2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi

The Winter Olympics begin soon so these are some links we'll use in the classroom to 

help us learn more about the games, the history behind them, the Olympians, the countries they represent and the location of the games this month. Go USA!

Here's the main website for the Olympics... olympic.org
There you can find schedules, information about athletes, countries that participate and more!



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"The 2014 Winter Olympics will take place in Sochi, Russia, from February 7 through February 23. Events are divided into 14 sports—15 if skeleton is counted as a separate sport from bobsleigh. (Here, we’re counting them as a single sport.) Some sports have multiple disciplines—men’s and women’s competitions, relay competitions, and races of different distances. Each discipline will have three medalists—gold, silver, and bronze." ~ from National Geographic Education

For information about the sports played in the winter games, check out Sports of the 2014 Winter Olympics on National Geographic Education.

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From NBCLearn:

Science and Engineering of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games
This 10-part video series, produced by NBC Learn and NBC Sports, in partnership with the National Science Foundation, explores the science, technology, engineering and math of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games.

Science of the Olympic Winter Games
This original video collection explores the physics, biology, chemistry, and math behind the Olympic Winter Games.

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http://cybraryman.com/olympics.html

This is a great collection of things you might want to know about the Game as well as teaching materials from Cybraryman, former teacher Jerry Blumengarten.

Iditarod Prezi by CD

Here's another terrific extra credit project about the Iditarod...

Iditarod by MS

This is the first EXTRA CREDIT project for our class! Well done MS ~ I am very proud of your hard work. :)Ms. G

Extra Credit: What is the Iditarod?

We've got a room full of curious students who really enjoy using technology and writing about things that interest them so I thought it might be fun to offer a challenge for some extra credit!

The Iditarod is a very famous sporting event that takes place every year at the beginning of March. Here's a video to give you an idea of what the Iditarod is all about...



Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to research this incredible race and then share what you've learned with the class. You can create a Prezi, PowerPoint presentation or video, write a book, give a speech... or whatever you'd like! Most of the work for the project will be done at home but I am happy to help you with any resources you need. You can do the work on your own or team up with a classmate or two. There is no due date for this assignment.

http://iditarod.com/

What causes an earthquake? What exactly is a tsunami?

The kids had lots of questions about the news out of Japan this morning. I spoke to each child who brought it up, trying to reassure them and listening to their concerns but we didn't have a class discussion about it yet. We will talk about it next week after I've had a chance to pull together some resources. In the meantime, here are two videos from National Geographic that help explain about  earthquakes and tsunamis.

Time For Kids

This week I'll be sending home our first edition of Time For Kids, a weekly news magazine written especially for children in grades 3 and 4. I will ask the children to read it and complete a related assignment. If you have the time, I would love for you to read an article or two with your child and discuss it together. Exposure to the world outside of where they live and breathe every day is so great for your child and can provide many opportunities for interesting discussion.

TFK also offers a great website that your child may wish to visit from home. We will be talking about it in class so that they'll know how to access it.