London 2012

An Olympic Tea Party

Today we had our grandest afternoon tea to date, which is befitting an occasion like the London 2012 Olympics. In addition to trying a new flavor of tea (Vanilla Chai), we had a mixture of old favorites and new treats.

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The old stand-by, cucumber sandwiches:

And a new savory finger sandwich–crab salad. Surprisingly popular with everyone!

Crumpets with red currant jelly (OK, they were actually English muffins, but they looked rather like crumpets!):

Chocolate chips scones and Devonshire cream:

Lemon meltaways (this recipe is definitely going in my permanent collection!):

Viennese chocolate sables, in letter shapes…”O” for the Olympics, and “E” for England (and Queen Elizabeth!):

And some of the most beautiful fresh strawberries I’ve ever seen!

I’m not sure how I can top this tea party. I do think I’ll try, though…I’m thinking a Christmas tea party might be nice in December!

Olympics School–Day Six

Today was the biggest craft day of our Olympic unit–scrunchy tissue paper Union flags. It was a lot of fun to make them, but also time-consuming, so we didn’t do a whole lot else today!

The detail on the flags is awesome…it almost looks like they’re made out of little flowers. Alternatively, Moose said he thought they looked like one of the cakes I make, and he’s not too far off…they did have a look similar to a cake decorated with a star tip.

I was very happy with how these turned out, and the children were pretty proud of themselves, too.

We did find time to read one book–How to Train with a T. Rex and Win Eight Gold Medals, by Michael Phelps. Although this book is written for young children, Turkey and Bunny got a kick out of it, too. We learned things like how many miles Michael Phelps swam in practice over the course of six years (12,480), how many pounds he leg-presses in a session (18,000 or the equivalent of a New York City subway car), and how many calories he consumes in a day (10,000!). The children loved learning these fun facts, and I have to admit, I found them to be pretty interesting, too!

Today’s Passport Stamp: Union Flag Olympic Mascots

Olympics School–Day Five

Today was “Flag Day!” No, not that Flag Day…today was the day where we each got to make our own personal flag, in anticipation of the “Parade of Nations” during the Opening Ceremonies. The children’s assignment was sketching out some ideas for their flags, including color ideas, and then choose a design, explain what the elements in the design symbolized, and then draw the finished product.

It was fun to see what each of the children came up with. Moose conned his big sister into helping him make a train flag, while Ladybug decided to stick with a British theme and go with a castle. Turkey’s was completely Olympics-focused, and included elements of the American and Union Flags, as well as the Olympic Rings.

Bunny went with the obvious…a bunny on a pink field.

To finish up our second venue of “Olympic Spirit Throughout the World,” we learned about the symbolism behind each of the flags on our medal chart, and looked through “Flags of the World” flashcards. It’s always interesting to see common elements (Hello, Scandinavia!), common colors (red, white, and blue are everywhere), and religious symbolism (crosses, crescents, and the Star of David).

Week one of two of our Olympics unit is finished, but we have plenty of fun activities planned for next week, too!

Today’s Passport Stamps: Flags of the World, London 2012 Logo, and Olympic Venue Two–The Olympic Spirit Throughout the World

Olympics School–Day Four

Today we got to be Olympic designers! This was a sub-venue that I created especially for our school. The children each got a chance to design their own Olympic emblem or logo, team uniform shirt, Olympic medal, Olympic mascot, and a bonus Royal Mail stamp showcasing the Olympics. They also had to explain why they chose their designs, and the meanings behind them. It was a lot of fun to see what they came up with…and I think their emblems may have been less criticized than the official London 2012 logo, (but pardon the spelling…we may need an Olympics spelling unit, too!)!

We also read another chapter out of Great Moments in the Summer Olympics. I chose women’s swimming this time, because this was my second-favorite event as a child. We’ll finish up the week with the chapter on men’s swimming as well as one on Michael Phelps tomorrow.

Today’s Passport Stamp: Olympic Designer

Olympics School–Day Three

Today we finished our first Olympic “venue” by studying of the last of the Olympic traditions–the Olympic torch. After reading about the history of the torch and the relay, we turned to the London 2012 website to learn about this Olympics’ unique torch. We learned about the design of the torch and what it represents. We looked at a map of the relay route, and saw just how many places the torch has been. We also looked at a photo gallery of the relay, and were amazed at all the ways it has traveled, including by boat, train, and even jet pack! We’ll be very excited to see the torch arrive at Buckingham Palace (William and Kate are supposedly going to be welcoming it), and even more excited to see the big cauldron lit at the Opening Ceremonies!

