Lessons for the Winter Olympics

This article was originally published on January 21, 2018 on the Listenwise blog.

The 2018 Winter Olympics are coming up! Are you as excited as we are?!

The Winter Olympic Games are a time to watch the best of the best athletes excel in their sport. They are held every four years, and include events such as the biathlon, bobsled and skeleton, curling, figure skating, hockey, luge, ski and snowboard, and speedskating.

Get your students engaged in real world events they enjoy and bring the 2018 PyeongChang Games into your classroom. Below are some ideas and resources to help you do so.

Do you know why the Olympics started and how they have evolved to modern day? Watch this PBS Learning Media video.

Here are some Listenwise stories about the Sochi winter Olympics to listen to with your class. Keep an eye out for more upcoming current events on Listenwise.

• Sochi’s Man-Made Snow
• Subjectivity in Olympic Judging
• Curling Provides Quick, Effective Workout
• This isn’t specifically about the Olympics but a good debate: Should Athletes Be Considered Role Models?

These are resources from other sources that you can use while teaching the Winter Olympics.

• 15 Tech Tidbits To Bring the 2018 Winter Olympic Into Your Classroom by School Library Journal
• Olympic classroom resources from Read, Write, Think
• Six Resources for Teaching the Olympics from KQED

Explore other NPR stories and answer these questions.

• How do you earn a degree and train for the Olympics? Listen to this story about figure skater Max Aaron.
• In what year did the U.S. first win a medal in the biathlon? Listen to this story about U.S. Paralympic Biathletes.

The Olympic Charter states: ‘No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in the Olympic areas.’ However, the history of the Olympics have included protests and boycotts.

Connect the Olympics with the political climates of different regions and time periods.

• The Olympics in South Korea this year will have some athletes competing together from North and South Korea after the countries have been divided for over 70 years. Listen to this story of North Korean figure skaters: North Korea’s Olympic Hopefuls Include A Pair Of Figure Skaters
• Protests at the Olympics are common. Listen to the tradition of political protests during the Olympics, including the U.S. boycott (along with 60 other countries) of the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
• Teach the history of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany.
• Did you know who was a hero in the 1936 Olympics? These games were used by Adolf Hitler as a platform to prove his theory of racial superiority. His attempt failed as African-American Jesse Owens won four gold medals. When Owens Beat Hitler, And The Olympics Changed
• Did you know Hitler gifted oak trees to athletes in the 1936 Olympics? Listen to this interesting story about Jesse Owens’ tree: Jesse Owens’ Legacy, And Hitler’s Oak Trees
• Did you know that the Berlin Olympics were the first to be televised…sort of? Connect your current Olympic discussions to past Olympic history: Nazis Pioneered Broadcasting… And Made Jesse Owens A Star

For more Olympics resources including free lesson plans, activities, worksheets and class materials, please visit our Olympic Winter Games collection.