Summer Olympics Lesson Plan Ideas

by Patricia White
(San Antonio, Texas)

I'm not sure if I will be doing anything on the Olympics, but if I were, I would use the Magic Tree House book, Hour of the Olympics. Also, abcteach.com has some cute pages to go with it (Olympic medals, a book of all the different sports, etc...).

I might also coordinate math into my lesson plans by having "Measuring Olympics" where the students go to different stations and do measuring activities or "Math Fact Olympics" using timed tests. You could give medals for students who complete all activities, or for the highest grades, etc...

Besides reading 'Hour of the Olympics', you could also give Olympic medals for favorite books. Have students vote for either their favorite authors and/or books and post a picture of the book jacket, or author, on the winners podium along with the appropriate medal. You can print author's faces from the internet and paste then to a generic body.

For word work, you could talk about words that are derived from Greek words (this would tie in with the first olympics taking place in Greece).