Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Following the Olympics

What combines history, geography, action, adventure and great stories of human triumph? The winter Olympics, of course!

We have found a fun way to study the Olympics as part of our home school curriculum, but this also is a great way for any child to follow along with the winter games, which begin Friday.

I printed out the material to make these lapbooks. It was our first time making a lapbook, which is basically a book the kids make out of colored file folders. It took us about three hours to cut out all of the pieces and paste the books together.

The first two sections cover the history of the Olympic games, facts about ancient Greece and information about this year's Olympics.


We followed the trail of the Oympic torch on its 28,000-mile journey across Canada. We learned that the torch relay will take 106 days to make its way around the country, starting in Victoria, British Columbia, and ending in Vancouver.

We learned about this year's Olympic logo, Ilanaaq the Innunguaq, which means friend.


We also found out the Olympic games have two mascots, Miga, a mythical sea bear, and Quatchi, a sasquatch.


The third folder in our lapbook is full of mini books where we can track the winners in each sport. We are especially excited about the "skeleton", which is like skiing on your stomach without skis. Racers lie on their stomach on a fiberglass metal sled that looks like the outline of a skeleton.

The boys also can't wait to see the biathlon, since it combines skiing and rifle shooting.

We have been studying a few new facts about the Oympics each day, and the excitement in our house is building.

Let the games begin!

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7 comments:

Kelly said...

Excitement is building here as well. We usually have a big olympic party, but we have guests arriving this Friday night and I am not sure what to do. We need to get together and watch some of the games! Our whole family is usually glued to the TV for the competitions!

Stacy said...

Oh my goodness! I would love to do this with my son who is 7! Did you put all the information together yourself? I'd love to print copies, etc. Can you email me some pointers? kattness@hotmail.com

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

What cool lapbooks Emily! The torch actually came through our City but my son & I were very sick that day so we didn't get to see it. One of the kids in his class brought his Mom for show & share later that week - she was a torch bearer so they all got to see the torch & have a picture taken with it... very exciting for them!
Looking forward to watching Hockey for sure!
Laurel

Anonymous said...

I love the Olympics! Cool stuff you're doing with the kids. See you are a great success!!!
~Jenny

JoLyn said...

We're looking forward to the Olympics too! Last Winter Olympics, my son got really excited about speed skating and took lessons for awhile at the Olympic Speed Skating Oval in Salt Lake City. That was really fun!

Cindy Bultema said...

I love your lap books!! My kids love the Olympics too ~ we're having a big kick-off party Friday night. Thanks for even more ideas. What fun!!

Cindy Bultema said...

Thanks for the links to the lapbook info. I just purchased the book for our family as well. What great stuff!! Thanks so much!
Have a SUPER weekend!!
Warmly,
Cindy :)

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