Olympic Games

1. Olympic Games Literature Focus Unit Anne Cleary EDU 315

2. Literature Selection • Sports Heroes and Legends Jim Thorpe by Carrie Golus • TIME for Kids Biographies: Jesse Owens Running into History by the Editors of TIME for Kids with Elaine Israel • National Geographic Swifter, Higher, Stronger A Photographic History of The Summer Olympics by Sue Macy • The Complete Book of The Olympics 2008 Edition by David Wallechinsky and Jamie Loucky • Ancient Olympic Games by Haydn Middleton • Great Olympic Moments by Haydn Middleton • Modern Olympic Games by Haydn Middleton • Eyewitness Olympics by Chris Oxlade and David Ballheimer • Olympic Math by Greg Roza • Olympic Sports: Basketball, Soccer, and Other Ball Games by Jason Page • Olympic Sports: Swimming, Diving, and Other Water Sports by Jason Page • Olympic Sports: Sprints, Hurdles, and Other Track Sports by Jason Page • Olympic Sports: Rowing, Sailing, and Other Sports on Water by Jason Page • Olympic Sports: Martial Arts, Boxing, and Other Combat Sports by Jason Page • Olympic Sports: Gymnastic Events by Jason Page • Olympic Sports: Decathlon, High Jump, and Other Field Events • Olympic Sports: Cycling, Shooting, and Showjumping • Olympic Time Capsule: Photo Essays by Michelle McCullon and Gail March Cohen Ph.D.

3. Theme Study • Students will take part in a thematic unit on the Olympic Games. This unit will integrate reading and writing with social studies, science, mathematics, art, music, and physical education. • Students will develop an understanding of the Olympics, the different games of the different seasons, and the history from the beginning to modern day games.

4. Language Arts: Reading Activities • Students will read Photo Essays about Olympic Time Capsules as a small group to choose facts to share with the class. • Each student will have Silent Reading time to read from the collection of literature in the classroom. • Students will take turns reading about the history of the Torch for the project of creating the bulletin board. • Students will read and do research on their athlete they choose to do their Athlete Report on as well as read and do research on their country for their small group presentation for the Opening Ceremony Project • Small group lesson on Event Analogy Challenge where they work together and fill in words that fit the spaces in a worksheet relating to many Olympic sports. For example: • A ball is to field hockey as a _ _ _ _ is to ice hockey. • A handout is passed out in a packet about the history of famous Olympians. After the teacher has done the lesson on books about 2 famous athletes the class will take turns reading about the history of others to prepare for the Athlete Reports and choosing their athlete. • Students will read independently a hand out on Olympians Don’t Quit and do a corresponding crossword puzzle.

5. Language Arts: Writing Activities • Daily writing workshops: Every day as a writing assignment the students will individually answer questions in a worksheet short answer or journal format. • Day 1: What is a competitor? A worksheet on competition where students explain personal experiences, their successes and how competition affects them. • Day 2: Sports in Poetry. Students will choose from poetry styles and their favorite sport and write a poem about that sport. • Day 3: Win or Lose. A worksheet where students journal to answer questions about their feelings before an event, what happened, how you feel afterwards and more. • Day 4: Don’t Forget to Write. This is a writing activity where students will choose an athlete and pretend they are that athlete and write a letter home to their family. Tell their family about the host city and the other athletes and how the competition is going. • Day 5: Athlete Report. Have a list of athletes for students to pick from and they can research and then write a report on their athlete.

6. Language Arts: Speaking Activities • Individual students will present their writing assignment they did on their Athlete Report that they researched and wrote about. • Small groups choose one of the Photo Essays on Olympic Time Capsules to present to the class. They will each pick a fact about their topic off the poster to share with the class. • Students will present their country in the Opening Ceremony Simulation and tell the class about customs, clothing, food, and traditions of their country. • Students will participate in large group discussions during multiple lessons including math lessons, science lessons, music lessons, and visual representing games and puzzles. • Students will speak and cooperate in small group projects

7. Language Arts: Listening Activities • Students will listen attentively when their peers present their Athlete Reports to the class. • As a group Students will listen to the teacher read from books Sports Heroes and Legends Jim Thorpe and TIME for kids Biographies Jesse Owens Running into History as the teacher shares facts on these two athletes and give examples for their writing assignment on Athlete Reports. • Students will listen to the teacher and other students during large group discussions in variety of lessons throughout the week. • Students will listen to one another and cooperate in small group activities and projects. • Listening while other student read during large group reading time and taking turns.

