Fun with the Olympics


Olympic Logo 2010 Winter Olympics Educational Materials olympic logo

The Olympic Games provide a fantastic and FUN opportunity for learning! We have developed some home school materials for our own children to use during the 2010 Olympic Games, and are happy to share them FOR FREE!

NOTE: Most of the worksheets have the answers included on the last page, so be careful that your kids don't see the answers before they finish a sheet!

First, check out our 2010 Olympic Games Fact Sheet (PDF, 150KB), which will give your kids many of the answers to our just-for-fun Olympic Games Quiz (PDF, 76KB).

Help the skater find her way through this Maze (PDF, 271KB) to the skating rink. Another fun activity is this Olympic Sports Match Worksheet (PDF, 14KB). Match the name of the Olympic event to the correct sport!


OLYMPIC GEOGRAPHY!
USA Olympic Cities (PDF, 79KB, 3rd-8th Grade) On a U.S. map, locate the cities that have hosted the Olympics.
Medal Country Match (PDF, 17KB, 3rd-8th Grade) Match medal-contending countries to their continent.
Country Fact Sheet (PDF, 16KB, 3rd-8th Grade) Use this blank fact sheet to have kids research interesting facts about a country, including its 2010 Olympic accomplishments.

Here is a detailed list of Geography lesson ideas for Pre-Kindergarten to 8th Grade.


OLYMPIC LANGUAGE ARTS!
Reading Comprehension Exercise (PDF, 36KB, Pre K-3rd Grade) Childs listens to parent read about the Olympics, and answers questions.
Make A Word (PDF, 27KB, 2nd-8th Grade) How many words can you make?
Easy Grammar (PDF, 45KB, 3rd-5th Grade) Read a short paragraph and correct the mistakes.
Olympic Word Decode (PDF, 36KB, 3rd-8th Grade) Decode the Olympic words!
Olympic Word Search (PDF, 23KB, 3rd-8th Grade) A fun word search for Olympic words!
Grammar #1 (PDF, 19KB, 5th-8th Grade) Read a paragraph and correct the mistakes.
Grammar #2 (PDF, 23KB, 5th-8th Grade) Read a paragraph and correct the mistakes.

Check out this book list for several books related to the Olympics that you can look for at your local library!

Here is a detailed list of Language Arts lesson ideas for Pre-Kindergarten to 8th Grade.


OLYMPIC MATH!
Medal Math Worksheet #1 (PDF, 48KB, 1st-3rd Grade) Single digit addition and subtraction.
Medal Math Worksheet #2 (PDF, 51KB, 3rd-5th Grade) Multi-digit addition and subtraction.
Medal Math Worksheet #3 (PDF, 48KB, 3rd-5th Grade) Single digit multiplication.
Medal Math Worksheet #4 (PDF, 48KB, 5th-8th Grade) Olympic story problems!
Medal Math Worksheet #5 (PDF, 51KB, 6th-8th Grade) Story problems based on country population numbers.

How about some graphing? Here is a blank sheet that your child can use to create a bar graph showing the number of medals won by each nation. Write the name of the countries across the bottom, and color in 3 bars for each country to show how many gold, silver and bronze medals they won. Here is a picture of how we did it (126KB).


IDEAS FOR SCIENCE
Here are a few suggestions for integrating Science into the Olympics.

Learn about snow and ice! Learn about the properties of water in its various states; gas, liquid and solid. Talk about what happens to water when it changes to ice, or when rain becomes snow.

Learn about friction! Study the concept of friction, and how it impacts sports such as curling, bobsled and luge.

Learn about winter weather! Teach your kids about weather patterns and how they differ between summer and winter. Cover topics such as the jet stream, the tilt of the Earth's axis, the Earth's orbit around the Sun, and how these things impact weather in the Winter.



IDEAS FOR ART
Here are a few suggestions for integrating Art into the Olympics.

Color a flag! Have your kids color the flags of selected countries, or the Olympic flag. You can find pictures of each country flag here.

Create Olympic mascots! Pretend the Olympics were being held in your city. Pick 2 or 3 mascots that would be meaningful to your local area, and draw/color them.

Make an Olympics Collage! Write each letter of the word OLYMPICS on a piece of paper. (Make the letters bold and colorful.) Have your student draw or cut out pictures that start with the same letter, and glue them onto the pieces of paper to make a collection of collages.

Design the Olympic medal! Every Olympics creates a new design for the medals. The front side was basically the same for each Olympics from 1928 to 2002, but both sides were changed for the Summer 2004 Olympics and again for the 2006 Winter Olympics. Here are some pictures of the 2002 front and back designs, and the very unique design for the 2006 Winter Games. Check out this year's 2010 medal design. If you were in charge of designing the medals for the next Olympic games, draw what you would design.



WEB SITES
You can go to www.nbcolympics.com for lots of interesting news and facts about the 2010 Games, TV listings for event coverage, and all event results as the Games proceed. The official site for the U.S. Olympic team is www.teamusa.org. The official site for the 2010 Olympics is www.vancouver2010.com.

© 2005-2010 Scott Weberg. All rights reserved.