We are so excited in the Mad House that the Olympics are upon us again. I love the winter olympics and it is a little known fact that Mini was named after a scottish skier! So this week’s something for the weekend is dedicated to Olympics.
Make your own Olympic Torch
For inspiration we took a look at the previous torches and discussed what a relay race is. We also looked at the torch being used for this winter Olympics. 
What you’ll need:
- 1 sheet of white construction paper
- Clear tape
- Red, yellow, and orange tissue paper, 12″ x 12″ square of each colour
- White craft glue
How to make it:
- Roll the construction paper into a cone shape, tape closed.
- Layer the tissue paper squares, red on the bottom, then orange, and yellow on top.
- Gather from the centre of the squares and hold in your hand like a bouquet of flowers.
- Put some white craft glue into the sides of the opening of the cone.
- Place the tissue paper into the cone and let the glue dry completely.
Variation: For older children why not make it look more authentic, by covering the torch with bubble wrap to represent the holes and paint with gold paint. I also love this torch painting by J Daniel4’s Mom
Other Olympic activities
We had great fun making our own medal chart. This was a super opportunity to discuss why Countries often have different spellings to how we know them and to look at their flags and where they are in an atlas or on the globe. I adore this flags of the world bunting by No time for flashcards. Below are some other great activities for older (6 plus) children:
- Be a reporter at your favorite event at the Olympic games. Try to encourage descriptive words and ask lots of questions, which should encourage this. Including What is the sport about? How is it played? What is the weather like? What is the atmosphere like? What is the score? Who wins and how do they do it?
- Pretend you have won a gold medal at the Olympics. How would you feel? Try writing a speech that you would give after winning a medal.
- Write a biography of your favorite Olympian. Use the internet to find out information and write about your favorite Olympian. How old are they? What sport do they do? You could even draw a picture of them.
- Design a poster for your favorite Olympic sport.
- Junk model your own ski slope
Olympic Activities for Preschool and toddlers
- Why not make your own Olympic flag
- Make your own olympic trophy with a cardboard tube
- Bake some edible medals
- Make a snowball toss
- Olympic colour sorting activity
- Pipecleaner loop activity
The Olympic pictograms above would be perfect to print off and make a matching game with. They are really beautiful.
Great Books about the Olympics
Make sure you are following our facebook page, Google + page or on Pinterest for lots of Winter Olympic crafts and activities over the coming weeks.
Some lovely ideas, I really love that olympic torch! x
What a perfect craft that torch is to get the kids involved in liking the Olympics.
Lovely craft but we are not supporting this Olympic games for several reasons so will save it for Brazil x
Oh I would be interested to know why you are not supporting them?
I am not tha tmuch into the Olympics, but this activity seems great. I like the variation to it too.
These are great, particularly the torch, that’s brilliant. I can imagine my 3 running around with that and really getting into the spirit of it!
The torch looks amazing! x
I like medal chart idea… it will be fun to fill it out
We’ve had great fun with Olympic crafts this week too 🙂
The Olympic torch is very effective I must say. Great idea to do the medal table too
What a lovely way to get the kids connected to the Winter Olympics and create something of their own. Really fab.
Fab ideas – rather fancy making myself an Oylympic torch 😉
We loved making our olympic torch when it came through in 2012 – I still have it!
Love the torch idea. And where did you find those pictograms? They’re gorgeous!
Fun ideas!
Brilliant idea – we are hoping to watch some of the iwnter olympics!
Great ideas – love the torch!
I love this – we are watching the opening ceremony as I type this!!
It’s a shame that the Winter Olympics is a bit overshadowed by the various controversies – I love these crafts as they focus on what’s good about the Olympics x
We made an olympic torch for the London Olympics in 2012 🙂
Great ideas I love the olympic torch! must organise doing some winter olympics activities with mine I know they would enjoy it
Love it! Going to try this with my two right now – thanks!
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Fun activities! I especially love your Olympic torch. Thanks for sharing in the Discover and Explore linky. I’m featuring this post today.