Backyard Olympics: Closing Ceremonies

We've had a great time this week sharing some simple and fun Olympic activities for you and your kids to enjoy.  It makes us happy to see children learning, creating, and playing.  To wrap up your festivities make some medals with your athletes.  We used the top of a food container, covered it with aluminum foil, and taped on some ribbon.  Nothing fancy, but it made our Olympians feel special!

It's tradition that national flags are hoisted during the Closing Ceremonies.  This would be a great time to get out some art supplies and make flags of different countries if you didn't do so earlier in the week.  Have your athletes march in with their flags, olive branch wreaths, and medals.  Unlike the Opening Ceremonies, the Closing Ceremonies allow the athletes to intermingle.  This has been going on since the 1950s and was suggested by a child to show unity throughout the nations.  Brings a tear to my eye!

We hope that you take some time this weekend or over the coming weeks to head outside and have a friendly competition of your own.  We would love for you to send us pictures or leave comments about what you did during your Backyard Olympics! 

What a great way to teach children the joy of competition, and the importance of sportsmanship.  Straight from the Olympic oath..."in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honor of our teams".

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The Competition Continues

Look at that form!  An Olympian in the making!  Our next Backyard Olympic events are fun for all ages.  We continued with the straw javelin throw.  I pulled out some kid sized straws and had our littlest athlete count out four of them for me.  The older competitor practiced her fine motor skills by taping them together.  It was a load of fun watching them run and try to throw the straw javelin.  This picture is a little fuzzy probably due to my laughing!

The cousins then tried to throw it back and forth to one another, and eventually like all good little boys it became a sword.  In the meantime we put on our thinking caps on to see what would make our javelin go further, and we used an additional straw as a non-standard tool to measure the distance it soared through the air.

Just like any other activity that you plan for your children or students, things don't always go the way you imagined.  Remember that children don't care.  They just want to learn and have fun doing so!  Make the most of the few minutes that you spend here and there explaining why something did or did not happen.  I can remember my Dad always saying, "for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction."  It might not have meant much to me the first couple hundred times, but the everyday science behind this theory eventually settled in my brain.  Now I'm lucky enough to teach it to kids everyday!

We left our "messy" game until the end.  It was time for cotton ball shot put.  I rolled out some brown craft paper in the yard, got a bowl of cotton balls, and a paper plate with some washable paint.  Dip the cotton ball in paint and throw!  After the Olympians throw several cotton balls each (if you have multiple kids, try using different color paints) have them do some measuring.  Who threw the farthest, how far was it between cotton balls, what is the average length of one throw?  For younger kids they can measure and make designs out of their markings.

 Here are some extension activities for different age groups:

Preschool/Early Elementary: Encourage your young ones to extend their learning by practicing their measuring and math skills as mentioned above.  In preparation for closing ceremonies you could have them do a journal entry about their Backyard Olympics.  On a piece of paper write I love the Olympics because ______________.  Have them write or dictate what they can and draw a coordinating picture.

Middle/Late Elementary: As mentioned above the cotton ball shot put is a great use of math skills for your middle and upper elementary students.  Record the measurements of the different paint spots and practice finding the mean, median, and mode.  A journal entry about why friendly competition is important, or if they are excited about the 2012 Olympics in London, would be a great segue between your Backyard Olympics and the start of the real ones next week.

Tomorrow we will be wrapping up Simply Sprout's Backyard Olympics with closing ceremonies.  So grab your togas and torches and we'll see you soon!

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Let the Games Begin!

I know you don't see many top notch Olympic athletes compete in a skirt and flip flops, but hey this is the backyard kind!  After reading and talking about different sports that were once in the Olympics, and some that we'll see in the next couple of weeks, we started with the Paper Plate Discus Throw.  If you haven't tried it before, paper plates aren't the easiest to throw.  This made for a great mini science lesson on air resistance.  My niece tried a couple of different methods until she found one she liked. 

Now it was time to measure the distance to where the discus landed.  Since she is just heading into kindergarten it was best to use a non-standard type of measurement.  I let her choose what to use, and her tool of choice was her flip flop (knew they would come in handy!).  It's important to have children estimate first, and then find the actual measurement.

We found some old party hats around the house, and thought we could make use of them.  This is a great way to practice hand eye coordination.  Grab a small ball (ping pong type would work well, we used a plastic golf ball) and let the kids toss it back and forth to one another trying to catch it with their cone.  Once they get the hang of it they can use their cone to toss the ball to one another.


Here are some extension activities for different age groups:

Preschool/Early Elementary: Have children choose several items to use for their non-standard measurement tools (shoes, sticks, pool noodles, hands, feet, etc.).  Point out to them why it is important that we all use the same tool to measure items.  To add some creativity to your games, let them decorate their discus and cone with embellishments!

Middle/Late Elementary: This age group could design a discus that they think would go the farthest.  Have them start with a paper plate, but experiment with making adaptations to it.  Would a smaller plate go further, would one with holes slow down? By this age, students should be getting comfortable using standard measurement.  Pull out a tape measure and have them measure the distance to where their discus landed using customary and metric units.   If the cone catch is too easy for the older ones, encourage them to find other house hold items to use in place of the cone to challenge themselves.

More fun Backyard Olympic games to come tomorrow! 

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Lil Sprouts Book Club: G is for Gold Medal

We're kicking off our celebration of Olympic fun with a Lil Sprouts Book Club choice, G is for Gold Medal.  It's important to give children some background information before major events like the Olympics or even your Backyard Olympics!  Just like all of the books in the alphabet series, Brad Herzog and Doug Bowles do an amazing job with the informative writing and illustrations. 

The Olympics are a big deal!  We don't wait around years for much these days, so take this opportunity to make it a fun learning experience at your house.  Invite some friends or family over for your Backyard Olympics and have Opening Ceremonies.  Encourage your kids and their guests to pick a country to represent.  Have them come to your house wearing something that represents that country, and to bring an authentic dish from that country to share.  This will introduce your child to a variety of new and interesting foods, and get your athletes full and ready to compete.  Our school has Olympic Days each year and the teachers and students are so creative in their costumes.  It definitely adds fun and spirit to the event!

Start your Olympic games off with your children making torches.  The tradition of the Olympic flame and torch are as old as the Olympics.  For each Olympics a new flame is started in Greece and then paraded around until it makes it to the host city.  For this kid friendly torch all you'll need is tissue paper and tin foil.  I had my niece stack three sheets of tissue paper (red, orange, and yellow) on top of one another.  Then she folded it in half (horizontally), and twisted the bottom portion of the paper together.  I tore a piece of tin foil for her, and we wrapped in around the twisted tissue paper.

Now it was time to make a wreath of olive branches.  Historically the wreath of branches was placed on the winner's head.  I explained to my five year old niece that she would have to wait until the games were over to wear the "headband" as she called it.  I winked and told her that I had a good feeling that she was going to be a winner!  I made a leaf stencil out of a file folder and gave her some green paper, a pencil, and some scissors.  She did a great job tracing, and thought it was the coolest thing to fold the paper in half to get two leaves for one!  We worked on the skills of holding her scissors correctly and cutting.  I love how her leaves turned out, compared to the "perfect" leaves I would have made for her. She then glued them on to a long narrow piece of paper to make a wreath for her head. 

 To get ready for the start of our games we did a little photo shoot wearing togas.  Truth be told, the first Olympians competed nude.  I didn't even broach that subject with a five year old!  We read about the Olympic motto and oath and talked about the importance of good sportsmanship.  We were ready to start our games!  We'll see you back here for day two of Backyard Olympics where we'll featuring our first "sports"!

Here are some extension activities for different age groups:

Preschool/Early Elementary: The activities that this little Olympian did are great for any preschool or early elementary student.  You could also have them trace the words Swifter, Higher, Stronger (the Olympic motto) and have them draw the Olympic flag with its five interlocking rings using round lids.

Middle/Late Elementary: Children in this age range can design a costume and prepare an authentic dish for the Opening Ceremonies, research the history of the ancient or modern games, and/or design the route for the Olympic flame.  Give them a map of England and let them highlight a route that ends up in London.

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Olympic Fun For Kids

We're running, jumping, and stroking with excitement to start the 2012 Olympics in just over a week!  The Olympics are a great opportunity to teach children about not only a variety of sports, but also sportsmanship, diversity, and spirit!  Over the next couple of days I will share with you some really simple ways to get into the Olympic spirit with your kids. 

These activities are great for the youngest of Olympians all the way to older Olympians (I start my fifth grade year off every four years with this unit, and the kids love it!).  Each day I will give you an extension activity for little ones and big ones.  But before all the fun begins gather a couple of things around the house so that you're ready for Simply Sprout's Opening Ceremonies tomorrow!

What you'll need for your backyard Olympics:

* Straws
* Kid friendly scissors
* Red, yellow, and orange tissue paper
* Pencil
* Tape
* Cotton balls
* Tin foil
* Paper plates
* Circular plastic top to a food container
* Washable paint
* Piece of ribbon
* Party hats or cups
* Green construction paper
* Glue stick

Don't be nervous.  It looks like a lot of stuff to gather, but I'm pretty sure most of it is in your house somewhere!  Also, you can adapt these however you would like.  Make it fun and easy for your family! 

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