What’s Happening This Week
There is much more to explore in our calendar. Find other important events in literary history, authors' birthdays, and a variety of holidays, each with related lessons and resources.
Looking for age-appropriate book recommendations, author interviews, and fun activity ideas? Check out our podcasts.
The Summer Olympics start today!
|Grades||K – 12|
|Calendar Activity Type||Historical Figure & Event|
The Summer Olympic Games, held every four years, are the largest sporting celebration in terms of the number of sports, the number of athletes present and the number of people from different nations gathered together at the same time in the same place. According to The Olympic Museum, the purpose of the Games is to create a “better world through sport practiced in a spirit of peace, excellence, friendship and respect.” In celebration of the world event students participate in a variety of activities centered on the 2012 London Games.
Write about the Olympic Games!
- Be a reporter and write about the result of an Olympic event or the Opening or Closing Ceremonies.
- Create onomatopoeic sports poems about the Summer Olympic events, draw illustrations, and compile their work in a flip book.
- Write and perform a speech after winning a gold medal.
- Create original poems about the Opening Ceremonies. Have students write down adjectives to describe what they see, hear, and feel during the Opening Ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics. As a class compile the adjectives and create original poems about the ceremonies.
- Do some procedure writing; write about the rules of a specific event or create a new Olympic event.
Get creative with the Olympic Games!
- Design a stamp to commemorate the London 2012 Olympics.
- The Olympics are a great time to study the world. Use a variety of maps and flags to learn about the location and symbols of different countries. Imagine a new country has been formed – where would it be located? What would the flag look like?
Think critically about the Olympic Games!
- Use a Venn diagram to compare the ancient Olympic Games to the modern Olympic Games.
- Wenlock and Mandeville are the mascots for the 2012 Summer Olympics. Create your own mascot for the Olympic Games and write about why you created your mascot and what it represents.
Celebrate the peace surrounding the Olympic Games!
- The Olympic Truce is a valuable part of the Olympic Games that supports peace and sportsmanship. Learn more about the Olympic Truce and create a “Truce Wall” display. Have students post their meanings of peace, friendship, sportsmanship, as well as, pictures that the students have created that symbolize these themes.
- Nominate a Torchbearer. Being asked to be an Olympic Torchbearer is a high honor. Ask the students to work in groups and to each think of someone they know who they believe could be a worthy candidate to carry the Flame, and to write a short paragraph in which they give their reasons. Once this is completed, they fold over their paper and pass it on to the next person in the group. Repeat the process multiple times to create a list of worthy candidates to carry the Flame. Ask them to share their writing with the group and to identify any similar personal qualities and values shown by the nominees.
Have fun with the Olympic Games!
- Make and decorate cookies representing the Olympic Rings. Decorate each cookie with a different color frosting. Lay out the cookies on a plate in the pattern of the Olympic rings. Discuss why each ring is a different color and interlocked. Enjoy and Eat!
- Plan some games in your neighborhood that are like the Olympic Games. Create and hand out medals to those who win or participate.
- The Olympic Symbols
This document gives and brief description, history, and meaning of the Olympic symbols.
- The Olympics
This website, from EDSITEment, provides a rich history of the Olympic games.
- London 2012 Olympics
This official website for the 2012 Summer Olympics contains information, schedules, news, photos, and video for the Summer Games.
- Get Set
This is the official education website for the 2012 Summer Olympics. It offers resources for parents and educators to teach children about culture, communication, health, peace and many other subjects.
- The Modern Olympic Games
This document written by the Olympic Museum gives and brief description, history, and evolution of the Modern Olympic Games.
Activities & Projects
Grades 5 – 10 | Activity & Project
Look at different online baseball trivia questions to see how they are written. Then have children write their own questions and play a trivia game.
Grades 6 – 12 | Podcast Episode
Tune in to hear about works of sports fiction and nonfiction that explore issues of identity and belonging, courage and equal rights, and changes over time in American history and culture.