The arrival of the 2012 Olympics is clearly an event that sparks much interest.
It is wholly sensible to use this context to help engage learners and we have produced our own set of Olympic Themed Ideas to unite mathematical teaching and learning with athletics*.
However, we are far from alone.
The University of Cambridge’s sport.maths.org have a superb “Countdown to the Games” section which contains a whole series of articles and ideas for setting mathematics within an Olympic context – these spread from Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 5. The problems, challenges and activities are all engaging and contain a realistic amount of challenge. They are also richly varied, the Key Stage 1 and 2 maths activities, for example, contain work related to shape, angles, measures, data handling, calculation and problem solving.
getset .london.2012 have a host of useful activities to support work related to the Olympic Games. Many of the resources here can be accessed by children independently so could easily form the basis of online research, or as part of a homwork project. The coverage includes images, fact files, information about the Olympics and interactive quizzes.
playfair2012.org.uk aims to help children think about the moral and ethical side of the Olympic Games. It explores such concepts as human rights, equality and fairness through the stories of people who may be exploited making sportswear and sporting goods that are sold to us for a high price. Where do the profits from these sales actually go, and how are those profits mainteined at remarkably high levels. The site offers links to information, and lesson plans – much of this will promote clear discussion and enable children to consider the buying choices they make from an informed position.
essexlegacy.org offers a good range of Primary (and Secondary) school resources to support cross curricular work related to the Olympic Games. Thinking specifically of maths lesson plans and ideas, the site has a small selection of starter ideas available as a pdf file. However, if you work in Key Stage 2, take a look at the Secondary school resources page for mathematics – here hides a larger range of ideas, many of which can easily be adapted to meet the needs of older (or more able ) primary school children.
Our eBook collection also includes practical ideas and activities for English (including phonics), Science and PE Games as well as our favourite area of expertise: Mathematics.
Which Olympic resource sites have you found? Please share them here by posting a comment. As always, if you have found this post useful we would appreciate your links, tweets, likes and plusess…
