Nation identities and values
Level 3 Achievement objective, D2
Students will participate in communal events and describe how such events enhance the well-being of the community.
Learning objectives
Students will:
- identify the key features of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games
- identify specific cultural elements of the host nation displayed throughout the opening ceremony
- describe key messages illustrated through host nation’s presentation and discuss possible elements missing.
Activity 1 – Opening ceremony
View pictures of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games opening ceremony and discuss how it looks and sounds, and what it would have felt like.
Activity 2 – Close look
Using selected photos from the Athens 2004 Olympic Games opening ceremony, identify and list examples of Greek values and identity.
- Provide a variety of cultural aspects from the opening ceremony, for example, cultural tradition, clothing, activities, dance, music, layout and lighting, and Olympic tradition.
- Present photos around the classroom wall with space for students to write comments related to their observations of the photos.
- Students work in groups to summarise the comments made for each photo and share back to the class.
Key questions
- What are the key features of an Olympic Games opening ceremony? See page 5 of Modern Olympic Games (PDF 1MB).
- What do you now know about Greek culture?
- What were the key messages about Greece that the opening ceremony highlighted?
Homework task:
- Research three interesting facts about Greece or Greek culture that were not evident in the opening ceremony.
- Discuss why you think they were not included.
- Do you think people should be aware of these things?
- What are the great things Greece wanted to highlight through the opening ceremony?
- Are there things they may not have been so proud of?
- What are the things that people choose to highlight when given the opportunity?
Note: It is important that students are presented with realistic impressions of the positive and negative issues within host nations and can learn to ask critical questions about contentious issues.
