I have been waiting for 4 years to celebrate the winter Olympics in my classroom and finally it's here! Unfortunately, 1st and 2nd grade were in the middle of preparing for a program, 4th grade was right in the middle of recorders, and Kindergarten was focusing on Reading Month. This left just my 3rd and 5th graders, which was ok because with all of those other things going on, I didn't have as much time to prepare as I would have liked anyways. Here is a short overview of what we did.
Day 1: I broke the students up into 4 teams. Each team could pick a country they wanted to represent that was outside of North America. Their first challenge was to draw a picture of their country's flag and find a credible YouTube recording of their national anthem that included an English translation of the lyrics. Our school has portable Netbooks that they were able to use in the classroom to find this information. The 1st three teams to finish the challenge received gold, silver, and bronze. Every time a group earned gold, they got to stand in front of the room and we listened to the YouTube recording they found of their national anthem.
Day 2: Speed Skating!
Using paper plates as ice skates, the teams had to skate around the classroom collecting a random music note from me along the way. We did this relay style so there were 4 skaters at a time. When each team was finished, they had to total up the number of beats they had collected. They also received extra points for finishing (4 points for 1st, 3 pts-2nd, etc). We did three rounds and the team with the most points won. It was amazing how slippery the floor really seemed, especially if I made them wear just their socks. Some students would get completely stuck and couldn't move, so we tried barefoot and with shoes as well. All three ways were fun!
Day 3: Composer Challenge!
I had to be gone this day, so I wanted something for them to do that would be easy for a sub to follow. I came up with the Composer Challenge. Each team was given the biography of a famous composer from their country (luckily most of them had picked countries such as Germany, France, Russia, and Norway). If they had picked a country that didn't have a famous composer, I assigned them one from a country that wasn't represented. Using their biographies, they had to fill out "Meet the Composer" job application and complete a wordfind. I found all of these resources at
www.makingmusicfun.net and simply printed off the packets for them. Very simple and they learned a lot about their composers!
Day 4: The Biathalon
The biathalon consisted of two parts (of course!): cross country skiing and a puzzle. 1st, the students had to cross-country ski (on skis made out of poster board) to the front of the room and correctly answer a music question on their worksheet (relay style). If they answered correctly, they collected a puzzle piece and skated back. Once they had collected all 16 puzzle pieces, they had to put the pieces together to form the picture of a famous composer. The first team to correctly complete their worksheet and their puzzle won!
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| Lined up to start! |
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| Filling in their worksheets |
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| A completed puzzle! |
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Day 5: Bobsledding
The final Olympic Event was Bobsledding. Groups sat in 4 rows facing the front of the room with a pile of 4 rhythm flashcards behind them. The last person in line was given the 1st flashcard and had to either pat the rhythm (5th grade) or whisper the rhythm (3rd grade) to the person in front of them. They continued to pass the rhythm to the front of the line 'telephone' style. The person at the front of the row had to correctly write the rhythm on their marker board. Once answered correctly, they ran to the back of the row, grabbed a new flashcard, and repeated the process until they had completed 4 rhythms (this ensured all 4 members had to start a rhythm and write a rhythm). It was amazing how silent the room was for this entire event! Very intense!
Here is the final medal count for 5th grade. Teams received 3 points for every gold, 2 points for silver, and 1 point for bronze. This way I could determine an overall winner from all of the classes. All of my classes loved checking the board every day to see who was in the lead. I can't wait for the next Olympics!!
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