A Few Extra Olympic Ideas
Here are a few extra ideas for the Olympics theme that the children can do and great extensions to link the event to other areas of learning.
Collect photographs of athletics and videos of Olympics games to show the children and discuss with them what happens at the event and what sort of sports activities take place.
Water activity- Olympic Swimming event: Add people and dolls into the water tray, bath or bowl of water for the children to pretend the people and dollies are having swimming races. Add string to each ends of the water tray to create lanes for the swimmers.
Chalk out a track on a patio or white tape on grass to make a circuit track or start and finishing lines.
Encourage the children to make the obstacle course with you discussing how we can move on each item for example up high or down low, crawling, running, jumping etc.
Introduce sand timers and stop watches so the children can time one another or try to beat the timer.
Take this opportunity of physical activities to talk about the importance of healthy eating, such as eating 5 portions of fruit and vegetables, drinking plenty of water to stay hydrated and not eating too much salty and fatty foods. You could introduce new fruit to the children by having a tasting session and discuss likes and dislikes, textures and tastes and the importance of eating fruit and vegetables to keep us healthy. Explain to the children that the Olympic athletes are strong and healthy because of the diet and healthy eating. An activity to do with the children to show them foods they can eat lots of and foods they should only have a little of, can be shown by making a collage with them. Cut out lots of food from magazines or images of the internet and divide a piece of paper in half and put healthy foods on one side and unhealthy the other side.
Provide the children with a clipboard and pen so they can record and mark down winners of races, times and participants in a race.