Continuing with my series ‘Looking Back’, where I am documenting learning the children and I did together prior to me blogging, this post is all about the Olympics. We did Ancient Greece about two years ago, when the children were about 8 and A was about 2 and B didn’t exist yet!
One can’t study Ancient Greece without mentioning the Olympics. I didn’t want to spend a lot of time on this, but given that Britain had just put in a bid to host the 2012 Olympics, I felt we ought to at least cover it. First, to help the children to understand how big the modern Olympics are, I had them watch this video and we flicked through this book:
Nikki, our friend from the running shop, gave up her spare time and met up with my three older ones in the local coffee shop and took them through the modern Olympics. She had even typed up some notes and questions for them. Thanks Nikki, we were so grateful:
Then we started to learn about its humble beginnings. The children’s reading list was fairly light.
Their fiction list:
Their non-fiction list:
For ease we used Evan Moore Pockets:
Now I have to admit to not being a huge fan. I think they are weak on information, weak on writing and strong on the child improving their cutting out skills. If I’m honest that is how I feel with most lap books. However, they do have their place and for me they fitted in well with my learning goals for the children on this particular subject. We only did the pocket on the Olympics:
Of course, we then had to put on our own Ancient Olympics in our back garden. But first we needed to make ourselves some ‘lucky charms’:
They prepared themselves for all the events and practiced enthusiastically throughout the week. Then came the day of the Ancient Olympics in our back garden. I had nothing to do with this, it was entirely their own idea and they planned and executed the whole thing. Loved it!
First up was the long jump:
Next the foot race:
Followed by the javelin throw:
And finally archery. But wait a minute, I hear you cry! Archery? Surely that should be wrestling. Well yes. But our Olympics wasn’t very, very authentic (maybe the fairy gave you a clue?- or even the not so long ‘long jump’?) and we knew T would win if he was pitched against the girls in wrestling so we decided to even the odds a little and have them archer instead (sorry):
I think I might have four of the most competitive children ever born! However, although T won overall, he was willing to give up his running medal to A which meant everyone won one event, making it a tie (phew!). So they all got a laurel wreathe:
Afterwards they wrote about their experience in the form of a simple newspaper report:
A simple, effective and fun way of learning about the Ancient Olympics!
