Although the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics are taking place one year later, it’s never too late to start teaching your class about what the Olympics are and why it’s a worldwide event. To get your class hyped up for the festivities, try implementing a few Olympics-themed activities into your curriculum.
The Summer Olympics only happen once every four years — make the most of it!
Assign a research project about past Olympics
Did your students know that this isn’t the first time that the Olympics was postponed to another year? In fact, it wasn’t even the first Olympics to take place following a pandemic!
Throughout its 100+ year history, the Olympics have gone through many interesting world events. Assign your students a research project about the Olympics and uncover the kinds of trials and tribulations it faced over the years.
Olympics newspaper project
With the worldwide nature of the Olympics, hundreds of local newspapers in each country will undoubtedly be focused on different athletes and have differing headlines. Group your students up and ask them to pick a country to represent. Assign them the task of reporting for their “local” newspaper, featuring the latest athlete news for their country of choice.
Ask your students to create a mock front page for their paper, complete with headlines, pictures and short articles. For example, if a group chooses to represent Canada, they could write short blurbs about decathlete Damian Warner, or sprinters Lucia Stafford and Melissa Bishop-Nriagu for their articles.
Help your students learn a little bit more about how other countries are viewing the Olympics by putting them in their shoes.
Biography of favorite Olympics athletes
Olympians often come from a multitude of different backgrounds, working hard in order to get to where they are today.
Inspire your students by having them read up on their favorite Olympics athletes and share what they find with their classmates.
Introduce a new sport to the Olympics
Already, the Olympics boasts 33 different sports and 339 events. This year, the International Olympic (IOC) Committee approved four new sports to the games, adding karate, skateboard, sports climbing, and surfing to the roster. Not every sport is recognized, but wouldn’t it be nice if you could submit your own requests directly to the IOC?
Ask your students to write up a proposal for the sport of their choice — whether it’s four square, dodgeball or even a made-up sport that they’ve invented on their own. Refine your students’ persuasion skills through this exercise!
Design your own Olympics mascot
What’s covered in blue checkers, athletic, and can teleport anywhere instantly? If you guessed Miraitowa, the official mascot for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, you’d be correct!
Every time the Olympics come around, the host country comes up with a mascot for the games — often with their own strange superpowers and wacky designs. In the past there’s been Soohorang the white tiger, Vinicius the hybrid Brazillian animal, and Wenlock, a drop of steel with a camera for an eye, just to name a few.
Challenge your students to come up with their own creative and colorful Olympics mascot!
Olympics in your own city
What if the 2024 Summer Olympics were headed to your city? Where would the athletes stay? Where would they compete? What kind of events will be thrown?
Ask your students to imagine that they’re in charge of planning the 2024 Summer Olympics in their hometown. Give them an unlimited budget and have them imagine what kinds of structures they would build in order to accommodate the world’s athletes. What kinds of local delicacies would they share with the world, and how will they make their Olympics better than all the rest?
Showcase the best of what your city has to offer and allow your students to flex their creative muscles with this creative project.
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