This is a legacy provincial website of the ATA. Visit our new website here.

Going For Gold

February 27, 2018

We asked teachers on our Facebook page. What activities or discussions are happening in your classrooms around the topic of the Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang?

Nicole Falcone-Dempsey

Teachers from Ecole Our Lady of the Prairies school show their Olympic spirit. Pictured are (L-R, back): Majella Rymarz, Elise Barton, Amy Cook. (L-R, front): Maryana Dublanko, Melissa Weimer.

At Our Lady of the Prairies School we had our own opening ceremonies. Each class made up their own country, designed a flag and then explained the significance of their flag and their name. Our smallest learners in 100 Voices walked us into our “stadium” with their hand made torches. 

Rebecca Hennes

I kicked off the Olympics by giving my kids a dot to dot of the Olympic rings. They had to complete the dot to dot and try and figure out what the symbol was. After that,
I showed a clip of the opening ceremonies to get kids excited for it. I then used the Olympic website to show how many countries were competing in the Olympics.

All of my Grade 4 kiddos buddied up and picked a country to "represent" during the Olympics. I printed off flags for all the countries they chose and have put them on my classroom door, as well as all the countries that have medaled. My kids then completed a little research to learn about the Olympics and then a bit about their country (how many events they're competing in, how many athletes, and so on). 
Each morning we watch the previous day’s highlights and update our medal board. The kids are graphing medal standings. 

Each of my kids also received a press pass — I took a photo of each student and made them a pass for the country they are representing. They "scan" this pass each day to receive exclusive Olympic information about their country. Each country’s group is writing a magazine about their country and how its athletes are doing in the Olympics. (I convinced my kids that they have legit Olympic press badges and have been recruited by the International Olympic Committee to update Alberta on what is happening in Korea.)

Mary Giampa D'Andrea
In Social 10 and 20 we stream first thing to catch anything live. We watched live as the Canadian women’s hockey team won their game, a Canadian woman speed skater got bronze and Canada won a medal at luge. Later we will read some Team Canada profile pages online. Love it.

Joanne Crowell Gaudet


At SouthPointe School in Fort Saskatchewan we created a display of Olympic rings made up of every student’s handprints. The students are so excited that it’s our unique way of supporting our Canadian athletes! Our Grade 6s are adding journal entries on why the Olympics are important!

Nick Stabler
Sports writing today about the men's slopestyle — 45 minute deadline, exactly 15 lines typed. Great to see revisions and lots of very quick collaboration.

Josh Cormier
Using the results to multiply and divide decimal numbers in math.

Karlee Hren
In Grade 3, we are graphing the medal counts for specific countries. We also had great discussions about why some countries get more medals and have more athletes (climate, money, larger populations); why some countries (due to climate) do better at winter versus summer games; how athletes exemplify perseverance (especially those who are recovering from injuries) as well as what happens when countries and athletes “cheat.” It’s been awesome!!!

Deb Rennie
In my special ed. class we are watching some Olympic highlights on YouTube. We are learning the names of some events (skating, ice dance, curling, skiing etc.), to be quiet except to say "wow" to big jumps/throws, to say "awww" for crashes/falls and to cheer at the end of the event. We’re also learning to recognize the Canadian athletes by their clothing and the Canadian spectators by the flags they hold.

Emily Ann
Journal entries regarding the OAR team and students’ thoughts about participating but not being allowed to
represent their country.

Lindsay Brown
My daughter and I made a torch for the winter Olympic day at school tomorrow (she is in Grade 9 and I teach Grade 6
— different schools but she loves helping me prep stuff.)

Lauren Price
In French class we have a board featuring francophone athletes with some info about them in French, as well as a medal count for Canada. Each morning we have a discussion about recent results and what they find interesting.

Deana Truemner
Grade 9s reviewed the IOC host country application rules, then debated whether the rules were comprehensive in determining if a country is a suitable world stage to host. On to persuasive essays on their perspectives tomorrow.

Ashley Barkley
In Grade 3 we are graphing the medals of specific countries including Canada, U.S., India and so on combining the curriculum outcomes of math and social.

Erin Gena
Understanding the world views and experiences of others!

 

Also In This Issue