I don’t know about you, but we’re in the middle of Games fever here at the moment! If your kids are keen on the Games too, here are some fun activities you can do at home.
Olympic Games (or Commonwealth Games) fun
Olympic games medals
Grab some thick biscuits (ginger nuts, etc) that wont crumble when you make a hole through them. Use a cake skewer or similar to poke a small hole near the top (but not too close to the edge).
Once you have the skewer through the other side, pull out then use the skewer again to push some ribbon through (make it fairly thin ribbon so it’s easier to pull through).
Use icing or cake decoration pens to draw 1st 2nd or 3rd on each, or colour them in gold, silver and bronze. Once you’re finished playing they can be your afternoon tea, if they weren’t already eaten on the podium that is!
You could also use our stained glass window cookie recipe, which would be perfect for this!
Olympic Medal Chart
On a large piece of plain paper (the bigger the better) make 4 columns down the page – a simple and even way to do this is to fold the paper in half lengthwise and half again. When you unfold the paper you’ll have 4 equally spaced creases.
Copy and print the different country flags who are involved in the Games (Google is a great place for this). Cut out and paste the flags under each other going down the page until all the countries are ‘represented’.
At the top of the other 3 columns mark them with Gold, Silver and Bronze. As the Games go on, use the daily medal tally to help you fill in the columns.
A different take on this is to have an enlarged world map, with arrows pointing to each country, and record the number of medals either next to the country on in another area of the map.
Both options are great ways to learn about geography, national flags, addition, sport, and of course the actual Games.
And you don’t need to do this for every country in the games. You could pick your favourite 3 or 4. Or even make a game of it by randomly picking countries and seeing who ‘wins’ the medal tally at the end of the Games. This is a great way to learn about new countries you may not have heard much about before.
Have your own Olympic games
Pretty self explanatory. You children will love making up different sports to compete against. It might be teddy-bear relay, or skipping rope high-jump, or even moon-hopper shotput.
If you have a few kids that can get involved, have a 1st, 2nd and 3rd podium. Then use the cookie recipe above to make edible medals.
Have each of your children and yourselves pick a country involved in the Games and make a different night about learning each of their cultures/history.
Everything from food, clothing, history, movies, etc. Your kids will love learning new things especially if they get to help out.
