Olympics Classroom Theme

2012 is an Olympics year, so dust off your Olympics theme and jump (run, swim…) right in!

There are some ready-made decoratives:

Olympics theme bulletin boards can always say, “Go for the Gold!”

The Olympics this year are in London. Learn more about this ancient city:

Check out the London Icons Londoners chose as the most important icons for their city. Ask students to think about the icons of their own city; what images or places would they choose? With the idea of a city’s icons clear, divide students into groups to research the London icons listed.
Visit the London Olympics website. How many of the icons from the previous activity can you find?
Work on visual intelligence and reading charts with the Olympics schedule. Divide students into teams and have each team develop questions about the schedule such as, “Which is earlier, the medal events for the Modern Triathlon or the medal events for road cycling?” Swap questions (have each team keep their own answers!) and see which team can find the most correct answers in 15 minutes.
London was inhabited by about 43 BC, and was called Londinium by about 100 AD. It was part of the Roman empire, and was in fact the center of Roman Britain. With the fall of the Roman Empire, London fell, too. After the Norman Conquest in 1066, London (then called Lunduntown) grew again to become a major city. In the 1300s, it became the capital when King Edward made it the center of his kingdom’s administration. Today, it is still the capital of England and is generally considered the largest European metropolitan area. Add these dates to your classroom timeline.

The Olympics were first recorded in 776 BC, when they consisted of just one race, and continued until 393 AD when they were abolished. The modern Olympic Games began in 1896. Add these dates to the classroom timeline as well. Determine which is older: London or the Olympics.

Create your own classroom Olympic games! There are 36 sports with their own icons on the 2012 Sports page. Choose some and replace them with classroom-suitable activities for your competition. Make teams and keep track of scores throughout your Classroom Olympics. In each competition, let one team serve as judges; rotate so each team gets a chance to judge. Let students be creative about substitutions. Here are our ideas:

Archery: On-Target Adjectives Provide 10 simple sentences (“The boy sat at the desk,” “The girls have a dog”) in a Pocket Chart. Students add appropriate adjectives. Judge on the basis of the number of adjectives, the appropriateness and creativity of the choices, and the naturalness of the resulting sentences.
Canoe Sprint: Cooperative Accomplishments Give teams tasks like preparing a bulletin board, getting the classroom ready for the end of the day, or passing out and picking up art supplies. Judge on even division of labor, smoothness of the process, and speed and success of completing the task.
Diving: Division Drills Have students line up and solve division problems on the board in relay format. Judge on speed and accuracy, as well as sportsmanship.
Rowing: Boat Building Project Have students create boats of paper and either get them across the classroom floor without touching directly them or across a wading pool filled with water, again without directly touching them. Students can paddle the water, blow on the boats, or use any other method that doesn’t require direct contact with the boat. Judge on speed, success at crossing the space, and creativity of the solution.
Table Tennis We’d really play table tennis. Sportcraft Anywhere Table Tennis Set lets you play right on an ordinary table.

Choosing half a dozen activities that work on varied skills gives everyone a chance to play and to win.

Other Olympics lessons and activities: