Saturday, July 14, 2012

Olympic Fun and Vocabulary!


The Summer Olympics are right around the corner!  Children and adults will be excited about and interested in this historic event.  I was thinking about using the Olympic theme for my monthly game for the Pre K and K sharing blog, and made a 3-card matching game with pictures of some of the events for the summer games. This is a good time to help children increase vocabulary by helping them learn the names of the Olympic events. Here is my free 15 page PDF:

Small children may not be able to actually read these words, so I included either a picture or the initial sound on each card. My father always told the story that when he was young, his family had two records of classical music.  When his parents would have guests, they would play one or the other.  Guests did not realize there were only two choices, so they would play one and when my father would say, "Clare de Lune," by Claude Debussy, people were impressed.  When children first read larger words, they are often associating a picture or event with the word.  People may be impressed, although the child may not be really reading.  It encourages children towards literacy, anyway! Children approximate in smaller and smaller increments of learning until something is learned. So, let the children play the game at their own levels.  With something as exciting as the Olympics, it may be they "read" words like equestrian during the game.

Olympic theme helping chart for children , photo

I was also thinking about how we might discuss goal setting with children and use the theme of the Olympics to improve behaviors. So, I made an "Olympic helping chart" and some printable bronze, silver, and gold medals teachers and parents could use to reward good behavior.  The chart is generic and could be adapted for many different kind of goals. Discuss with the children that all 10, 950 athletes work hard, achieve goals, and keep working.  They don't all win, although it may seem that way from watching TV.  Impress upon the children all the athletes are winners just for being at the Olympics. 

photo, paper medals to print and use with the helping chart
I also included 3 larger medals to print to make "medals" for backyard races and fun!  


Thank you for reading, Carolyn
This is my special license for sharing freebies on the Pre K and K site with my Scrappin' Doodles art:


4 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for sharing your awesome printables, Carolyn! Activities like these just make the Olympics all the more fun! In addition to sharing your link in my Olympic post on the 15th, I pinned your post to my Olympic Unit Study Pinterest Board at http://pinterest.com/debchitwood/olympic-unit-study/

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  2. Thanks for the great ideas! My kids and I made glittery Olympic flags today: http://www.examiner.com/article/make-a-glittery-olympic-flag. Thanks again for all your hard work in assembling this set!

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  3. Thank you so much for sharing your work. My grand-daughter is doing a project on the Olympics and this will be excellent for her.

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  4. Thank you so much for sharing! Very fun stuff and very generous!!!

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