In Wilson Pre-Primary Red we have been learning about the world’s most spectacular sporting event – the Olympic Games – which are about to start in Rio.
We have been investigating why and how the ancient games started and why we have them today as the Modern Olympics. We brainstormed ideas and posed many ‘I Wonder’ questions. We made suggestions about the things we wanted to do and know. We wondered why the Olympic torches were so important and how they stayed alight. We watched short clips of opening and closing ceremonies, to see how different flames were lit and learnt that the torch travels around the world being passed from one person to another, until it finally comes to the place where the official Olympic Flame is lit to signal the start of the Games.
We all made the decision to make our own stick torches and to have our own torch relay to celebrate lighting an Olympic Flame, and that started everything!! Off we went on a hunt around the school gardens and playing fields to collect our twigs.
First, we brainstormed what length and width of sticks would be best suited for our Olympic torches. Next, we needed to decide what measuring tools would be easy to use and take with us to select our sticks. We decided if we all used the length from our elbow to our wrist and the thickness of our middle finger, we would be able to collect sticks of a similar size for our torches. It worked really well and we had great fun bundling and wrapping our twigs to form our Olympic torches.
Then we dressed in Togas, danced to Greek music and ran our Torch Relay to the sounds of ‘Chariots of Fire (it wasn’t Greek music, but we felt strong and fast as we ran to it).-Then we lit our official Flame and jumped with joy cheering at our success and the race we had run. We finished our day with a tasting banquet of Greek food and grape juice. Now we can hardly wait for the 2016 Olympics Games to start.
One of the questions we did ask was, “Who do all the athletes run for, why do they do it and what do they get?” We learnt that they train and work hard for the honour of their cities and country and families. We are learning that if we join God’s team and get into training, we are a bit like the athletes and if we don’t give up, keeping our eyes on him, then the race we run has a prize which lasts forever. One of our class told Mrs T “that’s big!!”
