Winter Olympics

Welcome to Blue Bird Day’s Weekly Lesson Plans. This week we’re working on the theme Winter Olympics! Read below for more themed lesson plans and activities.

Table Time Activity: Olympic Ring Puzzle

Skill Check

The goal of this activity is to focus on color recognition and visual perceptual skills.

Growing My Skills

Cut 5 squares or rectangles out of cardboard. Paper; make sure they are all the same size.

Next, use different color Sharpies and a cup to draw a colored circle onto each piece of cardboard.

Next, outline the squares/rectangles with a black sharpie and draw circles onto the easel paper. Make sure you put the rings on the big paper in Olympic ring order.

Once you have colored rings on your cardboard and colored rings on your white paper then you are ready to play with the puzzle!!

Floortime Play Activity: Ice Skating Play

Materials:

White plastic table.

Tape.

Socks.

Skill Check

The goal of this activity is to promote engagement & social play with your child while pretending to ice skate!

Growing My Skills

Expand this activity by pretending your child is at an ice skating rink and clap while they do “tricks,” or play music and play freeze skating.

Try to have the main focus of your child playing with you, as their play partner.

Relaxation Time Activity: Go to the “Spa” for a Massage After All That Physical Activity!

Materials:

Relaxing Music.

A yoga mat or blanket.

Skill Check

The goal of this activity is to work on taking turns.

Growing My Skills

Have your child lie down and give them a back massage while listening to soft, gentle music.

Creative Time Activity: Olympic Medals

Materials:

Construction Paper.

Ribbon or String.

Gold Glitter.

Glue.

Scissors.

Skill Check

The goal of this activity is to help your child follow directions and build their creativity and fine motor skills.

Growing My Skills

Cut out a large yellow circle.

Punch a hole at the top of the circle.

Attach string or ribbon to the ‘medal.’

Add glue and gold glitter to the medal.

Movement Time Activity: Winter Olympic Games!

Materials:

Laundry Basket or Blanket.

Shoe Boxes or Tissue Boxes.

Broom.

Ball rolled-up socks, or balled up paper.

Scooter board.

Exercise ball, or pillow/couch cushion.

Skill Check

The goal of this week is to take all the skills blue birds have learned over the year and combine them into a full game: Ring Around the Rosie, tag, hide-and-seek, and catch!

Growing My Skills

Bobsled: have your child sit in a laundry basket or on a blanket and push or pull them down a hall/across a room or fill a laundry basket with stuffed animals or weights and have your child push it

Ice Skating: put shoe boxes or tissue boxes on your child’s feet and have them “ski” around the room

Curling/Ice Hockey: use a broom and a ball, rolled up pair of socks, or balled up paper to curl or play hockey

Skeleton: have your child lay on their stomach on a scooter board, exercise ball, pillow, or over your shins/feet, keep their legs straight, reach their arms straight back toward their feet and cue them to keep their head up. See how long they can hold this position!

Ski Jump: place obstacles in a path and have your child jump over each one–cue them to jump with two feet together or to complete a star jump

You can set these games up in rotations, have competitions with the family, as one big obstacle course, or individually! Get creative and add your own events as well!

Mealtime Activity: Fueling Our Olympic Self

Materials:

Watch Sesame Street: How To Eat Like Cookie Monster With Olympic Athletes YouTube Video.

Find food from the video (broccoli, carrots, pasta, cookies, salad, etc.) and practice “ohm nomming” with cookie monster.

Skill Check

The goal of this activity is to find foods that fuel the body to prepare for an Olympic event!

Growing My Skills

Prepare food available in the fridge before a meal or during snack (i.e canned fruit and vegetables, pasta, fresh fruit, and vegetables).

Watch Sesame Street: How To Eat Like Cookie Monster With Olympic Athletes YouTube Video.

The goal of the lesson is to find balance: eat vegetables, pasta, and cookies to fuel your body before an Olympic sport!

Language Time Activity: Red Light, Green Light: Get Moving with this Fun and Simple Game! 

Materials:

Nothing!

Skill Check

The goal of this activity is to improve your child’s receptive and pragmatic language skills by following directions and turn-taking.

Growing My Skills

Work on following one-step directions (i.e., red=stop, green=go).

Work on improving executive functioning skills by improving your child’s ability to inhibit distractors while they play (for an extra challenge, turn on some music as a distractor).

Take turns being the runner and the leader to work on pragmatic language skills.