Olympic Winter Games - Team AKGVH Bob Sled Race & FREEBIE!

Sochi  2014 was the first Olympic Games my babes were finally old enough to participate with and actually have some understanding of the different events, peoples and places. 

Regardless of its pagan roots and undertones, the Olympic Games offers a rare opportunity to view athletes from different countries all in one place participating with one goal all the while enjoying themselves immensely.

My challenge was to make an assessment of each venue in order to plan corresponding curriculum and implementation. My goal was to have them experience the Olympic Winter Games as it happened in the live format, then implement what they saw into their Social Studies Unit, Health Unit and Physical Ed program.

When viewing  on television a venue in the magnitude of the Olympic Games with younger children, NO doubt about it, I knew I would be moved to prompt their attention from time to time. 

Opening Ceremonies

The opening ceremonies are always a problem at any young age. Theatrical displays are always a matter of taste or experience. If  I anticipate the format may possibly be slow with little visual effects, I knew I would lose my lower primary grade level babes attention fast. Gender also plays a huge part in theatricals. While young girls may be enchanted with dancing, singing, and the like, boys may not even look twice.  Yet girls on the other hand, can hang overall with the interests of a boy. I remember myself as a child having fav toys that belonged to my brother. I was stoked he let me play with them but he absolutely had no interest in playing school with me.  

                                     Photo by Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty

Theatrical

Using the TV as somewhat of a background, in between displays of brilliance and intrigue I supplemented the Olympic inaction with action of their own such as puzzles, games, playdoh and the like. Anything featuring easy cleanup and exchange while allowing me to draw their attention back to the television set during times of importance or display. 

For example, while  I lost them periodically throughout the little girl's dream sequence they gave FULL attention to displays of colored light flashes and actions.

Parade of Countries

Thankfully the parade kept moving at a fairly fast rate. The pace enabled  a brief lower primary level  discussion of the countries as each passed by.  Participants with their flags featuring colors, symbols and yes, even shapes (Nepal has the only  non-quadrilateral national flag ) as each country came forward to announce their participation in the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia went overall for us, a fairly smooth topical viewing event. 

Since it was somewhat lengthy and continued on well past their normal bedtime I did find myself nudging them occasionally pointing out various aspects to keep those eyeballs open as long as I could. By the time the cauldron was lit, I did lose them so I had them watch it here the next day so they would not miss out:

Then we watched it from another angle:

Next we set up our program. First we made our Olympic Medals. 

Then we made our head wreaths.

Next we set up our an interactive Sochi Winter Olympics 2014 Bulletin Board.

Now we were ready...let the Games begin!!!

The first A Kinders Garten Vintage Homeschool Winter Olympic Game for 2014 we participated in was the Bobsled Race. If you want to cover the history of this sport, DIG the quick link below:

Bobsleigh History

(scroll down the page to reach the article)

The Start line was at the top of great gramma's ramp. 

Each contestant chose their "bobsled" and made ready for the race. Due to the narrow ramp width, the game rules changed. Instead of every "athlete" launching at once, I launched one grandbabe at a time.  The babe who reaches the finish line (at the end of the cement driveway) in the shortest time got the gold medal. The 2nd the silver, then bronze third & fourth. Yes, I am aware that is a "PC" move but as gramma, it would break my heart to leave one of my wee babes out. And since I am gramma, well, that ends that! With stopwatch and camera in hand, we began our AKGVH 2014 Winter Olympics!

To get ready, we rolled the die to see who would go first and so on. 

Then I went over the rules for the Bobsled Race. Each contestant must wait until the bell rang before launching. 

Once rang, it was each man/woman for him/herself. Zander won with Levi coming in 2nd place, Damien 3rd & Rayven 4th.

 

 

After getting their medals, I printed out their pictures, then placed our pictures and medals in the correct spot on our interactive A Kinders Garten Vintage Homeschool Sochi Winter Olympics 2014 Bulletin Board.

Thus far, we were on a Winter Olympics roll cuz my wee babes were DIGGIN’ the scene!!!

And now to get your wee ones rolling here is our Bob Sled FREEBIE. Using our AKGVH printable pattern, every babe can make a sled craft of their very own. You can use construction paper, foam sheets or popsickle sticks. All you have to do is print out and use our AKGVH Bob Sled freebie pattern as a guide. To begin, just click on the link below:

AKGVH Vintage Bobsled Pattern

As well, we have many other vintage printables we use in our Bobsled unit. I have compiled several in a pack that you can get from our AKGVH Teacher’s Notebook Store: 

AKGVH Winter Olympics Vintage Bob Sled Activity Pack

 

Well all…hope you enjoyed our first AKGVH Winter Olympics race! Prayerfully it will spark your imagination for your classroom Winter Olympics unit!

1928: The American bobsled team competes at St. Moritz, Switzerland. (Bettmann/CORBIS)

Do NOT miss our next AKGVH Winter Olympics Curling Game post! 

Olympic Winter Games Team AKGVH Curling

See you there!

C.S. Calkins
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