The Winter Olympic Games is a "teachable moment" that comes along only once every four years, so the Education
World team has gathered lesson ideas to help you teach to the moment. Included: Lessons to teach
history, vocabulary, decimals, sportsmanship, and more!
In just a matter of days, athletes will begin to gather in Turin, Italy (or Torino, as it is said in Italian) for
the 2006 Winter Olympic Games. There, from February 10th to the 26th, the eyes of the world will be glued as more
than 2,500 athletes from 85 different nations will compete for gold, silver, and bronze medals in 15
Winter Olympic sports.
The educational opportunities presented by the Winter Olympics come along only once every four years. Whether they're
athletes or couch potatoes, whether they're rooting for their fellow countrymen and women, for the most-skilled winter
athletes, or for the underdogs, savvy and creative teachers are busy developing lessons and activities that will capitalize
on their students' interest in the Games.
The Education World team has been busy doing the same. This week, we present a handful of lessons designed to make
winners out of your students.
Keep your eyes open for additional lessons -- coming next week!
The question? Where to begin? Why not start with the following complete lesson plans from Education World? Click
on any activity headline below to link to a complete teaching resource! Appropriate grade levels for each activity
are indicated in parentheses. Then see the bottom of this page for additional lesson ideas.
GOLD MEDAL LESSONS
Winter Olympic History Year By Year
Historic stats about the Winter Olympic Games provide the data. Students create the chart. Teaching master included.
(Grades 3-12)
Olympic Trivia Challenge
Students find fascinating facts about the Summer Olympic Games and Olympic history. (Grades 6-12)
A Measure of Greatness
Students participate in a variety of Olympic-type activities involving measurement. (Grades K-5)
More Winter Olympic Games Lesson Ideas
The Olympic Games offer a perfect opportunity to teach about world geography and culture. In the opening ceremonies, athletes from many countries will dress in costumes reflecting the cultures of their homelands. The athletes will carry flags of their native countries too. The Olympic Parade of Nations provides a perfect opportunity for students to
--- research and report on countries of the world.
--- draw the flags of countries whose athletes are competing.
--- learn to say hello in different languages.
--- compare and contrast countries according to size and population.
--- calculate the distance between your home and the homes of some of the athletes.
--- color a world map to show the countries whose athletes will be in Torino.
But that's just the beginning! We've got plenty more ideas to follow...
Track the Weather. Use the Torino 2006 Weather page on the official Web site of the Olympic Games to keep track of the weather at the Games' seven different venues. You might arrange students into seven groups and assign each group to track the weather at the start and end of the school day. Students can use the easy-to-use Create a Graph tool to illustrate the days' temperatures in graph form.
Learn Basic Italian. If you were to travel to Torino for the Olympic Games you'd want to know some basic Italian, right? Younger students will learn some common phrases at the Little Explorers" Common Phrases Picture Dictionary. Older students might use the more detailed Italian Phrase Finder.
How Far Is It? How far is Torino from other major cities in Europe? Students might use MapQuest's Driving Directions: Europe to learn the number of miles to cities such as Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Barcelona, Spain; Berlin, Germany; Budapest, Turkey; Edinburgh, Scotland; Geneva, Switzerland; Helsinki, Finland; Innsbruck, Austria; Istanbul, Turkey; London, England; Madrid, Spain; Munich, Germany; Oslo, Norway; Paris, France; Rome, Italy; Stockholm, Sweden; Warsaw, Poland; and Zurich, Switzerland. Challenge students to create a mileage chart from Torino to other cities similar to this U.S. mileage chart. You might assign one city to each student and have that student find the mileage between his/her city and all the other cities.
Sports Talk. Assign each student, or a pair of students, to track each of the 15 winter Olympic Sports. They can learn about the sport, it competitors, how the sport is judged, terminology related to it, and more and keep the class informed during the Games. Good basic sources of information include Torino 2006 Sports and FactMonster's 2006 Winter Olympics Sports Previews.
Read a Schedule. When are the different Olympic events scheduled to take place? NBC offers an easy-to-read Complete Olympic Schedule grid. You might use a projector to display photocopy the grid, or you could photocopy it onto a transparency and project it on a screen. Teach students how to read the grid by asking questions such as On what date does the figure skating competition begin?, On how many days do bobsledding finals take place, or Which competition starts first -- the alpine skiing competition or the freestyle skiing competition?
Tracking the Medals Race. Have each student track the medal results for a different country. Create a chart and update it daily so that in the end you have a chart that looks like this Final Medal Standings chart.
Math (for young students). Invite students to use the Lillehammer 1994 Winter Olympic Medal Standing Chart to answer the math questions on Math Word Problems: Olympic Medals printable work sheet. (Teachers might let students complete this worksheet while online or they might print out and copy or post the chart for students to use.) ANSWER KEY: 1. 4 more; 2. 13 medals; 3. 23 medals; 4. South Korea; 5. 4 more; 6. 43 gold medals; 7. 16 bronze medals; 8. Canada; 9. 4 teams; 10. 7 medals.]
Math (for older students). Hand out copies of Medal Math printable work sheet. The Teaching Master provides word problem practice in adding decimals and other math concepts -- all related, of course, to the Winter Olympics. ANSWER KEY: 1. Syd, Peter, Hans; 2. Shelley, Christie, Annlee; 3. Michela Fijini, 13 seconds.
Geography. Invite students to work in pairs to complete this activity. Provide each student with a copy of a world map on which s/he can write. (Need a printable outline map? Click one of these links: 1, 2, 34, 5) Students might use CBS Sportsline Winter Olympic History to learn about the sites of 20 Winter Olympic competitions dating back to the first Games in 1924. Challenge students to use atlases, the Internet, and other resources to locate on their maps the sites of all the Winter Games. They can write the year on the map; for example, the year "1924" will appear on the map at the location of Chamonix, France.
OLYMPIC LESSONS CAUGHT ON THE NET
We searched the Net to see what other lesson ideas we might find. The following online lessons include some that relate to previous Olympic Games because creative teachers will be able to adapt those activities to the games at Torino. (Approximate grade levels for many activities appear in parentheses.)
