Olympic Bids

For Sports Week, I put the children into Olympic country teams and each were challenged to put together an bid to persuade the head of the Olympic Committee (our PE leader) that they should be the next Olympic hosts. To organise this, every child did every activity (except the opening ceremony, which was planned as a team - see below), then at the end of the week, they had to choose who would present which element. Every team member had to present one of their own contributions, so making this decision was a great team-builder on its own. Another key skills we worked on was persuasion - they had to really sell their ideas. (All resources downloadable the bottom of the post)

First up was Geography, using Google Maps and Google Earth to decide where to locate the Olympic village. Children had to consider space, amenities, transport links and terrain. They researched 3 cities then created their own Google Map of the best location, with relevant locations noted on, and wrote a persuasive pitch. Alternatively, they could draw a map. 

Next up was the obligatory logo design. We looked at past Olympic logos and decided that they represent 3 things: the Olympics, often including a sports figure; the year, both written on and clear in the style of the artwork; and the country, often through the chosen colours or style. The children then designed their own and explained how theirs represented these three aspects.  

After that, we watched some of the highlights from Olympic opening ceremonies here:

As a team, the children planned their own opening ceremony. I gave them a very basic planning sheet and said they could use this however they wanted - they didn't have to put a particular thing in a particular space on the sheet, it was for them to choose. They first split the opening ceremony into what they felt were appropriate categories - one for each person on the team. Some examples were fireworks, music, entrance of each team, dances, entrance of monarch / state leader. 

Finally, each child designed their own game to add to the Olympics. We looked at the rules for Quidditch and watched an interview with J.K. Rowling about how she created it (the video link is now dead - random!). 

As promised - here are the editable downloads. Enjoy!

location_of_the_olympic_village.docx
File Size:	148 kb
File Type:	docx

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olympic_logo_design.docx
File Size:	148 kb
File Type:	docx

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olympic_opening_ceremony_plan.docx
File Size:	138 kb
File Type:	docx

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olympic_sport_design.docx
File Size:	151 kb
File Type:	docx

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