Learning Activities around the Olympics

The Olympic Games are starting Aug. 5, so it’s the perfect time to bring some Olympic-themed learning and play into your classroom or home.

Edventures with Kids hosted a great Olympics activity roundup earlier this summer that includes geography, STEM activities, learning about Brazil and books about the Olympics. There’s even an activity sheet kids can use to collect points when they do different activities to earn “medals.”

3 Dinosaurs has an Olympics pack of printables for use with kids ages 2 to 7. It includes cutting and writing practice, dot marker pages, counting, puzzles and more, all with a summer Olympics theme. And if you have a preschooler you’ll love these Olympics activities from Parenting from the Heart.

There’s another great roundup of Olympics activities from around the web at the Chaos and the Clutter. You’ll especially want to check out her ideas for hosting your own backyard Olympics. Also look at I Can Teach My Child for a DIY Olympic torch, an Olympic ring pretzel craft/snack and more.

Use basic LEGO bricks to make the Olympic rings, with instructions from Little Bins for Little Hands. Or paint rocks with the national flags of participating countries, which you can see at Non-Toy Gifts.

After all that playful learning your kid deserves a medal, so why not make gold, silver and bronze playdough with a little help from metallic crayons? The instructions are at Sugar Aunts.

Are you excited about the Olympics? What’s your favorite event? I think my daughter will love watching gymnastics.

[Photo via Edventures with Kids.]

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Summer Activity Printables for Kids

There are so many fun things to do with fall leaves, which is a good thing because they are everywhere. We have more than a dozen trees in our yard so I would always try to do some leaf crafts when my daughter was younger. We made rubbings and preserved leaves and did a ton of jumping in leaf piles, but if you’re looking for more activities to do with leaves, read on.

If you have a lot of different kinds of trees in your yard, on the playground or at the park, you can make leaf mandalas like these from Red Ted Art. They’re inspired by Andy Goldsworthy, who makes temporary art with natural materials (learn more about him at the link).

Leaves are art all by themselves, but you can make them an even lovelier display by combining leaves with other natural materials in a collage. Or make a little natural weaving loom like this one from Woodlark to hold a bunch of leaves and other fall pretties in a way that can continuously be changed.

Another way to turn leaves into art is by using markers or pens to trace the veins on a leaf. This idea is from Go Science Kids, and it’s a simple thing that makes really pretty leaves to display while also giving you can chance to talk about why leaves have veins and what is happening when leaves change colors.

Kids Craft Room has a great idea for making leaf luminaries, which would be fun to decorate the table from now through Thanksgiving. The best thing about these is that you don’t have to use any glue, so it’s easy for kids to make (with some supervision since cutting is involved).

This one does use glue, but it’s so cute it’s probably worth the potential mess. Our Kid Things shows you how to make an adorable hedgehog with fall leaves using their printable template and a paper plate.

I also love this fall in a bottle project from The Crazy Outdoor Mama. It’s like a snow globe with leaves and has the added cuteness of a kid’s photo inside. This would be a fun one to make at school to give to parents or grandparents, and it’s so easy and cute!

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