10 Winter Olympic Games Classroom Activities

The Winter Olympic Games are a perfect foundation for engaging classroom lessons. From reading and research to physics and weather, students can explore real-world concepts through stories of athletes, events, and innovation.

Key takeaways:

• Engage students across subjects with ELA, math, and science lessons for cross-curricular connections.
• Promote critical thinking and collaboration through debates, discussions, and reflections.
• Make learning relevant and interactive with athlete biographies, science datasets, and stories from previous Winter Olympic Games.

Jump to:

• ELA lessons to help students explore the Winter Olympic Games
• Science lessons to connect phenomena to the Winter Olympics

[ELA lessons to help students explore the Winter Olympic Games](id-ela)

Key takeaways:

• Students can explore history, athlete stories, and current events using differentiated texts. 
• Structured activities help students practice debate, reflection, and writing skills while engaging with Winter Olympics content.
• Newsela ELA lessons support research, critical thinking, and life skills development while focusing on high-interest topics.

How can students build research skills using the Winter Olympics as a topic?

Boost research skills by asking students to complete a project on the Winter Olympics. They can choose from topics that spark curiosity, like:

• Famous Olympic Athletes
• Recent Olympic Games
• History of the Olympics

How can Olympians teach us about kindness and community?

Teach students about camaraderie and sportsmanship using Olympians as a model.  Try this activity: 

• Have students complete a Think-Pair-Share activity and brainstorm about the most competitive event they’ve ever participated in.
• Read an article about camaraderie at the Olympics that includes things like giving each other pep talks and celebrating wins together.
• Split students into groups to complete a Where I Live graphic organizer and brainstorm ways they could spread more positivity and kindness.

What can students learn about athletes’ performance and the potential of setting world records?

Students can debate and discover what it takes to set or break a world record in any sport with this activity:

• Split the classroom into “yes” and “no” sides and ask students to vote on questions like: “Athletes should receive consequences for cheating,” or “Sports will become boring if athletes don’t set new records.”
• Have students read an article about how factors like conditioning, diet, and technological improvements have impacted how we track world records since the beginning of the modern Olympic Games.
• After reading and learning more about world records, ask students if their opinions changed on any of the topics.

How can the Winter Olympics help students discuss bullying and positive attitudes?

Many Olympic athletes use their platforms to enact change and promote worthy causes. Students can learn about gymnast Gabby Douglas’ campaign to end cyberbullying to teach about kindness in all areas of life:

• First, use a vocabulary worksheet to help students define words they’ll encounter throughout the lesson, such as bully, bystander, or witness.
• Have students read the article about Douglas’ work with Hack Harassment, a group dedicated to decreasing cyberbullying.
• Complete the reflect-and-respond graphic organizer to answer questions like, “Why do you think some people participate in bullying?” or “What do you think is the best way to stop bullying?”

How can students decide if athletic competition is healthy?

Is competitive nature a good or a bad thing? Have students debate this topic by exploring different points of view with articles on topics like:

• How PWHL player and Olympian Sarah Nurse became a hockey superstar.
• How the city of Pittsburgh—and the planet—benefit when the Penguins hockey team scores goals.
• Why winning athletes are more likely to cheat after their first big success.

What happens at the Winter Olympics?

Teach students about how the host cities prepare for the Winter Olympics, athletes train, and other things that happen to pull off this worldwide event. They can learn:

• How Olympic athletes choose their competition outfits.
• How snowboarding has become one of the most-anticipated Winter Olympic events.
• The lingo of the Winter Olympics, from words like skeleton to alley-oop.

Who are some athletes who have broken barriers at the Winter Olympic Games?

Help students explore equity, perseverance, and representation using the stories of trailblazing Winter Olympic athletes. Try this lesson in your classroom:

• Read about Chloe Kim, a snowboarder who made Olympic history in halfpipe.
• Read about how a South Korean Paralympic skier earned the respect and awe of his fellow athletes.
• Have students compare and contrast the experiences of both athletes using a Venn Diagram. 

[Science lessons to connect phenomena to the Winter Olympics](id-sci)

Key takeaways:

• Students can investigate physics, energy, and motion through snowboarding and other Winter Olympics sports. 
• Use hands-on datasets to help students apply math and science to real-world situations.
• Explore how climate can affect Winter Olympic sports and athlete success.

How can snowboarding teach physics, energy, and speed?

Use real athlete data to explore motion, potential and kinetic energy, incline angles, and trick height. Students can complete analysis questions and predict outcomes using the following lesson:  

• Read about how Olympic athletes are doing more intricate tricks in snowboarding with each new event.
• Dig into the snowboarding dataset to see how athletes perform in competition.
• Using what students learned from the reading and exploring the dataset, have them complete math activities like analyzing the incline angle and its impact on speed, or predicting the potential energy of a hill with a set height.

How can the climate affect sports and the Winter Olympics?

Use this lesson to teach students about climate change and its effect on sports. Throughout the lesson, you can cover:

• How climate change affects indoor and outdoor sports, including the Winter Olympics.
• What the NHL is doing to combat climate change and preserve the game's future.

Extend the lesson by asking students to brainstorm ways to prevent climate change in their town and write a proposal to town leaders to make one of their initiatives happen.

How can ice melt affect Olympic venues?

Explore why salt melts ice and how temperature can affect frozen surfaces and athletes’ performance. Help students apply science concepts to real-world scenarios using the following activity:

• Look at the three phases of matter—solid, liquid, and gas—and how water can take all three forms.
• Discover the phase changes between states of matter and consider what they might mean for making and maintaining skating rinks at the Winter Olympics.
• Explore why salt melts ice to teach students about temperature and freezing point.

How can I teach Winter Olympics science concepts with video?

Newsela STEM with Generation Genius science videos makes it easy to teach the concepts behind the Winter Olympics in a fun, engaging way for any grade band. Try these selections from our library:

K-2 Science:

• The Five Senses
• Heating and Cooling
• Pushes and Pulls
• Introduction to Traits

3-5 Science:

• Variation of Traits
• Balanced & Unbalanced Forces
• Energy Transfer
• Brain Processing of Senses
• Collisions
• Patterns of Motion & Friction
• Human Body Systems
• How Do We Use Food?

6-8 Science:

• Synthetic Materials
• Comparative Anatomy
• Potential vs. Kinetic Energy
• Newton’s Laws of Motion

How can Newsela keep students engaged year-round?

Newsela provides timely, differentiated texts that engage students beyond seasonal events like the Winter Olympics. Connect breaking news and global events to reading, writing, and STEM skills. 

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