The Real Thing with the Coake Family

Last week, I shared with you the lesson I came up with to teach my co-op class about the Olympics. {Olympics for Kids - A Lesson Plan (Part 1)} This week I want to share with you our Mini-Olympic Games.

Mini-Olympic Games for Kids

My one 'clever' idea for our Olympic games was to use crepe paper as our finish line. The kids could then break through the finish line when they won. You can see this in various pictures below.

I will list all sources for these games together at the bottom of this post.

Torch Relay

This was funny to me. We ran the torch relay two times because the first time the kids treated the torch as though it was a hot potato and did the torch relay so fast, I couldn't get any pictures. While they were running the torch relay, I had the Olympic Fanfare Medley playing.

Opening Ceremony

This was nothing fancy, I just had the kids take a super simple "Olympic Oath." I think I had them promise to play fair and be good sports - it was very simple. I had the Olympic Fanfare Medley playing again.

Shot Put

Use a bit of aluminum foil made into a ball. Teach the kids how to put the 'shot put' on their shoulder and throw it upward and outward. (You may want to make sure they know not to throw it directly forward if you have someone in the field marking their throws...otherwise the person in the field could get hit hard by the shot put. I'm just saying, not that any child in our co-op needs to be signed up for Major League Baseball and not that my sweet helper got hit by a shot put!)

Discus Throw

This was supposed to be fun, but umm, I may have ruined it in a super funny (only to the adults) way. I was showing the kids how the discus throwers actually throw the discus. Of course, I was being just a bit dramatic and I have absolutely no aim with any type of Frisbee. Add to that the wind and you can see in the picture below what happened to our 'discus.' No one got to play this game, but myself and my adult helper sure had a big laugh at that one.

Balloon Between the Knee Race

The kids each got a balloon and held it between their knees, then raced to the end. The only thing to know about this game is that where we were if the balloon touched the ground it immediately popped. With the age range I work with, there were quite a few popped balloons.

100" Dash

We did a longer course than 100". This game is simple. The kids inch their way toward the finish line. Kid's being kid's, some of them didn't really inch forward.

Hug-the-Balloon Buddy Race

Pair the kid's up. They place a balloon between them and hug the balloon to keep it up off the ground. They race this way to the end of the course.

Backwards Dash

Just as it sounds, they run to the finish line, but backward. This one was fun but did involve a bit of falling.

Birdie Feather Race

I thought this was a cute game. It seemed to me like it would be a challenge and when I demonstrated it, the feather fell right out of my toes. The kids, not so much, not one of them had any trouble keeping the feather between their toes and racing to the finish line. All you do for this one, is have the kids take off one sock and shoe. Give them a feather to place between their toes and race.

Award Ceremony

We gave each child a medal.

Closing Ceremony

We played the Olympic theme music, lowered our 'Olympic flag,' and extinguished our flame.

Sources:

The Olympic Values Educational Toolkit - This is a 136 page downloadable resource. It has tons of information and activities. A lot of them are geared toward older children than my age group. Page 49 of this book contains the map I used during our lesson. It shows all the host cities.

Olympic Symbols - Brief discussion of all the Olympic symbols.

Olympic Games Lesson Ideas and Games

Olympic Games - Ideas for Kids

The kid's and I had such a great time at our Olympics! I hope you give it a try and have an amazing time as well!

Want More of The Real Thing with the Coake Family? Follow us:

Blogs I've linked up with:

My brother has a birthday coming up. He won't see this post because he will be river rafting the Grand Canyon on his birthday...so I can post without concern that he will see the card coming in the mail. Whew!

I made a cute card for him. It was easy to make.

To make this card I used:
Plain card base
6.5" x 5" cut out of background paper (not in the card pictured above. I made 2 cards and improved on the 2nd try!)
4 - 1" squares cut in half diagonally
1 - 1/8" wide ribbon (about 7.5" long)
5 candles and flames cut from the Wrap it up Cricut Cartridge
Happy B-Day Sticker
Adhesive Foam Squares
Advanced Tape Glider

I had already made the first of 2 of these cards when I took theses pictures, so I already had everything cut out. It took me maybe 20 minutes to put the card together. Easy, Quick and Cute!

Start by gathering your supplies and cutting everything that needs to be cut.

Next, adhere your background mat to your card base. In the middle picture above, you can see that next I added the ribbon that became my hanging pennant. Then I adhered the triangles to the ribbon. It looks a little wonky and sticks out a bit funny. That is okay as we are going to use foam adhesive squares to make it stay where we want it to and to help flatten it out a bit.

Use as many foam squares as you prefer. I used one about every other pennant as you can see above. This results in a pennant banner that lays better on the card and will stay where you put it.

Adhere your Happy B-Day sticker. Get your candles and flames ready by putting foam squares on the back of each piece. The last thing to do is to place the candles and flames on the card where you want them.

Easy Peasy! One cute card (well two in my case) ready to mail!