Winter Olympics 2018 in PE

I love the Olympics! I enjoy the history, the opportunity to watch different sports and all of the interesting story lines. I am excited to have the opportunity to incorporate the Olympics into my PE Lesson Plans. I see my students twice a week, so we are going to do Olympic themed activities for three weeks. I looked at the list of Olympic sports and picked seven that I thought I could translate to classroom activities. 

I teach K-4 Physical Education and have one section of each grade so I decided to make each grade it's own team. This way I can encourage teamwork within the class instead of splitting each grade into teams. I teach three days a week at this school. The second day I teach at this school is the second day of PE for some classes and the first for others. I assigned specific activities to specific days to help with classroom setup. Along with the activities, we will be learning a little about each sport and overall history of the Olympics.

Olympic History
-Started in 1896. Modern Olympics invented by Frenchman in 1913.
-Olympic rings are blue, red, black, green and yellow. Every country that participates has at least one of these colors in their flag. 
-The Rings symbolize the continents. They are interlocking because the Games bring athletes together from all continents. 
-(Some believe) Blue - Europe, Yellow - Asia, Black - Africa, Green - Australia and Red - America.

Day 1: Hockey

Medals will be determined by how many goals are scored. 
Fun Facts:
-Originated in Canada
-6 players on a side
-Women's hockey started in 1998.
-Russia has been dominant. 

Day 2:  Curling

Students will slide bean bags to earn points. We will set it up more like shuffle board without using poles to push the disks. I also found this idea online and I may adjust it to use some of the ideas with K-4.
Fun Facts: 
-Invented in the 16th century in Scotland and The Netherlands.
-Returned as a medal sport in 1998.

Day 3: Luge

Students will lay on their backs on two scooters. I plan to tape the handles together to help with stability. We will split the class into teams and run the even as a relay. I am going to average the times of each team to create their grade level final time. I plan to create a few obstacles for students to navigate.

Fun Facts:
-Started in Switzerland
-Hotel owners started creating Luge tracks next to their hotels for thrill seeking tourists. 
-One of the oldest winter sports.

Day 4:  Skeleton

Students will lay on their belly on two scooters. I plan to tape the handles together to help with stability. Similarly to the Luge, I will split the class into teams and we will have a relay. For this event I am going to have each team go down and back the long way in our gym. This event will be a straight course with no obstacles. 
Fun Facts: 
-Started at a Swiss resort.
-Became a mainstay event in 2002.

Day 5: Biathlon

Students will sit on their knees on one scooter and use their arms to 'ski' around the gym. I will have a course set up and at the end of course they will have to 'shoot' at targets by throwing objects at a target.

Fun Facts:
-Adapted from a Norwegian Military exercise 
-Skiing and shooting

Day 6: Figure Skating and Speed Skating

Students will stand on paper plates to skate around the gym.

Fun Facts: 
-In short track, athletes compete against each other not the clock.
-Start in Canada and the United States.