Of course, we had to have a craft to go along with all we learned, so we made our own torches, and had a “relay” of sorts. We were going to do that outside, but due to extreme heat, we decided to go with the much cooler indoor torch relay, instead. It was definitely a short trip, but there’s something to be said for not getting overheated!

We also read a chapter from Great Moments in the Summer Olympics. This is one of our book basket selections, but I’ll be reading three (of my favorite) chapters out loud this week. Today I chose women’s gymnastics, which tied in to an NBC special we watched last night about great Olympic moments. Of course, the Magnificent Seven was showcased in each, and the girls, especially, liked learning about Kerri Strug’s courageous vault during the 1996 Atlanta games, I enjoyed sharing my memories of it with them!

Only two more days until the Olympic torch is brought into the Olympic Stadium!

 

Today’s Passport Stamps: Olympic Torch and Olympic Venue One–The Olympic History and Traditions

Olympics School–Day Two

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.

Olympics School–Day One

Today we kicked off our two-week-long Olympics unit!

First things first…we prepared our “passports.” All of the pertinent information needed to be filled in: Name; Nationality; Date of Birth; Place of Birth; Date of Issue; Height; Weight; Eye Color; and Hair Color. The children had fun measuring each other and taking turns hopping on the scale. They also colored the venue “stamps” for their passports, but they had to give them back to me when they were done, as I’m in charge of “immigration.”

We discussed a bit of Olympics history…where they were first held, where the name “Olympics” comes from, and when the modern Olympics began. We also learned about the creation of the Olympic rings, and what they can mean. And since we were discussing the Olympic rings, we also made our paper plate rings, which have been added to our “Olympic wall.”

Today’s read-aloud was G is for Gold Medal, which was helpful to Turkey and Bunny, because their assignment in their workbooks was playing the “alphabet game,” with the Olympics as the theme. They breezed through most of the game, but Q and Y gave them some pause. Z was unusually easy though…being big fans of Greek myths, they both wrote Zeus!

We did a bit of map work, too. We spent some time talking about the different parts of the United Kingdom, and locating them on the map. We also talked a bit about the Commonwealth, and some of the member nations. Finally, we found all of the countries on our medal chart on the map. Even I needed a little help to locate Kenya!

We won’t have a big craft each day, but we’ll have pictures to color, worksheets to do, stories to read, and more Olympic facts to learn. And every day, the children will earn at least one new “stamp” for their passports. It’s going to be a fun two weeks!

Today’s Passport Stamps: “Official” Passport Stamp and Olympic Rings

Activities for the Olympics

Let me just start by saying that my favorite place for Olympics printables and craft ideas is Activity Village. I used this site for our Diamond Jubilee coloring pages and worksheets as well, and it has tons of great resources. That being said, I also found other places with great ideas, too, and have chosen quite a few of them for our school. If you look, there are also lapbooks galore available for the Olympics, but I’ve never gotten into the lapbooking craze, so that’s one thing we won’t be doing. I’ve also heard good things about the Amanda Bennett Olympics study, but I just don’t have time for everything! The best part about all of these projects? I’ve had to purchase very few supplies to complete them…most of the items are things we already had around the house!

