Summer Olympics 2008.

I was watching a segment on TV about the summer Olympics, when Marco asked me, "What are the Olympics?" I tried to explain to him the basic concept and he kind of nodded and went on his way. I've been thinking about it and I've made the decision to do a little unit study on the Olympics. After all, they represent a unification of all cultures through sport. And even though the are underway, we'll learn as we watch our favorites on TV. It'll be way cool!

After doing a bit of research, I came up with the following websites that offer some fun and educational Olympic activities. It is always a challenge to find something that is appropriate for the lower grammar levels. I'm planning on picking and choosing from these different sites to make my own study. Perhaps we'll wrap it all up by making a lapbook and hosting our version of the Olympic games using activities suggested from first-school.

2008 Summer Olympic Games: offers printables on individual sports.
The Official Mascots of the Beijing 2008 Olympics: super cute and perfect to decorate a lapbook!
Learning Page: offers some nice worksheet with the Olympic theme.
Summer Olympics 2008 Unit Study: this is a free unit study with lapbook templates and activities correlating to several subjects.
The Olympics Games: a great resource from Enchanted Learning. Offers everything from flags, history, activities, and crafts.
Discovery Education Streaming: this is a great resource and I plan on using it to watch some video segments with the kids.

There are plenty more sites out there, but I always get overwhelmed with the multitude of websites to visit. I don't want to inundate anyone so I'm keeping it nice and simple. We'll start our unit on Monday and I'll be spending the weekend getting ready for it.

My main objectives for the unit will be:

• What are the Olympics?
• Why do we have them?
• How are they important?
• What is the history behind them (brief)?
• What sports are played?

I really don't want to get sidetracked into the study of China, so I'm keeping that to a minimum (we don't have that much time!). We'll also be taking a field trip to the library and seeing what Olympic books are available. With this being all last minute, I don't expect to find the greatest selection.