From now until February 28, many eyes will be watching Vancouver, the site of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Our children were captivated by the opening ceremonies and as we watched, their natural curiosity fueled their questions about where in the world the countries are located, different athletic events, and the athletes to watch. To satisfy their curiosity, we’ve been looking at some of the content on the official Vancouver 2010 website together to learn more and I thought I would share some of our favorite links with you.
- Learn about Vancouver – The Canadian Olympic School Program is not only a treasure trove for teachers (once you create a login) but also has a fabulous informational page about Vancouver and Whistler. Originally designed for use by teachers with students for an activity where groups are asked to design a brochure, this also serves as a great way to learn more about the places where the 2010 Winter Games are being held through a printable PDF with fabulous photos of both Vancouver and Whistler Mountain.
- Up to Date Medal Count– Keep current on each country’s medal count with breakdowns of gold, silver, and bronze and totals for each competing nation. The country with the highest number of medals will appear at the top of the list. Fans of Fantasy Football will like making daily predictions about which team will be victorious in the day’s events in the Olympic Fantasy Game. Choose winners in all trials of events from round robins and preliminaries to the finals. Since you need to create a login to make your picks, this is a perfect parent-child activity for the winter games fanatic.
- Olympic Photos– Browse the Vancouver 2010 official online photo gallery for pictures from the day’s events or view photos according to event through the Featured Gallery section located in the lower right corner of the screen.
- Olympic Blog by Kids for Kids- The Scholastic Kids Press Corp is on the job again and this time Scholastic Kid Reporter Daniel Wetter is in Vancouver covering all the excitement with in-depth blog posts. Check out his lead story about the start of the games on the Kids Press homepage. This site extremely friendly for all reading levels since it allows kids to double click on any word on the page to get a definition or to look up a word by typing it into the Look It Up field in the Scholastic Word Wizard pop up box on the bottom right of the screen. Speaking of Scholastic, the science nerd in me loves learning about the science of skis and aerial physics involved in aerial skiing through the short videos from NBC on The Science of the Olympic Games on the Scholastic Teacher site. Thanks to On Our Minds for the tip!
- Olympic Themed Games– The Olympic Playground on the official Olympic site has Olympic themed games that are fun for elementary ages. There are 5 different games- Village, Cafeteria, Gym, Competition, and Podium. In Village, players must drag and drop the correct flag on to each team’s building in the Olympic Village before going to the Cafeteria where you drag healthy foods on to your tray to show your coach you know show your coach that you know healthy from unhealthy foods. Players must progress through each game before moving on to the next one.
- Meet the Olympic Mascots– Miga the sea bear, Sumi an animal spirit, and Quatchi the Sasquatch-like creature are the mascots of the Vancouver games. Learn about their homes, hobbies, favorite foods and color, and their dreams on their profile page. Then take a fun quiz to determine which mascot you are most like. The quiz says I’m most like Quatchi, the Sasquatch. Hmmmm….
- Olympic Crafts– If you are snowbound like we were last weekend, you will love Olympic crafts like making your own snowboarder out of chenille stems and tongue depressors, rating the performance of your favorite athlete with homemade score cards from the comfort of your couch, or an Olympic diorama inspired by this Ski Jump 3D Art.
- Closing Ceremony Party– Kaboose has wonderful ideas for throwing a fun and easy gold medal party on February 28 to celebrate the conclusion of the games with ideas for decorating and recipes, including Canadian inspired treats. Don’t forget to make some wearable and edible Gold Medal Cookies and your own Olympic Torch a la AlphaMom. Thanks to Aimee from Smiling MamaOut by Ten for the cookie idea!
All images are courtesy of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games © VANOC/COVAN.
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Original post by Tech Savvy Mama
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