Kids want to know, “What are the sports in the Winter Olympics?” Chances are, if you teach a primary grade, these will be the first Winter Olympic Games your students will remember.
Having grown up on the west coast of Florida, I’m here to speak for all the kids who don’t have a clue what snow, or even winter, is. I didn’t see snow for the first time until I was in my mid twenties. Unless you count this one time we were looking at Christmas lights in our city’s rich neighborhoods. (Did your family do that too?) The entire line of cars stopped and everyone got out to see the nearly microscopic flakes that were falling from the sky. In total, it lasted about three seconds and they melted as soon as they hit the street.
Still, eight-year-old me thought it was magical.
What are the sports in the Winter Olympics?
Because videos are so visual, I like using them to help kids build background knowledge and understand new concepts. A quick search on YouTube will help you find just the right ones for your students, but these are a few of my favorites. This first video, ALL ABOUT WINTER SPORTS, isn’t specific to the Olympic Games, but it does introduce young children to the different types of sports that are played in the snow or on ice.
Once children know the names of the winter sports and what they look like, share this fun video: WINTER SPORTS VOCABULARY GAME. This video is a little more like a game, slowly revealing parts of a picture. The challenge to the children is to guess the winter sport before the whole picture is uncovered.
My favorite video is: BEIJING 2022 PREVIEW. Older children will enjoy the segments about China’s commitment to designing and engineering clean, green spaces and transportation for the Winter Olympics. But don’t discount this video for young children. There are AMAZING video montages of athletes in action. The footage is stunning, the music is super dramatic, and I’m totally here for it!
Try not to get goosebumps … I dare you.
Reading Resources
I like nonfiction books that invite some type of interaction. What I love about this👇 book is that (1) it gives my emerging readers a chance to be part of the literate community around this topic, and (2) it provides an opportunity to trace sight words and add illustrations to each athlete’s scene. It’s best for high kindergarten or early first grade readers.
THE WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES (K-1 TEXT)
For older children, I like this book.👇 It introduces more Winter Olympic sports and is written at a higher level of text difficulty, including more challenging key words like compete and debut.
This resource includes pre-reading activities and comprehension questions, but my favorite part is the RESEARCH TEMPLATE.👇 My students love to research information (usually online) and then share out their reports with others.
In this resource, I’ve included blank templates for several Olympic events so children can choose the one that interests them the most. If you have time to extend this, I’ve also included a template to guide kids through the process of highlighting an athlete from that particular sport. (See the photo at the top of the post.)
That’s Ancient History
Are you familiar with some of the outrageous details of the early games in Ancient Greece? Whoa. Some of it is not very G-rated, however there are some great opportunities to compare and contrast the ancient games to the modern games. In writing the book below, THE FIRST OLYMPIC GAMES, I honored the history, but kept it kid-friendly and age-appropriate for grades 1-2. You can preview more of this resource by clicking on the image.👇
More on Writing Templates
If you’re interested in browsing more templates to support nonfiction writing in primary classrooms, check out these related blog posts:
Happy teaching!
