.
There is so much to be learned from the upcoming winter Olympics, from setting goals to sportsmanship, and everything in between. This is a perfect theme to teach your students and your own children.
Here is a collection of some fabulous resources to get you started. I’d love to hear how you incorporated these into your own lessons! Please leave me a comment with your experiences!
Be sure to check out the official Team USA site too. Go USA! 🙂
Winter Olympics Lesson Plans
- From PBS: Human rights Unit Plan: PBS NewsHour Extra and New Global Citizens (NGC) have paired up to bring you education resources to teach the Games through the lens of human rights. NGC is a youth activism program that pairs students with social justice groups around the globe. These four lesson plans include an introduction to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, historic human rights moments at the Games through an interactive timeline and an opportunity to debate the human right issues at Sochi 2014. Each lesson is aligned to Common Core Standards and take approximately 60 minutes from start to finish.
- Preschool Lesson Plan Printable Activities: This is an opportunity for young children to get acquainted with the Games and learn the central message during the activities is friendship and peace. People playing and working together in peace and friendship makes for a better and beautiful world.
- Super Lesson Plan from Lesson Planet: Students will explore websites and be able to use information found on the websites to complete specific tasks related to Olympic symbols. Students will be able to use Olympic vocabulary words to complete an online dictionary quiz. Students will be able to use clues to complete an online crossword puzzle. Students will be able to create a graphic organizer to be used for describing an Olympic event. Students will use the graphic organizer and Olympic websites to research topics. Students will be able to create a writing piece on a specific Olympic event. Students will be able to use internet links to navigate to and participate in fun online activities.
- From the official Australian Olympic page – lesson plans to learn about the sports, venues and athletes at the 2014 Winter Games.
- Modern Olympic Beginnings Mini-Lesson (Subscription Required) – Use this slideshow and accompanying activities to introduce students to the beginnings of the modern Olympic Games.
- Some great resources from Corkboard Connections
- Sochi – Find it, Tally & Graph ($)
- 7 Just Print– No Prep Activities ($)
- Preschool Lessons For the Classroom
- Great Resources from Teach-nology
Crafts/Activities
- Olympic Torch Crafts – 2 cute activities with printable templates
- Olympic Torch Scissor Skills Craft – This is a great project to use when you are first introducing a child to scissors. It requires single “snips” only. You can make this appropriate for older children (kindergarten and up) by asking them to fill their templates with a particular type of shape (squares, rectangles, triangles, polygons, etc).
- 20+ Crafts & Activities
- EZ CRAFT – Make Your Own Olympic Ring Poster
- Olympic Medal Kids Craft
- Olympics Craft for All Ages
- Crafts for Preschoolers: Olympic Ring Toss Game
- DIY: Olympic Flag Garland
- Celebrating the Olympics: Great Ideas for Olympic Fun at Home!
Printables
- TONS of Printables and Other Resources
- Maps of Sochi / Russia: Clip Art Map Set – FREE!
- Great FREE printables from Time for Kids
- Sochi 2014 Olympics XXII Printables, Lessons on Russia
- Coloring Pages
- Printable Word Search
- PDF of Olympic facts
- Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Toolkit
- Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Freebie
Additional Resources
How interesting is this image showing facts about the medals?
- Time for Kids has a Mini-Site set up just for the Sochi Olympics with tons of great information!
- Olympics-inspired Ideas for Family Fun
- 5 Olympic Desserts
- Free download of the 2014 theme song Reach for the Top
Excellent! I have been looking for some great resources on Russia and the Winter games. It’s such an interesting country don’t you agree?
Thank you! I definitely agree! It is on my list of places to hopefully visit one day!