8. Language Arts: Viewing Activities • View words on Word Wall • Students will watch video clips off of The Olympic Series DVD for Social Studies: • The Olympic Spirit • National Pride • Rivalry • The Medal Ceremony • Viewing the students Social Studies Presentations on their country of choice during Opening Ceremony Simulation. • Viewing the Photo Essays posted in the classroom that small groups present to the class. • Students will view each other’s pie charts during a math lesson. • Students will view other students art work displayed from the Medals lesson and the Recycling lesson. • Students will view websites and watch short videos on different body parts in the exercise affects of the body lesson in science.

9. Language Arts: Visually Representing Activities • A word wall will be made of Greek words used as Olympic terms and prefixes. • Students will assemble a puzzle that consists of events and descriptions that match together. As small groups they will put together the puzzle and glue it down onto paper. They will do one puzzle for Summer Events one day and Winter Events another day. • As a whole the class will play jeopardy style visual game set up using the official licensed board game called the Olympic Challenge. • They will work on an integrated lesson involving Reading, Social Studies, and Art as they create the classrooms bulletin board. They will all get a pamphlet on The Olympic Torch that they will take turns reading out loud. Once they understand the history of the torch they will create the torch for the bulletin board and fill it with words that represent the spirit of Olympic Games. Also post a map of the world and trace the route the torch has made from one Olympics to the next.

10. Science Activities • “No Drugs Allowed.” Olympic Athletes have been tested for drugs since the 1968 Olympic Games. Discuss the effects of drugs on the muscle and read some facts to the whole class and have the small groups of students come up with answers to discussion questions such as “What are the good and bad immediate effects of steroids on the body?” and “What are long lasting effects of steroids good and bad?” along with other questions. Then get back to the large group and discuss them. • Does altitude affect endurance sports over 800 meters or explosive sports like sprints? Have the students do research on the effects of altitude on the lungs of the human body and come up with a hypothesis to the question and write a short reflection on why. • Physical Educations effect on the muscles. Discuss what body parts do they think are effected by exercise. Then as a class visit http://kidshealth.org/kid/htbw/htbw_main_page.html and watch short videos on how these body parts work. • Discuss Recycling effects and how it helps the world. The Olympics has done great things for uniting the world. There are many people working to make the world a better place and going green is one of those things many people can take part in. Go over types of materials to bring in to be recycled and explain they will be used in an art project later in the week.

11. Mathematic Activities • The Stade: Measured by Hercules, the son of Zeus, the stade is the distance he could walk while holding his breath. This became the length of the running track for the Ancient Olympic stadium (185 meters). How many breaths would Hercules take to walk the length of the Olympic Stadium in Atlanta which is 1250 feet? Discuss the conversion of meters to feet. Have students solve more distances given in feet to meters to see how many breaths Hercules would take going other distances. • Word problems are done using vocabulary terms such as Olympiad, which is a unit of time Greeks used that signifies four years. Such as Olympic Games were recorded from 776 B.C. until A.D. 392 which is 1,168 years. How many Olympiads are there in 1,168 years? • Introduce work with percentages in relation to spectator seating in the Panathenian. It sat about 50,000 people in its original state as an ancient Greek Olympic Stadium in Athens. When it was restored in can seat about 40% more people. How many spectators can watch events there today? Show more work with percentages by working with pie graphs. There were 43 events in the 1896 Olympics and Greek athletes won 10 events. Figure out the percentage for them and the other countries and then as a class use those percentages to construct a pie chart. • Show more work with percentages by working with pie graphs. There were 43 events in the 1896 Olympics and Greek athletes won 10 events. Figure out the percentage for them and the other countries and then as a class use those percentages to construct a pie chart. • Work with math vocabulary words in relation to numbers. The word “–athlon” in Greek means contest. Pairing that with prefixes “bi-“ “tri-“ “penta-“ hepta-“ and “deca-“ can decipher the number events in the contest. Discuss these words and then have students do their worksheet where they match similar words to their events.

12. Social Studies Activities • Watching short movies daily on Olympic Culture from The Olympic Series DVD: • The Olympic Spirit • National Pride • Rivalry • The Medal Ceremony • After each video will orally discuss historical questions: When do they think the Olympics started and where? Does anyone know? Why did it start? What are some of the biggest changes from then until now? • Students will participate in a Social Studies Simulation Project. They will be split up into small groups and as a group they choose a country and prepare a demonstration for the rest of the class. This can include clothing, flags, traditional dancing and music from the countries culture and/or traditional food and art. They present at the end of the week for the Opening Ceremony Simulation where they will take turns entering the classroom as if it the Olympic Stadium.

