TeachersFirst's Olympics Resources
Other TeachersFirst Special Topics Collections

Winter or summer, the Olympics provide teaching opportunities across the curriculum for students of all ages. Browse these options for curriculum connections to light the Olympic flame in your classroom.
Explore all of our resources related to the Olympics.
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Pierre de Coubertin in Search of a Sustainable Stadium - The Olympic Museum
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): architecture (85), olympics (51), sustainability (18)
In the Classroom
This site is perfect for use during any Olympic Games, but is also a great addition to any unit on the environment. Have students explore on their own to learn more about the thought process that goes into designing and constructing a large building. Use an online tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram, reviewed here, to compare and contrast areas before and after the construction of the stadium. Challenge students to create a presentation using slides, reviewed here, to present their view on the proper placement and design of a stadium located near your town. Older students or more experienced technology users could use Sway, reviewed here, for this presentation. Sway creates unique multimedia projects using text, images, and media. Change the look of your Sway using the Mood and Remix tools to change the color palette, layout, and fonts.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Youngest & Oldest Olympic Gold Medalists - Athletic Edge Physiotherapy
Grades
5 to 12In the Classroom
Although all sports represented are from Summer Olympics, this interactive would be useful for learning about the Winter Olympics as well. Share with students, then have them research information for the winter games, or for their favorite Olympic sport. Once the research is completed, have students create online posters individually or together as a class using a tool such as Web Poster Wizard, reviewed here, or PicLits, reviewed here. Have students identify sports with the smallest and largest age gap for gold medal winners, then consider why they are so different.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Ready or Not, Let the Games Begin - Esri
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): maps (298), olympics (51), pollution (65), south america (40), sports (99)
In the Classroom
Ready or Not was created using Story Map, reviewed here. Use Story Map to create your own stories for any subject, perhaps an overview of the Olympics at the end of the games or a profile of a notable Olympic athlete. View this story together with your class, then divide students into groups to learn more about Brazil and South America. Include this site with your current events discussions as you compare security threats across the globe, pollution issues, or health concerns such as the Zika virus.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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USA Today Rio Olympics Guide - YouTube - USA Today
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): olympics (51), south america (40), sports (99)
In the Classroom
Share videos with your students as you follow the Summer Olympic games from your classroom. Use the "how to watch" sports videos as a model, then have students create their own videos describing how to watch their favorite sport. Share their videos on a site such as TeacherTube, reviewed here. Research Olympic athletes and their countries, then have cooperative learning groups create podcasts sharing news about the Olympics. Use a site such as podOmatic, reviewed here to complete a podcasting project.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Heroes! - The Olympic Museum
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): greeks (33), heroes (24), journalism (54), olympics (51), sports (99)
In the Classroom
Include this site as part of any unit on the Olympic Games or heroes. Have students create a simple infographic sharing their findings using Piktochart, reviewed here. Challenge students to create an annotated image of someone they consider to be a hero, including text boxes, video, and related links using a tool such as Thinglink, reviewed here. Use an online tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram, reviewed here, to compare and contrast two different heroes.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Science of the Summer Olympics - NBC and the National Science Foundation
Grades
5 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Share these short clips on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Challenge students to research an athlete in the current Olympics or the science of their favorite sport. Have students present their findings using Swipe, reviewed here, or Powtoon, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Science and Engineering of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games - NBC Learn
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Use these video clips to bring the Olympics alive in your science or math classes. Great for current events and STEM lessons, these clips are quick and simple - yet full of information. Share the clips on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Or better yet, challenge cooperative learning groups to view one of the videos and create a project to share with the class demonstrating the science (or math) concepts highlighted in the video. For quick projects, create electronic graphics of important words using a tool such as Typogenerator (reviewed here) or Wordle (reviewed here).Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Fractions of a Second: An Olympic Musical - The New York Times
Grades
3 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
View this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector and listen together to the different spacings of finishes by event. Challenge students to create timelines of finishes for other Olympic events (with music, photos, videos, and more) using Capzles (reviewed here).Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Winter Olympics: Sport by Sport - ESPN
Grades
7 to 12In the Classroom
Share this site with students to provide an overview of Winter Olympic sports, the history, and some of the key figures in each event. Have groups of students create a simple infographic sharing their findings using Easel.ly, reviewed here or Venngage reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Innovative Classroom - Innovative Classroom
Grades
K to 5This site includes advertising.
tag(s): bulletin boards (18), classroom management (159), counting (113), density (24), fractions (228), gettysburg address (18), heat (16), holidays (142), human body (132), map skills (84), martin luther king (36), olympics (51), painting (66), place value (54)
In the Classroom
Bookmark this site for use throughout the year. Explore the center activities to use in your classroom. Search lessons for ideas to incorporate. Print behavior and classroom management ideas for use with students.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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History for Kids - history-for-kids.com
Grades
K to 6This site includes advertising.
