They are themed on the winter olympics which encourages the children to engage with current events, and also nurtures their interest in sports and physical activity.
These activities are not just fun, they also help the children to develop important skills which will further their learning and be very useful. Keep reading for inspiration on the best winter olympic activities to try today.
1. Winter Olympics Coloring
Coloring is a simple activity that will help the children to engage in the winter olympics. Provide coloring sheets that are themed around the winter olympics and the various sports, and ask the children to color them in.
You should provide plenty of materials such as colored pencils and crayons. You can also provide a bit of information about each sport, or some images of the sports for the children to use as a reference.
Coloring also doubles up as a mindfulness activity which is very beneficial to the students.
2. Make Your Own Olympic Medal
If you are looking for a creative craft activity that would fit in with the winter olympics then you can help the children to make their own olympic medals.
There are lots of different ideas for how to do this depending on the age group that you are working with and the materials you have available.
A very simple activity is to have the children design their own olympic medal. You can ask them to draw it and color it in, or you can provide a template for them to fill in and color.
Alternatively, you could make medals out of paper plates using this tutorial. For something more advanced, try these dry clay olympic medals.
3. Opening Ceremony Party
If you want to get your students interested in the Winter Olympics, why not host your own opening ceremony party in class? You can allocate each student a country, or they can work in teams.
They can research the country and put together a presentation for the class. This could be in the form of a poster or a slideshow etc. They can also replicate the flag of their allocated country.
You can show the children videos of previous opening ceremonies and then create your own, with a parade and even some themed food.
You can continue the theme by creating a points system for good deeds or hard work etc and at the end of the olympics you can announce the winner.
4. Winter Games Bingo
Did you know that you can play bingo with images instead of numbers? It is a great way to make it more accessible and interesting for children, and you can choose any topic.
Winter games bingo uses images of different winter sports as well as other things associated with the winter olympics, like the torch. This is not only a fun activity but it will also help the children to learn more about the Winter Olympics.
You can find a free template for winter games bingo here. You can also double up on activities and have the children color in their bingo sheets afterwards.
5. Winter Sports Dice
If you want to do a physical activity with your students then you should try this winter sports dice which gets them to mimic the movements of different sports. You can access the free templates here.
Print them out and use them on large dice. You can make your own dice out of cardboard or you can use foam dice or learning dice.
There are three different dice – one for the movement (skating, skiing etc), one for the speed (fast, slow etc), and one for the number of times to repeat the movement.
The children can take it in turns to throw the dice and complete the movement. This gets them moving around and will also help them to learn about the different sports.
You might need to demonstrate the movements, or show them some videos of the sports beforehand. This activity can be done indoors if you move the tables out of the way. It can also be done outdoors on a nice day.
6. Ski Slope Craft
If you are looking for an arts and crafts activity to try with your students, you could help them to make a ski slope. This works well in teams of 3-4, as there will be little jobs for each person to do such as cutting and sticking.
This will help them to develop teamwork skills, as well as creativity, problem solving and even engineering skills!
There are different options depending on how big you want the final ski slope to be. You could use polystyrene, cardboard, paper, cardboard rolls, and more.
They can decorate the skip slope with green felt for trees, and flags made with cocktail sticks and tissue paper. They can even make the people to ski down the slope using pipe cleaner and lollipop sticks.
For some more inspiration and instructions see here.
7. Breakfast Of Champions
Everyone knows that the best sports champions end up on the Wheaties box, including olympic winners. You can turn this into a fun drawing activity, or even a research activity.
Option one is to have the children draw themselves as Winter Olympic champions. They can choose a sport, design their outfit etc. This picture can then be cut out and stuck onto the Wheaties background.
You can stick this to an actual cereal box if you want to take it one step further.
Option two is to ask the children to research a Winter olympic winner (you can allocate them an athlete each if you want to).
They can design their own Wheaties cereal box based on this athlete, with a drawing of them and facts about their career and their sport etc. This could be in a poster format, or as a cut and stick project using an actual cereal box.
8. DIY Cardboard Skis
There are so many different craft projects that you can do for the Winter Olympics. These DIY cardboard skis are really fun to make and you can even play with them afterwards (gently, or they will break quickly).
This is an activity that the students will need to work together on, as it will take a bit of time and there are quite a few different steps.
See here for full instructions on how to make the cardboard skis. There might be some parts that the children will need help with, and they will need supervision throughout.
This also teaches the children about being creative and using household waste for fun (plastic bottles etc). You can get the children to choose their own colors and designs for the skis, so each team will have a different end result.
9. Design Your Own Snowboard
Snowboarding is arguably one of the coolest winter sports. Children tend to find it very interesting because of its similarities to skateboarding. A fun activity to do in the classroom is to get the children to design their own snowboard.
You can give them a template to color in, or just give them the outline of the shape so that they can come up with their own patterns as well as the color scheme.
Make sure you provide plenty of materials to really encourage their creativity – pencils, pens, crayons etc.
You can even turn this into a multi-media craft by cutting out a template and sticking it onto a piece of cardboard the same shape. The children can then use other materials like buttons, tissue paper, felt etc to create their snowboard.
Make sure you provide glue and brushes. They could even paint their snowboard if you have painting supplies.
10. Glitter Ice Skates
If you have any children in your class that are interested in gymnastics or dancing, then they will probably be fascinated with ice skating in the winter olympics.
One of the great things about ice skating is the beautiful costumes. You can turn this into a fun activity by getting the children to design their own ice skates. This is the perfect time to use plenty of glitter!
You can keep this simple by using a one-sided ice skate template, or you can print off mirror images and stick them to either side of a piece of cardboard the same shape.
This will allow the children to make a two dimensional ice skate that they could take home. You can even turn it into a hanging decoration by punching two holes in the top and attaching some ribbon.
This would turn it into a lovely handmade christmas tree decoration!
Make sure you provide lots of colors and materials for the children to decorate their ice skates – paint, glitter pens, ribbons etc. You can even print off some pictures of ice skaters to inspire them.
Summary
These fun activities will help to get your students interested in the winter olympics, will keep them entertained, and will also develop important skills. You can do them in the classroom or at home.
Hi, my name is Helena Waters and I was a teacher for 40 years before retiring last year.
During my time as a teacher I dedicated the majority of it to making classrooms as fun as possible, with educational parties, fun activities, and low cost entertainment that made the children excited about learning.
I taught children of all ages, from preschoolers to high school students. Now, with the pandemic having uprooted everything that children once knew about school and learning, I think that the need for my ideas is bigger than ever.
That is why I created School Sparks, a place in which I can write down and share all of my ideas on how to get students excited about going to school again. I hope that you’ll find some useful within a school setting, even at home too!
