The Olympic Games
Level 1 Achievement objective, B1
Students will develop a wide range of movement skills.
Learning objective
Students will:
- demonstrate a wide range of movement skills associated with the Olympic Games.
Level 2 Achievement objective, C2
Students will describe how individuals and groups share characteristics and are also unique.
Learning objective
Students will:
- describe how individuals and groups share characteristics associated with the Olympic Games.
Note: Ensure students understand what "similar" and "different" mean.
Activity 1 – Globe trotting (game)
‘We are Ready’ Beijing 2008 website or ‘One World, One Dream’ soundtrack (when released)
Arrange three areas to represent three countries: New Zealand, China, and Greece (suggest using skipping ropes as boundaries showing the size of the countries).
- Music starts and students run around the outside of the area – like they are running around the world. Music stops, they run to a country of their choice.
- Music starts again and they repeat.
- Variation 1: using Olympic pictograms (important to introduce pictograms for use in the next few lessons) – students continue to run around the outside of the globe using movements associated with the pictogram selected.
- Variation 2: Use the five Fuwa (mascots) and move like the animals/flame that each Fuwa represents.
On completion of the game, students come together to sit in the space named China. (Children could make flags to put in the cone of each country).
Remind students that sports movements used in this globe trotting game were sports associated with the Olympic Games – many of which will be in Beijing.
Activity 2 – Read books introducing the Olympic Games
Examples of suitable reading material:
- Run, Marla, Run, by Janice Marriott, Orbitt Collections series, Learning Media
- The Ancient Greek Olympics, by Richard Woff, (2000), Oxford University Press
- Hour of the Olympics, by Mary Pope Osbourne, (1998), Magic Tree House 16. A good beginning reading series. A research book about the Olympic Games is also available to go with this storybook.
Key questions
- Ask students to identify the country they are sitting in.
- Using the globe from lesson 1 – One world, part one, ask students to locate China on the globe.
Activity 3 – Olympa-groove
Create a sequence of moments based on sports associated with the Olympic Games. Use the Olympic pictograms to generate ideas, and the 'We are Ready' soundtrack.
Key questions
- In relation to the song ‘We are Ready’ – ask the question: “Who is ready?”
- What is a host city?
- What does a host city do?
