Winter Olympic Flag Work

Wow!  I am so sorry it's been so long since I've posted.  I've just been busy living life and haven't gotten around to doing a post.  We have been learning a bit about the Olympics in our classroom these past two weeks in honor of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.  One activity that has been immensely popular is the flag work.  A discussion of the Olympic games is a natural tie-in with geography.  As I explained that athletes from all over the world come together to compete, I pulled out our North America puzzle to show the children where Canada is in relation to the United States.  I decided to keep it simple and just put out flags for USA, Canada, and the Olympic flag.  I found blackline printables of the American and Canadian flags at Coloring Castle.  I ended up reducing the size of the flags to 75% of the original for this work.  That way they fit much better on a regular size drinking straw.  However, my youngest son has been wanting to make lots of flags at home so I've been printing out a bunch of full-size flags too.  I like how the flags at Coloring Castle can be printed with a coded coloring key.  I found the Olympic flag printable at First School.  The First School site has a bunch of great information and activities for the Olympics so be sure to check it out.

To set up this work I printed out an American and Canadian flag in color on white cardstock and laminated them.  I colored in a copy of the Olympic flag and laminated it.  Then I stuck the three flags to the back of a shelf with the materials on top as shown below.  To do this work two children may sit at the white tables shown so they are facing the control flags.  That way they can see how to color each flag.

On top of the shelf are three baskets/trays with the blank flag copies..........

.........a pencil for writing names on the back, scissors for cutting out the flag, markers for coloring the flag, and straws.  When the child is finished coloring and cutting out their flag, they bring the flag and a straw to a teacher who then helps them tape their flag to the straw.

Below you can see two flags colored by a student in my classroom.  They are so excited to bring these flags home to wave while watching the Olympic games on TV.

 
 

Comments

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Official sites like Olympic.org and Vancouver 2010 are good sources of information about the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, British Columbia. There are many other sources of news, e.g., “2010 Winter Games” (Vancouver Sun), “Vancouver Games” (CNN), and “Winter Olympics” (Telegraph). Not surprisingly, news sources in most countries give fullest coverage to their own athletes.

Comprehensive works about the Winter Olympic Games are classed in 796.98 Winter Olympic games, e.g., The Winter Olympics and The Complete Book of the Winter Olympics.

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The evolution of the Olympic Movement during the 20th century forced the IOC to adapt the Games to the world's changing social circumstances. Some of these adjustments included the creation of the Winter Games for ice and snow sports, the Paralympic Games for athletes with physical disabilities, and the Youth Olympic Games for teenage athletes. The IOC also had to accommodate the Games to the varying economical, political, and technological realities of the 20th century. As a result, the Olympics shifted away from pure amateurism, as envisioned by Coubertin, to allow participation of professional athletes. The growing importance of the mass media created the issue of corporate sponsorship and commercialization of the Games.

[Laura]

Thanks, Karen. Im glad you liked the post.
Take care,
Laura

To: directress@live.com

[Karen]

I just link to you. Thanks. Sippy Cup Central

[Laura]

My little boy has LOVED making flags during the Olympicsas have all the little ones in my classroom. Good to hear from you! Take care,
Laura

To: directress@live.com

[Laura]

Great ideas, Missy. Thanks so much forsharing!
Take care,
Laura

To: directress@live.com

[Gigi]

Thank you Laura. I am going to do this with my kids. They will love it!

[missy]

I had a Winter Olympic Book lesson, we made the rings with the cardboard paper towel cylinders, painted on the circles with the appropriate colors, and stamped just as the flag looks. It was really cool. To save I just one paper towel thing per 2 colors on side for ex. was yellow the other side blue. We also make snow boarders with pipe cleaners and pop cycle sticks (works for other sports figures too).