Winter Olympics Themed Activities for Toddlers

I may currently be surviving summer in the land down unda' but I am a Canadian at heart. I miss snow, scarves & mittens. I dream of the day I can play in the snow with my son for the first time. I wish I could watch him wobble his way through his first steps in the snow while wearing a ridiculous amount of winter clothing. I'm also pretty sure I won't mind running into the house so he can use the potty right after I just finished dressing him in his winter clothing. Really!


While the Olympics are on (the next 2 weeks) I intend on teaching K all about our homeland & the winter Olympics. Here's some of the activities we are going to do:


Indoor bobsledding
-Put your kids in a laundry basket & run up & down the hallway pushing them. They will love it so be prepared to do it again
 & again & AGAIN!


Luge
-Lay your child down on a towel and carefully pull them from
 point A to point B


Snowball throwing competiiton

-If you don't have snowballs use rolled up socks


Pretend to ice skate/ snowboard/ ski

-Wood or tile floors work best


Mitten Match

-Collect different pairs of mittens. Mix them up &
 place them in a pile. Take turns finding the
 matching pair.

Hide the Mitten

-Hide the mitten in a room somewhere & 
see who can find it first. You can play "hot" (near the mitten) 
& "cold" (far away from the mitten)

Olympic Ring Games

-Have children jump in & out of hula hoops and time them

-Have children toss beanbags into the hoop


Obstacle Course

-Set up an obstacle course in your backyard or living room 
& let children play on it


Frog jump
Which frog jumps the farthest? Pretend to be a frog and jump
 with both  feet at the same time to the front. 
Measure and mark the spot.


Gymnastics
Place a large sheet on the floor. Taking turns, each child makes 
movements on the sheet. Balancing on one leg and making
 different  movements with their arm.


Bear races
Children pretend to be bears and make a race running on all
 fours  to the finish line.

If you have any other suggestions or other ideas I would love to hear them. Just leave a comment under this post. Cheers!

Olympic Themed Crafts for Toddlers

In honour of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver at the moment, I thought I would share some great crafts & activities to do with toddlers (& preschoolers).  I lucked out on this blog post because I have a huge file on my computer of Olympic lesson plans from when I worked in Thailand. We had a 1 month summer camp that was Olympic themed & it was a huge success. Here are some crafts that I did with my preschoolers & hope to try out with my toddler:

  

Olympic Torch

What you need:

-Empty paper towel roll

-Red & orange tissue paper

-Tape or glue

-Crayons

What to do:

-Decorate the paper towel roll with crayons

-Layer the tissue paper, "scrunch" it & glue it to the inside of the roll

Olympic Medal 

What you need:

-Yellow/gold tissue paper

-Glitter or glitter glue

-Scissors

-White glue

-Circle template (a glass or cup works perfectly)

-Small piece of card board (a cereal box will do)

-Hole punch

-Ribbon or yarn

What to do:

-Trace and cut a circle from the cardboard

-Punch a hole in the top of the circle

-Allow your child to spread glue and place small pieces of
 tissue paper on the circle

-Decorate the “gold” medal with glitter or glitter glue

-Allow to dry and string ribbon through the hole

Olympic Rings

(Sorry I forgot to take a photo of this one!)

What you need:

 -Paper

-Olympic Ring Printable from Preschool Learning & Crafts

-Crayons

-Tissue paper

What to do:

-Print out the Olympic Ring Printable onto white paper

-Read and explain the directions on the printable to your toddler/ preschooler

-Allow child to color the picture

-Use scissors to cut small squares of red, yellow, black, 
green & blue tissue  paper

-Help your toddler glue the appropriate color of tissue paper on each ring

OPTIONAL: Use small squares of tissue paper and glue the appropriate 
colors on the rings

 Paper Plate Olympic Rings

What you need:

-5 small paper plates

-Paint (blue, yellow, black, green & red)

-Paint brush

-Glue

What to do:

-Carefully cut out the centre of all 5 paper plates

-Help your toddler to paint each plate in a different color

-When the paint is dry lay the rings out in the Olympic design & colour.


Ski Jump Art

What you’ll need:

-Template from Kaboose 

-White glue

-Crayons

What to do:

-Print the template

-Color the picture with crayons

-Use white glue to glue the cotton balls onto the picture to 
make snow & clouds

Olympic Flag

What you need:
-Printed Template from Krafty Kid
-Crayons
-Scissors
-Straw or chopstick
-Tape


What to do:
-Print out the flag template from Krafty Kid
-Color the circles in this order: blue, yellow, black, green, red
-Cut out the flag
-Use tape to attach the paper to the straw/ chopstick to make a flag




Of course if your feeling lazy or just too busy why not 
print off some Coloring Pages from Print Activities.


Go Canada! :) -Jenn