Two weeks of pure excitement, adrenaline, heartbreak, and triumph. Who wouldn’t be interested?
The Summer Olympics are coming to the East End 27 July to 12 August. Haven’t secured your #20 – #450 event tickets for you and the kids yet? No worries, they can still catch the Olympic spirit. Here are a number of ways you or your carer can make the Games fun and educational in your own home ground.
Opening Ceremonies
Get the neighbourhood friends together and ask each child or group of 2 or 3 to pick a country to represent. If possible, suggest they come with clothes that represent the country in style and/or colour. Make an Olympic Torch and take turns passing it to each “country.” When they have the torch, it’s their turn to enter into the middle of the “stadium” and present a silly dance, song, skit, fun facts, or anything about their country. Get creative!
Make Country Flags
Get out your usual craft supplies – scissors, colored construction paper, markers, and anything else you want to use – and the kids can make their own flags! For which countries to choose, start with the countries that performed well at the last Olympics: Great Britain, China, Russia, the USA, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan. Geography lesson: locate the countries on a map!
Have a Relay Race
Set up a course where each child runs a lap around the garden and then passes off the “baton” (aka a kitchen roll) to the next runner. Plot “obstacles” along the run – such as sprinting through a blow-up children’s pool filled with water, kick a ball into a bucket (or into a real football goal) and run through a sprinkler hose.
Throw the Discus
Dating back to the very first Olympic Games in Athens, the discus throw involves tossing a heavy disc over a distance. Here’s a garden-friendly version: see who can throw a Frisbee the farthest, or to make it a little tougher, pick out a target and see who can throw it the closest!
Make Your Own Medals
Cut out circles of cardboard and get the card paper out again. Glue a circle of paper on each “medal” of cardboard; use yellow or orange for Gold, white or grey for Silver, and beige or brown for Bronze. Poke a hole through them, put them on a loop of string, and wear them like champions!
Test Your Olympic Knowledge
Great for the older kids: Come up with some basic trivia questions about the Olympics:
For example:
- Where did the first Olympics take place? (Greece)
- How often are the Summer Olympics held? (Every 4 years)
- How many rings are on the Olympic flag? (Five)
Bake some Olympic treats
What better way to end an afternoon of games or crafts than with some Olympic sweets? Biscuits or cupcakes can easily be frosted as flags or decorated as the Olympic rings.
Host contests
Here are a few more “Olympic” game and contest ideas:
Indoors (because after all, it might be raining!):
- Play table tennis
- Perform Gymnastics routines. Think: dance routine with some tumbles and cartwheels mixed in!
- Set up a “field” in the playroom for football
- Hula hoop! NOT an Olympic sport. But who knows, maybe by the 2024 Olympics?
Outdoors:
- Go for a bike ride around your neighbourhood or in a park
- Play badminton. It’s in the Olympics!
- Who can skip the longest?
- Play tennis
- Olympic duck-feeding: who can throw the mouldy bread the furthest?
