V is for "Victory"

Are you and your family excited about the Olympics and hoping for Victory for the American athletes? We have been looking forward to it all summer and, in fact, planned our first day back to school around it! I knew that I couldn't pass up the opportunity to start school with a unit study on the Olympics. We are easing back into school with studies on the Olympics and math review this week and next.

Here are some of the resources we are using:

Olympics unit study by SchoolExpress. I received it as a free download a couple of weeks ago as part of their weekly free unit study email. (We have done SEVERAL free unit studies and they are my favorite unit studies to do for my kids.) You can sign up for their weekly e-mail and free unit studies by going HERE. Although the Olympics unit study is no longer free, it can still be purchased for $2.00. There are, however, some free worksheets that can be downloaded.

London: Once, Twice, Three Times ~ an Olympics host city infographic (we used this to make a comparison graph of the 1908, 1948, and 2012 London Olympic games).

Values Education Toolkit from OVEP (Olympic Values and Education Program). This is an excellent and lengthy download. It is definitely for older children, maybe even up through high school, but a valuable resource none-the-less. I have used some of the materials for copywork for my kids. I have used the Olympics handwriting sheets found HERE. We will also use some of the physical education worksheets, activities on Peace, and certificates.

15 Summer Olympics Math and Literacy Activities from Down Under Teacher purchased for $7.20 from TeachersPayTeachers. This activity pack has been worth every dollar and cent. We have done spelling, math, calendaring, punctuation, and many other things. They are fun and informative. (I just saw that it is now on sale for $6.40.)

We have also done some fun craft activities, with ideas I gleaned from 20 Crafts and Ideas to Celebrate the Olympics. We have made Olympics t-shirts, gold medals, and the Olympic torch.

We will be watching the Opening ceremony, many of the events, and the Closing ceremony, as well as charting medals using THIS WORKSHEET from Education.com.

And, as usual, we are using the library extensively. Our read-a-loud is Geronimo and the Gold Medal Mystery from the Geronimo Stilton series. (I love these books, and so do my kids!) We also checked out every picture book on the Olympics and London, as well as many non-fiction books on many of the events.

We have had fun, and learned a lot! There's still time to get involved! Teach your kids about the Olympics and cheer our country on to Victory!

Join in on Blogging through the Alphabet with Marcy at Ben and Me. I hear she is starting over with "A" very soon.