We are all sick, and a pregnant mommy who gets sick is pretty worthless (at least this one). So, that is why I have been MIA lately. Nevertheless, I am still trying to do some school work with the children, always surrounded by boxes of tissues and water bottles, and I wanted to share some of the great resources I found for the Winter Olympics!
As usual, you will find me keeping my plans very simple. We are going to make a lapbook, read some books I got from the library, and watch some of the sports, but I am not doing a huge study this time around, maybe in Summer 2012! My favorite easy idea, so far, is to make Olympic Rings out of paper plates (photo above) to hang in our learning area!
Here are some links to great ideas (IMO) if you are looking for inspiration:
Catholic Chaplains Setting Up in Olympic Village ~ this would be a great springboard for older children to talk about opportunities for evangelization, the universality of the Catholic faith, finding out which participating nations are primarily Catholic, etc...; I really like that they quoted JPII via BXVI at the end of the article! (also interesting is that Catholic schools in Vancouver will be closed for two weeks during the Olympics; here is the full text of Pope Benedict XVI's Apostolic Blessing on the XXI Winter Olympic Games and the X Paralympic Winter Games)
Winter Olympics 2010 Unit Study by Amanda Bennett ~ downloadable, comprehensive, covers ancient and modern olympics, includes studies on Vancouver and snow, as well ($10.95 for 107 pages, 4 weeks of lessons)
Free Lapbook Helps for Amanda Bennett's 2010 Winter Olympic Unit Study on Homeschool Share ~ downloadable, some of the pages require the unit study to accompany them, but many do not; I plan to use many of these minit books for our lapbook (121 pages free to go along with the unit study, or not, plus many extras, lesson plan ideas, and book titles)
The Official 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics Website ~ the wealth of information here is wonderful; every sport is explained, often with videos or podcasts; there are schedules, medal tracking, athlete biographies, even info on who won in 2006 and a really cool feature called GeoView that allows you to compare countries; they even have mascots who are pretty cute
NBC Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics ~ they're broadcasting, so they have amazing in depth information available; the best information on Team USA is here, plus schedules, videos, biographies, photos, medal counts, a map to find athletes from your state or city, nations participating, etc...
Canadian Olympic School Program ~ this is the site schools in Canada are using; teacher ideas, online games, printable activities, and more (you do have to register to download some materials, but it's free)
Preschool Lesson Plans, Printable Activities, Crafts ~ these ideas are geared towards young children and some can only be done in larger groups, but I am always looking for ways to include my little guy
ABC Teach Olympic Directory ~ coloring pages, word searches, writing prompts, notebooking pages, etc... (FREE)
Enchanted Learning Olympic Info ~ lots of information in one easy to reference spot, printable books and activities galore (mostly FREE)
Kaboose Winter Olympic Crafts ~ always neat ideas for crafts, some super easy ones; be sure to scroll down to see the complete list of ideas
Winter Olympic Printables from Print Activities ~ way too many mazes, puzzles, and such, but all free to print
Winter Olympics Lapbook ~ you can't beat the price ($3.75) for this resource if you need a guide; Currclick has many other downloadable Olympic products (just do a search) for low prices
Winter Olympics Coloring Book ~ only nine pages but simple line drawings of popular sports and FREE!
2010 Winter Paralympic Games ~ last but not least, absolutely do not forget these very inspiring and pro-life games beginning March 12, also in Vancouver!
I hope that gets you started! Please post any other useful links in the comments that I may have overlooked and let us know what your plans are.
