Listening and learning about the Winter Olympics is one of my favorite themes to share in LSL therapy with preschoolers and on up. Whole families get involved. Kids become "experts" while learning about sports, athletes, equipment, and current events in the world.
I buy the winter Olympics issue of Sports Illustrated for Kids for each listener to take home. Families find the magazines educational, inspirational, and fun. Kids become engaged in the sports news and want to follow and listen and read all about the event and Olympians.
We sing along with Jack Hartman's Move Like the Winter Olympians Do. This video is on YouTube and showcases the winter Olympic sports and how the Olympic athletes move in their sport. It’s great to listen, move to the music while learning facts and new vocabulary.
I love the Winter Games: Literacy, Language & Listening Game by K.Ratliff, Listening and Spoken Language Specialist (AVEd.) on TpT. As your students move around the board, they are challenged with answering questions/engaging in the tasks practicing the following skills:
1. Curling Comprehension- Short reading or listening comprehension passages containing information about the Winter Olympics with a WH- question to answer.
2. Figure Skating Functions- Given an item associated with the Olympics, name its function.
3. Snowboarding Synonyms and Antonyms- Given a sentence with an underlined word, change the underlined word to a synonym or antonym, as directed by the card.
4. Guessing Goalie- Describe the item on the card using attributes and other players guess the item.
5. Alpine Analogies- Solve the analogies containing a combination of pictures and words.
6. Bobsled Run Rhyming- Roll the die and name that number of words rhyming with the item pictured on your card.
We target so many goals! Kids are excited and come back to therapy to share the events they watched, their favorite athletes, and information about countries worldwide.