Teaching About the Summer Olympics Through Reading

I LOVE the Olympics!  I have always loved the Olympics, and I get very excited when it's an Olympic year.  The summer Games are my favorite, especially the gymnastics and swimming.  The Olympics is also a high-interest topic for students.  The summer Games are a perfect theme for the end or beginning of a school year, and it's a great theme for summer school, as well.

When I have a theme that I'd like to teach but is not in my curriculum, I always start with guided reading.  I am very lucky to have a Reading A-Z subscription through my school district.  On the Reading A-Z site, there are several different books that are leveled and perfect for an Olympic theme.  My favorite is titled Summer Olympic Events and is available in levels H, K, & Q.

In my Gold Medal Literacy resource, I have two mini books that I also use: The Summer Olympics and Where in the World is Rio de Janeiro?  They're perfect, because students can highlight and write directly in their books.  The nice thing about those little books and the A-Z readers is that they come with comprehension activities and worksheets.  My Gold Medal Literacy packet is loaded with word word and writing activities that can help you run a mini-unit on the summer Olympics.  I used it during the last week of school, and my kids had a blast!  They're definitely excited for the Games in August.

You can find my Gold Medal Literacy resource here.

Over the years, I've collected Olympics trade books as I've found them.  They are kind of few and far between, at least the good ones are.  I've linked up a few of my favorites and a few on my wish list. (These are Amazon affiliate links.)

What Are the Summer Olympics? I LOVE this series!

Magic Treehouse: The Hour of the Olympics- Excellent for guided reading or as a read aloud.

Ancient Greece and the Olympics: Nonfiction Companion

G is for Gold Medal- I love the variety of information in this book.  It's not a great read aloud, but it is perfect to add to a themed bookshelf.

Elympics- This one looks really cute, although I do not own it.

How to Train with a T.Rex and Win 8 Gold Medals- I think this one looks so cute!

Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World's Fastest Woman- There are tons of great biographies about Olympians, and this one is one of my favorites.  Excellent book!

Olympia the Games Fairy- My girls love these fairy books, so this is a good one to add to the bookshelf.  It is always chosen.

...and if you're looking for some more fun ideas for teaching about the Olympics.  Click on the photos to access the link.

(image and link to The Chaos and the Clutter)

(image and link to Classy Mommy)

(image and link to Fun-a-Day)

My summer Games math resource on TPT. 

 Math and Literacy together!

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A Scent-Sational End-of-the-Year Gift for Your Students (or Colleagues)!

If you search for end-of-the-year gift ideas in Pinterest, you'll find a ton of adorable ideas. I've done a few different things in the past, but this year I wanted something different that wouldn't break the bank. I also wanted to do something that I knew my kids would really love and something that would remind them of me.

Smelly markers are kind of my thing.  I use them all of the time. Mr. Sketch are my favorite, #obviously, but I don't discriminate against other fab markers. Lucky for me, I found packs of Scentos at Five Below super cheap, so Scentos it was. They have the silliest faces, and the scents are fun, to. I think my kids are going to love them! 

I gave each kid one marker. I printed the tags on card stock and taped the marker to the back with washi tape. I think they turned out pretty darn cute. I'd love to be able to give each kid a whole pack, but that isn't in my budget right now.  You could package a few in a  cellophane bag and tie with a ribbon. You could also tape a tag to a whole pack as fun present for your teammates or your child's teacher. You can grab the tags in you TPT shop for free.

Check out other adorable ideas for celebrating and gifting your students on my Classroom Celebrations Pinterest board.

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