Do your kids like to watch the Olympics? I'm not a fan but my husband and children indulge in almost every aspect of coverage.
The opening ceremonies are tonight and it's a great opportunity to introduce geography to your child or nurture a current geography passion in your older children.
There are 88 nations participating in the 2014 Winter Olympics. Wikipedia has an alphabetical list of the participating nations in chart form
1. GLOBE ACTIVITY:
Print or save list to an open screen. During the parade of nations challenge your child (children) find the country on the globe. If you have multiple children, turn it into a competition. Keep it friendly and whine free of course.
2. FLAG POSTER:
While printing and coloring 88 flags is a little daunting you could create a poster of some of your favorite countries.
One poster board.
for the flags of participating nations. Draw equal squares and use the basic colors. Label each flag. Feel free to leave off intricate designs like crests etc.
Go
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This could also be used for a medal count project.
3. PICK AN UNDERDOG COUNTRY
We all want the USA to bring home the gold but there are some lesser known countries trying their best to score a medal. Pick out a country and learn about their team, events and country history. This could be a great exercise in empathy or compassion for the athletes and their home conditions.
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4. ENCHANTED LEARNING OLYMPIC PRINTABLE FACT SHEETS & MORE:
Enchanted Learning has a great package of printables and more for free. Go
5. 14 OLYMPIC RELATED APPS
Smart Apps for Kids has a round-up of 14 apps to download that are related to the Olympics.
Other kid friendly Olympic sites.
Go
blog post.
Round-up of Olympic crafts from Crafts Unleashed
20 Olympic craft projects from Red Ted Art,
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classroom options.