The Olympics
Olympic Rings
We love the Olympics in our house and are gearing up to go cheer for 2 countries in Vancouver later this month. I meant to make this craft with paint but we were out of black and green and since there was a nice furnace repair man in my garage I couldn’t run out. So we decided to cover the rolls with tissue paper instead. As it turned out my son liked cutting and sorting the paper more than anything so it was perfect! This was a long craft with little guys I would skip the crayons, tissue paper and glue and simply paint.
- Gather your materials. You will need red, black, blue, green and yellow paint or crayons and tissue paper. A wrapping paper roll or 5 toilet paper rolls, glue, scissors, and some clothes pins.
- Start by cutting the roll into 5 if you are using a wrapping paper roll.
- Have your child color with roll with a crayons. If you are painting the rolls paint now. I used the crayons so that my son had a visual aid when it was time to glue the paper on to reinforce that we are only using one color for each roll.
- While they are coloring cut up some of the tissue paper, leave some for your child to cut as well if they are able to use scissors.
- Have your child cut and sort some too. This was my far my son’s favorite part. Normally he loves glue and he was like ” I’ll cut and sort more mama, you do the glue today!”
- Time to add glue- add lots!
- Add paper.
- Repeat for each ring.
- Stack and glue rings together.
- Secure with the clothes pins.
- Let dry.
More Olympic Themed Activities
Totem Pole
1. Gather your materials. Before starting gather some pictures of totem poles, explain that totem poles were used for all different reasons, to tell legends, record history and sometimes just for art. You will need many colors of construction paper, scrap paper is great, although you will need one large piece for the wings. A piece of plain white paper, paper towel roll, glue, scissors, a marker, a paper punch, and some colorful markers. You may also want some tape to keep things in place while glue dries.
2. Start by coloring the white paper, older children can do patterns , younger ones can just go for it. Other than playing with the final product, this was the only step my little man helped me with.3.While they color, cut out eyes, long strips for faces, noses- the sky is the limit. We cut out 3 pairs of eyes, some eyebrows a few noses and mouths.
4.Cut out some wings set aside
5. Cut small feathers from the scrap paper. Set aside.
6. When they are done coloring, wrap the white paper around the paper towel roll. Trim if needed. Set aside.
7. Start gluing on the totem animals faces
, although we didn’t decide exactly what animals we were making, as we glued them on we decided on a raven, a frog and a seagull. Not sure there are many seagulls on real totem poles but that’s ok.
8. Glue the feathers on the wings.9. Glue the wings on the pole and let dry.
I am looking for some guest reviewers for chapter books. If your school age child and/or you would like to review a book you’ve read please email me with the title, the author , your review , first name and age. I will be doing 2-3 of these special posts throughout the summer. If you have any questions drop me a line !
- Gather your materials. You will need some cardboard ( an old mac and cheese box is perfect) some gold sparkly paint, double stick tape, a paintbrush, some ribbon or streamers, and some markers for decorating the medals.
- Draw two identical circles on the card board.
- Have your child decorate the circle with crayons or markers.
- Add a few globs of paint.
- Cover the two circles with paint and let dry.
- Cut the circles out.
- Using double stick tape ( glue would work too- just let it dry) tape the streamer onto the back of one circle , make sure the loop is large enough to make it over your child’s head. Add another layer of tape and the front side of the medal.
- Have a very adorable child who likes things around their necks model it for you
Rhythmic Gymnastics : To make our ribbons I used a Take and Toss straw and threaded the ribbon through then tied a simple knot.
It doesn’t wreck the straw that way and you can even re use the ribbon!
We shook the ribbons high, low fast and slow!
Track and Field: I used a some left over streamers from Valentines day and tied each end to a small tree at the playground. 
We lined the boys up and bribed them with cookies to run, turns out the bribe wasn’t needed at all- they repeated the race again and again without asking once for the cookies ( which was good cause we needed them to convince the two to get back in their strollers at the end of the day! ) . 
Basket Ball: Grab a pop up hamper, and all the balls you have. 
I hung the hamper on a tree support because it was windy, but do what works for you. This was such a hit, they kept going and going!
- Gather your materials. You will need color pictures of flags in an atlas or online, some markers, white paper, double stick tape or glue and a long piece of ribbon.
- Show your child a number of different flags and have them choose which they want to recreate. I
would urge them to choose countries other than their own to do since this is a chance to learn about something new. - Fold the paper , one side will be for the flag , the other to write the name of the country on the back.
- Color your flag.
- Write the name of the country on the back.
- Make multiple flags.
- Using double stick tape put one piece at the top by the fold in the paper , and one at the bottom, place your ribbon on top of the tape near the fold. Press down to seal both sides. Repeat this for each flag.
- Hang up and show off the worldly masterpiece!
” Swifter, Higher, Stronger: A Photographic History of The Summer Olympics” by Sue Macy
On my quest for some Olympic picture books at my local library I didn’t find any, but I did find this. A fantastic book for older school age children. There is a lot of text but there is also plenty of pictures with short blurbs that will appeal to younger kids. Do not expect preschoolers to sit for this, but you may enjoy reading it, I found it very interesting and the collection of photos was great!
This activity will be fun to do for younger children but older ones will be able to appreciate the significance of the torch , to learn more about it check out this site .
- Gather your materials. You will need a paper towel roll, some red paint, orange tissue paper, aluminum foil , glue, scissors and a paint brush.
- Start by painting your torch red.
- While your child is painting rip the aluminum foil into small pieces, if you are doing this with an older child they can use scissors to make pretty designs like the real torch!
- Spread your glue on the top half of the roll.
- Add your aluminum foil.
- While your child does that cut your tissue paper into flames.
- Add glue on the inside
and stuff your tissue paper flames inside.
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