I’ve decided to reblog this post because this being an Olympic year, I thought it might be fun to revisit. I happen to LOVE the Olympics!
So I’ve been doing the Olympics theme this summer with my preschoolers. You would think that there are lots of books available about the Olympics. And there are, but hardly any of them are appropriate for twos and threes. About the only one I’ve discovered is from The Backyardigans!
Anyway, I’m enjoying this theme because it has been a good stepping stone for lots of things:
- art
- character development
- sports/gross motor development
- reading
- music
- math
- science/social studies
The first few weeks I introduced the Olympics theme and we made torches. We discussed the circle shape of the Olympic rings and the colors. We made murals. We discussed eating healthy foods to make us big and strong.
It was only this week that I’ve been able to get to the heart of my lesson and discuss character development. I’ve told my kiddies that in order to get ahead on the bulletin board, which is a race track they have to practice the class rules: walking feet, helping hands, cleaning up, sitting quietly, etc. They seemed really excited about moving ahead on the race track so I’m hopeful I can keep up their desire to succeed.
In the upcoming weeks we will be studying different countries that participate in the Olympic games. First up is Canada, so we can piggy back off of their Canada Day celebrations! We will probably taste maple syrup, which I think the kids will LOVE. Other countries I plan on introducing:
- France
- Italy
- Germany
- Spain
- Poland
- etc.
Here is a photo of my Olympians at our Opening Ceremonies. We are about to have our parade of torches!
I’m very open to suggestions to enhance my lesson plans; do you have any suggestions?
Did I mention that after working so very hard on ripping and gluing the paper to the Olympic rings mural, one of them spent time ripping the paper back off? (sigh) Thank goodness for nap time and ModPodge, which fixed things right up!