Winter Olympics Teaching Ideas

Explore the Winter Olympics in your classroom with our collection of cross-curricular teaching ideas and educational activities!

Teaching Ideas and Resources:

English

• Write a set of instructions to teach people how to take part in a Winter Olympic sport.
• Make a persuasive advert to promote the next Winter Olympics.
• Create a campaign to persuade the International Olympic Committee to consider your town / city as the location for a future Olympic event.
• Write an interview with an Olympian who has just won a gold medal.
• Write a story about the Olympic mascot.
• Watch these videos about the 2018 Winter Olympics. Can you find out more fun facts about the event? Could you make your own video?

Maths

• Use the Winter Olympics results to carry out different data handling / statistics activities.
• Check out our Winter Olympics results ideas and worksheets.

Science

• Freeze some water in a flat tray (such as a baking tray) and try pushing different items across it (for example a toy car, a piece of metal, a piece of wood). Which move the fastest? How can you make it a fair test?

Computing

• Make a stop-motion animation that shows a Winter Olympic sport taking place.
• Plan, film and edit a video report about the event.
• Design a game in Scratch based on one of the sports, for example skiing.
• Use graphics software to design a new mascot for the next Winter Olympics.

Design Technology

• Look at the different vehicles used for downhill racing (bobsleigh, luge and skeleton) and design your own vehicle. Which features will help it to go faster than the competition? How will you keep the riders safe?

Art

• Look at photos of athletes taking part in the Winter Olympics and try to recreate these using different techniques.
• Visit the official site and look at the graphics representing each sport (they say what they are when you hover the mouse over them). Design your own set of icons for the sports.
• Make a diorama of an Olympic sport.
• Can you design a new mascot for the next Winter Olympics?

Music

• Compose a new theme tune to accompany sports reports about the Winter Olympics.

Geography

• Research weather data from previous locations of the Winter Olympics and compare this to the data from your own location.
• Mark on a map the locations of previous Winter Olympics. Use a key to show which countries have hosted the event more than once.
• Make a fact file about South Korea.

History

• Research the history of the Winter Olympics and present this to an audience in different ways, e.g. a podcast, a video, a multimedia presentation, a written report.

Physical education

• Plan a new activity for the Winter Olympics, e.g. Snowman building events, snowball throwing competitions.
• The opening ceremonies of Olympic games are usually spectacular. Plan and perform a dance that would be suitable for a Winter Olympics opening ceremony.

Languages

• Learn the words for winter sports in the language you are studying.

PSHE

• The Mascot of the 2018 Winter Olympics is a white tiger named Soohorang. Read more about it here.
• The Olympic torch travels to every Olympic games from Athens and it is a great honour to be chosen to carry it for part of its journey. Who would you nominate to carry an Olympic torch, and why?