  • Torch Craft–Our first project, before the Olympics officially start, will be making a torch. There are lots of torch crafts out there, but this my favorite. We may even have our own family torch relay!
  • Olympic Rings–There are also a lot of Olympic Rings crafts, but I thought that paper plate Olympics rings were especially cute. This will be particularly fun for Moose and Ladybug (and good cutting practice, too), but I’m sure Turkey and Bunny will probably want to make their own, as well.
  • Design-a-Flag–Prior to the Opening Ceremonies, we’ll each have a chance to design our own flag. We’ve done this before, and it’s always fun to see how the children’s ideas for their personal flags change!
  • Memory Verse/Handwriting–The New Testament has several verses that are appropriate when discussing the Olympics, and as long as we’re memorizing one, we may as well work on our handwriting at the same time!
  • Trip Planning–One of our big projects will be planing a (fictional) trip to London. I even purchased a travel guide…if I’m lucky, maybe someday I’ll get to use it for real (even if it will be outdated by “someday”). We’ll look for landmarks we want to visit and map it all out. Cost is no object for this trip!
  • Workbooks–Although I did purchase two consumable books for the children to share, the bulk of their worksheets and coloring sheets will come in the form of workbooks I put together for them. There will be lots of different activities, including coloring pages, word searches, Sudoku, word scrambles, mazes, and more. I even found notebooking pages!  They’ll make a nice keepsake of our studies when we’re all done, too.
  • Design-Your-Own Olympics Items–This will become part of the children’s workbooks when it’s done. Each child will design his or her own Olympic logo, mascot, team shirt, and medal.
  • Medal Chart–No Olympics would be complete without tracking the medals won. We’ve chose 10 countries…the United States, of course, and host country England (technically the United Kingdom, to be exact), and then picked other countries we’re interested in, making sure to have at least one from each participating continent. And while we’re counting medals, we can also learn about this year’s design on the NBC Olympics website.
  • Medals–Speaking of medals, one craft project will be making medals as awards for our “Family Olympics.” We might make salt dough medals, or we might just use metallic cardstock. We did glitter last time, so I know that I don’t want to that again, although they did look awesome!
  • Family Olympics–The activities will be whatever we choose. It could be a physical activity like a race, or something silly like who can shuck an ear of corn the quickest. Maybe we could even award a medal for the winner of a family spelling bee!
  • Olive Leaf Crowns–I found a pattern for this in The Olympic Experience in Your School, but all you really need is green leaf shapes and  a green construction paper headband. Since we’ll be learning about both the modern and ancient Olympic games, it seems fitting to make awards that reflect both!
  • Passports–I also got this idea from The Olympic Experience in Your School, but decided to change it around a bit. I ordered some cute sticker book passports from Oriental Trading, and will be using those stickers, as well as some “stamps” I make to mark the different “venues” we’ve visited, including the history of the Olympics, design-your-own, sports, and the Olympic Spirit around the world.
  • Research Project–Turkey and Bunny will be given the task to write a short report on either a famous Olympian, a participating country, or an Olympic event. This report will also go into their workbooks.
  • Union Jack–I looked at a lot of Union Jack crafts, and I thought this would be a fun project for the children to do, and would reflect the host country at the same time. It’s also something a little different, since we just colored Union Jacks for the Diamond Jubilee last month.
  • Union Jack Cake–This activity is all mine…I’m going to make a Union Jack cake for the Opening Ceremonies, provided I can get the conversions figured out. I may also make some different foods from around the world, depending on how adventurous I’m feeling.
And I almost forgot…
  • Tea Party–Anytime we learn about anything British, it’s time for a tea party. We did it for the Royal Wedding, and again for the Diamond Jubilee, and we’ll be doing it once more for the Olympics. I try to switch up the menu, and also serve a different flavor of tea each time, so we get to try new things, and so it’s always a little different!

These are only the big activities. We’ll also be doing a pictogram study, looking for world flags from our flag sticker book during the Opening Ceremonies, learning about the Olympic motto and oath, studying some Olympic vocabulary words, listening to Summon the Heroes, learning a little geography and history, reading a whole bunch of books, plus whatever else I throw in. I love the Olympics, and they provide a great opportunity for fun and learning!

What We’re Reading–The Olympics

The Olympics are almost upon us–just 17 more days! Of course, an event like this means a special school unit (actually, that’s how this whole homeschooling journey started!), with special reading, crafts, and activities. Not to mention TV watching…but that’s kind of the point! I’ll share some of our crafts and other activities later, but for now, here’s our Olympics reading list…I got very lucky in that the library system carries all but one of the books I was looking for, and every one of those books was available. I’m also thankful that there are books out there for such a wide variety of ages, from preschooler on up to adult…there’s definitely something for everyone here!

I chose a selection of biographies of some famous Olympic athletes for Turkey and Bunny to read, all from the “Childhood of Famous Americans” series:

I also got some of the “official” Olympics publications, two of which are consumable books that the children will just have to share:

I have a teacher resource book, as well. The one I have is for up to grade three, which is too young for Turkey and Bunny now, but I had it from the 2008 Olympics, and I can always adjust things upward for them, and use the activities as printed for Moose and Ladybug. There is a book for older elementary students, as well, and I’m sure it’s similarly helpful:

I also found a few books that aren’t readily available here in the States, but would have made great additions to our Olympics study:

  • The Official Countdown to the London 2012 Games—This is another of the “official” books, as the title suggests, and the only one I couldn’t get my hands on. If I can find it between now and then, though, I’m definitely going to get it…it looks pretty cool!
  • Olympic Park Map–I know, not technically a book, but I think it would have been awesome to have a large-sized map to look at and practice map-reading, learn about the geography of London, and see just how many venues there are at the Olympic Games, and how spread out they all are.
  • Meet Wenlock and Mandeville–Cute-looking book featuring the Olympic mascots. I don’t think anything will ever top the Beijing mascots, which were awesome, but I also liked Izzy, so what do I know? I just like cute stuff!

Wow! Upon completing this list, even I was shocked at how many books there are to be found about the Olympics! We have to get busy reading!