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 wealthy neighborhoods. (Did your family do that too?)
The entire line of cars stopped and everyone got out to see the 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.
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 for the Winter Olympics 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. It’s a fun way to build a little background before they watch the Winter Olympics.
READ ABOUT THE WINTER OLYMPICS
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 of the Winter Olympics, 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 first grade readers.
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, opponent, 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 Winter 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.
THE WINTER OLYMPICS AND PHONICS
Our first and second grade students still love write-the-room activities. It’s something they were introduced to in kindergarten, but we’ve bumped up the skill level so they can enjoy this classic activity. This set includes words related to the Winter Olympics. It’s another way we help them build background knowledge and strengthen their vocabulary around the topic.
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. While creating the resource, THE FIRST OLYMPIC GAMES, I honored the history, but kept it kid-friendly and age-appropriate for first and second graders. It’s not specific to the Winter Olympics, but provides a foundation for how the games began so long ago.
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!
