Our primary Olympic focus today was learning about two things…the event pictograms and the London 2012 mascots.
We did a pictogram study four years ago, and it was a lot of fun, so I knew we needed to do it again. We talked about why pictograms are important (because there are so many languages spoken at the Olympics), and how a new set is created for each Olympic games. We then looked at the London pictograms, and tried to guess what each one was. Most of them were easy, but a few, like Judo, left the children puzzled. This was also a good opportunity to talk about which sports are unfamiliar to us in general, (like handball), so that we can be sure to watch for them during the Olympics.
We also learned the story behind this year’s mascots, Wenlock and Mandeville. I couldn’t get the book about them here, but we did watch the videos on the London 2012 mascots website! It’s actually a pretty cute story, and we all enjoyed it, (even Chickadee, who had fun trying to drool on the computer!). Here’s the first installment; the rest are available on the website:
We also divvied up the pages from the colouring and activity books I ordered (conveniently, each child got five sheets). These also focus on the mascots, and the children had fun picking which pages and activities they wanted, and did so without too much quarreling. Too bad there weren’t any pages left over for me…I might not have minded coloring the mascots, myself!
Our book for today was The 2012 London Olympics. There’s not a lot of depth to this book, but it does have some interesting facts, and descriptions of some of the venues, including how spread out they are across London, and even across the country. There is actually a full list of the venues, including where they are, and what events they are hosting, in the back of the book. We compared that list to the venue list on the London 2012 website, where we were also able to learn a little bit more about each venue, and look at pictures.
Today’s Passport Stamps: Cycling Pictogram and Wenlock/Mandeville.