The 2022 Winter Olympics is being held in Beijing, China from the 4th to the 20th of February. The Winter Olympics are one of my favourite events to watch and support. I find it is also a great idea to include current world events in my teaching program when I can. There are so many different aspects to the games that are relevant to our students.

Today in class we learned about the 2022 Winter Olympic Mascot - Bing Dwen Dwen. Bing Dwen Dwen is a panda that wears a shell made of ice. Bing means ice in China and suggests purity and strength and Dwen Dwen means robust and lively and represents children. We followed simple instructions to draw Bing Dwen Dwen here and added the pictures to our Olympic Display in the classroom.

We also watched and learnt facts about the Olympics on this Youtube clip and googled to investigate some of the questions that came up from the video.

We learnt that;

• There are 91 countries participating in the Winter Olympics

• There are ten Winter sports that the athletes compete in

• The Australian team consists of 43 athletes (21 men and 22 women)

• Our Australian flag bearers at the opening ceremony were Brendan Kerry and Laura Peel

• The next Winter Olympics to be held in 2026 will be in Italy

We also discussed the Olympic Rings that you see at the games - five interlocking rings, coloured blue, yellow, black, green, and red on a white field, representing the five inhabited continents: Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.

The Olympic torch is also on our list to check out - designed to look like a floating ribbon that echos its name ‘flying’ and watch the highlights of the relay here.

Each morning we have been checking out the medal tally to see where Australia ranks. We also have our own medal tally in class to update (just for Australia’s medals).

We also plan to research the medal-winning athletics as well as some of the different sports they are competing in. It is hard for the students to imagine it doesn’t snow where we live and we are so far from the snowfields yet this is even more reason for the students to be exposed to it. The students have also expressed interest in learning more about where other countries are in the world and this is a good excuse to learn about their flags and even learn some basic words if time permits over the next fortnight.

The Olympics brings with it so many themes to discuss with your students such as team work, hero’s, setting and achieving goals, overcoming adversity, grit and determination. There are so many places it can take you.

Will you be teaching about the Olympics in your class? What fun activities do you like to do? We would love it if you joined the conversation and shared below.