Every four years since the inaugural Olympics in 1896 in Athens, Greece, athletes have gathered from all over the world to test their skills and compete for the title of “best in the world” in competitions such as swimming, track and field, and gymnastics.

Adding Summer Olympic Games activities to your lessons can keep students engaged during summer learning or when they return to school. With Newsela ELA, it’s easier than ever, thanks to our curated Olympics text sets filled with articles, videos, resources, and lesson ideas to tie this current event to your curriculum.

• Research the Olympics
• Explore how women joined the Summer Olympic Games
• Debate the pros and cons of athletic competition
• Discover how kindness plays a role in healthy competition
• Learn how Summer Olympic athletes deal with the mental side of sports
• Explore what it takes to break a Summer Olympic world record
• See how Olympic athletes make a difference outside of the Games

[Research the Olympics](id-research)

Help students build their research and fact-checking skills with a research project on the Summer Olympic Games. Have them use research questions like: “What does it take to be an Olympian?” “Why do cities want to host the Olympics?” or “What new sports are featured in the Olympics?”

Famous Olympic athletes

To answer the question, “What does it take to be an Olympian?” students can read stories about Summer Olympic athletes who had a powerful influence on their sports, like:

• Jesse Owens (Track and field)
• Wilma Rudolph (Track and field)
• Katie Ledecky (Swimming)
• Simone Biles (Gymnastics)
• Sky Brown (Skateboarding)

Recent Olympic Games

To answer the question, “Why do cities want to host the Olympics?” students can explore texts about recent—and upcoming—Olympic games to see the draw, like:

• Discover how the COVID-19 pandemic forced the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games to become the first postponed Olympic Games in history.
• Learn what made the Olympic medals at the 2020 Tokyo Games unique.
• See how Los Angeles is preparing to host the Summer Olympics for the third time in 2028.

History of the Olympics

To answer the question, “What new sports are featured in the Olympics?” students can read about past Olympic events and compare them to the Games they see on TV in modern times. Explore articles like:

• A history explainer on how Greece held Olympic-style games long before the first Summer Olympics in 1896.
• Announcements of new sports coming to the Summer Olympics, like karate and sport climbing.
• A look at how the 2020 Summer Olympic Games added 15 new events to improve gender equality at the games.

[Explore how women joined the Summer Olympic Games](id-women)

Students might not know that women were banned from competing in the inaugural Olympic games. Nor that women weren’t included in the Greek Olympic-style competitions that came before the modern Games. Use this paired text activity to look at feminine culture in Greece through different lenses with content and activities like:

• A fictional story set in Athens in the fourth century B.C. about how women and child enslavement was a common practice during that period.
• The true story of how Greek women created the Heraean Games—an Olympic-style competition for women—after they were banned from Greece’s earliest athletic competitions.
• A paired text analysis graphic organizer to help students compare and contrast details that help them answer the focus question, “What was life like for women in Ancient Greece?”

[Debate the pros and cons of athletic competition](id-competition)

For Olympic athletes, it’s all about going for the gold medal. But is that competitive nature a good or a bad thing? Have students debate this topic by exploring different points of view:

• Read about how Simone Biles made gymnastics history by winning her eighth national title in 2023.
• Discover how more representation in international sports encourages more young Black women to join gymnastics classes.
• Explore why some winning athletes later cheat to keep their champion status.

[Discover how kindness plays a role in healthy competition](id-kindness)

To extend the debate about the pros and cons of competition, have students learn more about the community aspects of the Olympic Games with this SEL activity:

• At the beginning of the lesson, have students complete a Think-Pair-Share activity and brainstorm about the most competitive event they’ve ever participated in.
• Next, have students read an article about camaraderie at the Olympics that includes things like giving each other pep talks and celebrating wins together.
• After reading, split students into groups to complete a Where I Live graphic organizer and brainstorm ways they could spread more positivity and kindness in places like their city, state, or country.

[Learn how Summer Olympic athletes deal with the mental side of sports](id-mental)

At the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, gymnast Simone Biles pulled out of some events due to “the twisties,” a gymnastics term for a mental block that affects spatial awareness. Use this explaining why and how activity to help students understand the mental side of sports and how it can affect performance:

• Read the explainer article that tells what “the twisties” are, how they happen, and how they can be dangerous for gymnasts.
• Read an opinion article about the importance of prioritizing mental health over athletic performance.
• Customize the comparing media or evidence-conclusion graphic organizers with Formative to help students collect evidence and share their thoughts on the topic.

[Explore what it takes to break a Summer Olympics world record](id-record)

Have athletes reached the limit on breaking world records? Use this SEL activity to help students discover what it takes to set or break a world record in any sport:

• Start the lesson by splitting the classroom into yes and no sides and asking 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 them if their opinions changed on any of the topics.

[See how Olympic athletes make a difference outside of the Games](id-bullying)

After participating in the Olympics, many international athletes become household names. They then use their platforms to enact change and promote worthy causes. Use this SEL activity about gymnast Gabby Douglas’ campaign to end cyberbullying to teach students about kindness in all areas of life:

• Before reading, 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 after dealing with online backlash at 16 after her 2012 Olympic performance.
• After reading, have students 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?”

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