Learning Values from Olympic Athletes

Besides the Olympic themed lessons on math, science, and more, students can also learn a lot from the Olympic athletes themselves. The values that are behind the Olympic athletes are great values that students can use in a classroom as well. Here are some values students can learn about from the Olympics:

1. Pride 

Students can take pride in themselves and their accomplishments just like the Olympic athletes do. Each country present at the Olympics also models pride in the way they celebrate their athletes at each event.

2. Sportsmanship

Many of my students over the years have had a hard time losing a game and being good sports. Seeing the Olympians cheer on their fellow athletes and lose gracefully is a great example for children everywhere.

3. Persistence

Many of these athletes overcome great barriers before making it to the Olympics or at past competitions. Seeing these athletes overcome these challenges is a great motivation for students to overcome their own challenges and succeed.

4. Responsibility

Athletes take care of many responsibilities including training, working and some also go to school. The way they handle these responsibilities and fulfill their duties is a great example for our students who also have many responsibilities.

5.  Health

Athletes are a naturally a model of health to our students. Most of them eat very healthy meals and have a great exercise routine. Striving to be healthy will help students in and out of the classroom!

Fabulous Freebies: Five More Great Olympic Lesson Sites

Since the Olympics are going on for a few weeks, I thought I would share five more Olympic lesson freebies. If you missed part 1, check it out here.

Activity Village has a section of winter Olympics activities divided by sport. I thought this was perfect so you can choose activities that fit the interest of your students. Most activities seem geared towards elementary level students.

Teach students the science behind the Olympics at the Learning Network website. This site had a ton of kinesthetic learning activities for students to do to learn the science behind the sport. Most of the activities focused on physics and are geared towards students in grades 6-12.

For more activities that focus on the science of the Olympics, try the Science Buddies website. It has activities that relate to each winter sport that are geared towards upper elementary and middle school students.

The NEA has a list of 10 Free Things for Teaching About the 2014 Winter Olympics. It has something for every grade level and a variety of activities including videos and historical Olympics resources.

I selected this resource because it was created by students for other students! This website was created by two fourth grade students and contains a wide variety of resources for learning about the Olympics. Some of the material is dated from Vancouver but most can be used anytime.

Have fun with these and root for your favorite team!

Fabulous Freebies: 5 Great Winter Olympic Lessons

With the Sochi Winter Olympics right around the corner, there are all sorts of ways to bring this current event into the classroom.  Here are a few freebies to check out:

Included in this packet by Lesson Lady are five puzzles and five creative drawing fast finisher pages with an Olympics theme. It is perfect for fast or early finishers.  And, although it was originally created in time for the summer olympics, almost all of it is general enough to be used for the winter olympics too. Check out this free packet here!

Games 4 Learning has a math brain teaser.  There are a series of brain teasers included in this free packet that are sudoku-like.  They are, obviously, olympic themed and written at different levels of difficulty to challenge a wide range of ability levels.
  

Audrums has a great compare and contrast packet for the summer and winter olympics.  There are readings, Venn diagrams and more.  It is a great way to give students an overview of the olympics while learning key differences between the winter and summer events.

Enchanted Learning has a page replete with history and printables.  There are short explanations of key Olympic traditions and images.  The collection of worksheets offer you a wide range of activities from coloring sheets to math problems to writing pages to quizzes.  

Education World has over 20 different links to lessons and informational sites about the olympics.  There are lessons to draw from for a range of content areas (sciences, health, reading, math, geography and more).

These are some of the materials I found that I thought were quality.  If you have links to freebies that you'd like to share, please do so in the comments sections.  Happy Olympic viewing and teaching.  Good luck team USA!!

Fabulous Friday Freebies: Summer Olympic Educational Freebies

Since the opening ceremonies for the 2012 Summer Olympics is tonight, I thought it was only fitting to post free lessons and educational tools with a summer Olympics theme. Here is a list of some great Olympic freebies.

I am offering a freebie with a summer Olympics theme. Included in this packet are five puzzles and five creative drawing fast finisher pages with a summer Olympics theme. It is perfect for fast or early finishers. Check out my free packet here!

I have posted before about this free summer Olympics memory game but wanted to remind you that it is still available. The graphics are so adorable and well-done!

Tinyme.com is offering some free Olympic games and activities including an opening night ceremony bingo game among others. The flag activities on the website would also be perfect for a social studies lesson.

Cooperative Learning 365 is offering a free Olympic games activity pack. It includes some history about the Olympics and has some activities to help students become familiar with the countries participating in the games. Six total activities are included. Activities are recommended for grades 3-8.

Education World has some great summer Olympic lessons ideas for a variety of subject and grade levels. Check out all of their interesting lesson ideas! I especially love the idea of creating a summer Olympics game in your classroom.

CurrClick is offering 12 free country studies lessons from countries that are participating in the summer Olympics. Check out this post to see where you can find all of them.

Lastly, PreKandSharing has a nice collection of free Montessori inspired Olympic math activities. Students will really get into the spirit of the games with these activities!

Do you have a free summer Olympics activity? Let me know below!