tag(s): boston (13), california (26), dinosaurs (55), england (56), gold rush (19), greece (27), myths and legends (26), olympics (51), romans (35), vikings (10)
In the Classroom
Make history (and mythology) come alive in your classroom with a little rhythm and rhyme! Use the poems to supplement your instruction while even adding tambourines, clapping, tapping, or toe tapping reaching all learners. Share the actual poem on your projector or Interactive whiteboard. If you want students to have a hard copy of the poem (to use as a study guide), print it out. Otherwise, save paper and share the link on your class website. If you can't find the history or mythology topic you are studying, it is time for your students to make their own rhymes. Have students create poems for photos and images using UtellStory, reviewed here. This tool allows narrating and adding text to a picture.To find Creative Commons images for student poems (with credit, of course), try PhotoPin, reviewed here. Have a poetry day featuring what you have studied in history. Be sure to add your students' projects to your class website or blog. Gifted students will enjoy the challenge while struggling learners will enjoy the reinforcement of the main ideas.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Olympics: Math Puzzles and a Game - Lets Play Math!
Grades
1 to 8This site includes advertising.
tag(s): charts and graphs (197), data (161), estimation (48), logic (248), mean (26), median (23), mode (16), olympics (51), operations (123)
In the Classroom
Explore previous medal counts with your students and ask them to predict this year's counts and graph as the games occur. Compare all three sets of data to find trends and abnormalities. Have students create online posters on paper or do it together as a class using a tool such as Web Poster Wizard (reviewed here or PicLits (reviewed here. Create posters of favorite Olympic athletes, sports, or competing nations. Create a link on classroom computers to the Math Playground Olympics game and challenge students to find out how much they know about the Olympics.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Science of the Olympic Winter Games - Nantional Science Foundation
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): olympics (51)
In the Classroom
Share these videos on an interactive whiteboard or projector, being sure to have student use the whiteboard tools as you pause the video so students can draw lines to illustrate forces and other concepts. Have student groups watch different videos and report back on the theoretical science AND the actual results from that sport, connecting the science concepts to the actual results they see in competition. Use a video annotation tool such as RooClick, reviewed here, for easy sharing with the class. Even younger students can benefit from the videos as an overview of more advanced concepts, provided you preview vocabulary, then stop and discuss more challenging words during the video. Your students will want the link to this site, so share it on your class web page. You can also embed the videos right in your web page, blog, or wiki. Have students write about the embedded piece, adding their own commentary of the actual Olympics based on the video.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Official Website of the Olympic Movement - Olympic.org
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): olympics (51)
In the Classroom
The possibilities at this website are endless. Use your interactive whiteboard or projector to share the MANY videos, information about the athletes, and many other activities. Use the site for research purposes about specific athletes or sports. Have students create multimedia presentations about events, athletes, or countries using this site. Create a class Olympics Wiki! Not comfortable with wikis? Have no wiki worries - check out the TeachersFirst's Wiki Walk-Through.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Go For The Gold - Scholastic
Grades
K to 10In the Classroom
If you are bringing the Olympics into your classroom, incorporate the many ideas at this website into your lessons. There are lesson plans ready to go (and divided by grade level). Try the interactive "It's All Greek To Me" together on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Use this site for research about the history of the Olympics, politics and the Olympics, and other pertinent topics.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Classroom Olympics - AIMS Education Foundation
Grades
1 to 5tag(s): creativity (118), mass (23), olympics (51)
In the Classroom
Use this FREE and READY TO GO resource to have the Olympic Games in your classroom. Print off the certificates for your students. Invite students' families to the games (if space permits).Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Going for the Gold - 2009 United States Olympic Committee
Grades
2 to 12In the Classroom
Use this site to research American athletes. Share the video clips, read the blogs, and view the pictures on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Don't miss the lesson ideas (in the "Resources" section). Share this site on your class website, so families can follow the U.S. Olympians.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Create Your Own Classroom Olympic Games - Education World
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): measurement (175), olympics (51), statistics (127)
In the Classroom
Bring the Olympics into your classroom. Share these "ready to go" sports with your students. Then have students try to invent their own Olympic games to share with the class. Why not video and share the Olympics using a site such as Teachers.TV reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Olympic Sports - Myvocabulary.com
Grades
4 to 10tag(s): olympics (51), sports (99), vocabulary (321)
In the Classroom
Share the puzzles on your interactive whiteboard or projector or make them available as links on your teacher public page. Have students (or groups) create their own illustrated dictionaries of terms using a tool such as Bookemon, reviewed here. As you add more vocabulary lists during the year, have them select their favorite 6-10 terms from each list to add to their "book."Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Gateway to the Summer Games - EdGate
Grades
2 to 8In the Classroom
Use this information to enhance your Olympic unit. The lesson plans and activities require very little preparation. Challenge your students to research the various countries that have hosted the Olympics in the past and create multimedia presentations to share on your interactive whiteboard or projector.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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