XX Winter Olympics

The XX Olympic Winter Games will be held in Torino, Italy from 10-26 February 2006. The mascots of these winter games are Neve, a snowball, Gliz, an ice cube, and Aster, a snowflake.

Let's start with the Official Site of the XX Olympics. There's lots to look at here. You can download the schedule for the games or sign up for the email newsletter with all the important Olympic news to be delivered right to your classroom. There's a neat photo library of athletes sorted by sport. My favorite - visit the Kids' Village to see the Olympics as drawn through the eyes of kids in Italy.

There is SO much at NBC Olympics.com that it's almost distracting! I'm not quite sure this site could be used by students, especially younger ones, but it's an amazing resource! Videos, schedules, photos, articles about the sports and athletes - lots and lots of information. Check it out.

From Time for Kids comes Getting Ready for the Winter Olympics, an article written last month. Also from TFK, these articles: Going for the Gold and Olympic Gold Rush. And here's the Winter Olympics site from Scholastic News.

The Winter Olympics from Fact Monster includes information about the sports, biographies of former athletes, quizzes, crosswords and trivia. Mrs. Plankey loves this site!

From the folks at Enchanted Learning The Olympic Games: Winter 2006 in Turin, Italy. As with other topics from this website, there's tons to read about and do here, like Olympic books, reading about Italy (and Greece!), an Olympics crossword puzzle, quiz, and a scavenger hunt. There are even medals to print out. Some of this material is available to members only (and I bet you know a member) but there are portions available to the everyone. It's worth a look!

Olympic Winter Sports was posted online for the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City - but much of the information relates to the sport in general so it's still pertinent. Speaking of games past, the Olympic Games Primer tells all about the history of the Olympics. And here's an Olympics timeline from the games in Ancient Greece to the present.

Catch Winter Olympic Fever is an online collaborative Internet project spearheaded by a first grade class in Ohio. Research fifteen winter sports, then vote for your favorite. No one has signed up from New Hampshire - and there's still time to join!

Here's the site for the US Olympic Team with biographies, photo galleries, sports, and more.

Okay, I'm not sure why anyone would want this but I'll include this site because it's unique - clip art of teddy bears in Olympic sports uniforms!

Finally, here's my favorite Olympics site:Winter Olympics for Kids - by kids! From Fourth Graders at Pocantico Central School in upstate New York comes this great website. These enterprising students did all the writing and illustrating of the site and have built a really good resource for elementary kids. Be sure to have your kids read about the sports - and check out the Activities page with the links to JigZone, the online jigsaw puzzle site.

Now, if you're going to study the Olympics anyway, wouldn't an Olympics Podcast some time before February vacation be neat? Lots of opportunities for your kiddos to practice good oral and written communication skills. Any takers??