13. Music and Art Activities • Learn about music genres. Discuss as a group and write on the board, have them name genres. Once a list is made talk about what makes these genres different. Use leading questions and have large group discussion, what makes country sound different? Do certain songs have emotions and does the sounds you hear ever describe the title well? Then listen to songs from “Summon the Heroes Boston Pop Orchestra” by John Williams. Take the song called Javelin, listen to it and discuss whether it describes the sport with its sound. Do this with a variety of songs from the CD. • Show metals from past Olympics. Prints off coloring sheets from http://abcteach.com/directory/theme_units/sports/olympics/ and have students look at examine the images and letters on the metals while they color them if they want. Then pass out tooling foil to each student in bronze or silver, teach them how to kneed the foil with a popsicle stick to create a 3D metal of their own. Once they are finished you can cut them out and string them and hang them in the rooms. • Start a recycling project. Plan an art project for the end of the week once things are collected and split the class into small groups. Each small group chooses an Olympic symbol such as the torch or the logo and creates an art piece with the recycled material. Show them ideas of materials they can bring in and example projects on the website http://www.allfreecrafts.com/recycling-crafts/index.shtml .

14. Physical Education Activities • Students will participate daily in the classroom’s very own Olympic Games. They will be split into 3 teams that are designated countries. Each day will consist of several individual sports or one team sport. For the individual sport the teams will designate multiple students for certain events so every student competes in one event while the others support them. All students will participate in team sports • Monday: Track individual events • Tuesday: Volleyball team events • Wednesday: Field individual events • Thursday: Basketball team events • Friday: Gymnastic individual events

15. Technology • Summon the Heroes CD by John Williams of Boston Pops Orchestra • The Olympic Series DVD on the Golden Moments 1920-2002 • http://kidshealth.org/kid/htbw/htbw_main_page.html • http://abcteach.com/directory/theme_units/sports/olympics/ • http://www.allfreecrafts.com/recycling-crafts/index.shtml

16. Language Arts Strategies • Activating background knowledge: students will think about what they already know about the Olympic Games past and present. • Brainstorming: students will think of many ideas related to the Olympic Games and events and countries along with personal experiences through writing activities. • Connecting: Students will relate topics to the world around them by journaling about personal events and putting themselves in the shoes of Olympians. • Predicting and Monitoring: Students will monitor the effects of exercise on the body as well as their scores within their own Olympics in PE. • Playing with Language: Students will use language creatively through stories, letters, journaling, games, and projects. • Revising: Students will make changes to written activities. • Visualizing: Students will draw pictures in their minds when discussing events, cultures, and history of the Olympics as well as the human body and the physical appearance of the track and field used for science and math lessons.

17. Language Arts Skills • Print: Students will recognize words on the Olympic Greek Word Wall. • Comprehension: Students will recognize literary genres of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry involving athletes and their history versus Greek mythology that is the backbone of the Olympic Games. They will also compare and contrast Summer and Winter Olympics in puzzles of events. • Language: Students will apply various skills in their writing activities: stories, letters, poems, and journaling. • Reference: Students will make compare and contrasts with events, pie charts, and read about historical events.

18. Grouping Patterns • Large Group: Large Group Discussions throughout curriculum, Speaking Activities, Science Discussion on No Drugs Allowed, Science Technology Experience on Body Parts, Discussing Math Activities after they do individual work, Music Activity on genres, Social Study Videos, Bulletin Board Project, Visually Representing Jeopardy game, Reading on Famous Athletes • Small Group: Art project on recycled art and Olympic symbols, Country project for Opening Ceremony Simulation, Visual Representing Puzzles, Photo Essay Presentations, PE Olympic Team Activities, Reading Analogy Challenge worksheet • Individual: Writing Activities, Science Altitude Reflection, Math Activities, Art project on Olympic metals, Silent Reading, Math problems before discussion, Athlete Reports, PE Olympic Individual Activities, Reading Olympians Don’t Quit and doing the crossword puzzle

19. Assessments • Writing daily assignments • Participation in large group discussions • Math assignments and pie graphs drawn • Athlete Report: the writing part as well as the presentation graded on a rubric • Analogy Challenge worksheet and crossword puzzle • Opening Ceremony Simulation country presentations, groups graded with rubric as well as individuals • Science participation and reflection on altitude • Physical Education Participation and cooperation • Participation in art, music, and visually representation projects and games

20. Week Schedule