Setting up the Activity in your Classroom:
As you plan your lessons, you may wish to print out any reading assignment pages and staple them into a book for individual students.
Depending on time available, the grade level, and maturity level of each class, activities can be facilitated as independent work, collaborative group work, or whole class instruction. Teachers may use the guide to teach a complete unit or break the content into smaller learning components. Some suggestions are:
- Have individual students create Olympic Spirit Postcards to print as a visual story starter.
- Create a class Olympic Committee to listen and judge individual speeches.
- Create small groups of students to research the Olympics in different decades or different Olympic sports and present their findings to the class.
If a computer is available for each student, they can work on their own. Hand out the URLs or write them on the board so students will have a guide through the activity.
If you are working in a lab, set up the computers to be on the desired Web site as students walk into class. If there are fewer computers than students, group the students by reading level. Assign each student a role: a "driver" who navigates the web, a timer who keeps the group on task, and a note taker. If there are more than three students per computer, you can add roles like a team leader, a team reporter, etc.
If you are working in a learning station in your classroom, break out your class into different groups. Have rotating groups working on the computer(s), reading printed background information, prewriting their speech or newspaper article, researching and writing about the Olympics.
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Stimulate Background Knowledge with these related links:
The Olympic Games
http://www.olympic.org/uk/index_uk.asp
The official site of the Olympic Games
Athens 2004
http://www.athens2004.com/athens2004/
Explore the official site for the summer 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.
The Olympic Museum
http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/index_uk.asp
Read summaries of each Olympic Game, learn some lesser-known facts, and see photo archives.
Biomechanics of Skating
http://btc.montana.edu/olympics/physbio/biomechanics/bio-intro.html
This site uses figure skating to teach the basic mechanical concepts of projectile motion and conservation of angular momentum. This site uses animations and videos to explain the concepts.
Ancient Greece
http://www.ancientgreece.com/
This guide to ancient Greece covers its history, mythology, art and architecture, Olympics, wars, people, and geography.
BBC Schools: Ancient Greece
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ancientgreece/main_menu.shtml
Explore ancient Greek culture and beliefs and find out what the first Olympic Games were all about with several interactive features.
Word Hub: Greek Roots
http://wordshub.com/words/greek.cfm
Test your knowledge of Greek root words with matching games and fill-in-the blanks.
Kodak � Olympic History
http://www.musarium.com/kodak/olympics/olympichistory/index_body1.shtml
A photo timeline of the Olympics through history from 1896 to 1996.
The Innovative Teaching Newsletter: Summer Olympics 2004
http://surfaquarium.com/NEWSLETTER/olympics2004.htm
Ideas and resources for teaching the Olympics this summer.
Kids Domain: Gold Medal Crafts
http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/goldmedal.html
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Graphic Organizer:
Reading Comprehension: Timeline : Grades 3�8
This Organizer Pattern: Timeline (PDF) helps students the organize information they gather on Olympic history. See Assessment and Evaluation .
Graphic Organizer: KWL : Grades 3�10
This Graphic Organizer: The 5 Ws helps students organize the current event material in order to create their own investigative report.
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