Teach Olympic Sports in French, Spanish, Chinese, and More!
We’ve been celebrating the Olympics for the past couple of weeks in preschool French class. Whatever your language, teaching sports vocabulary is fun and active.
Get your little ones on their feet with the Total Physical Response (TPR) method of language learning. Dr. James J. Asher developed this effective approach calling for physical movement in response to commands.
Ready for some Olympics sports fun?
Event: Olympics Sports Vocabulary
Warm-up: Teach the sports vocabulary with both actions and visuals. Cut out pictures of athletes doing their thing, glue them onto construction paper, and laminate. In fact, laminate everything. It really pays off—-some of my sports pictures are almost 20 years old!
My littlest learners (3 and 4 year-olds) are discovering some of the sports for the very first time. I take my time and show them how to play. The kids repeat new words in rhythm while acting out the sports. For example, we say “le basketball, le basketball, le basketball” while pretending to dribble. Then I teach the words for “jump” and “throw” as we try for pretend baskets.
It’s easy-breezy to think up actions for something as active as sports. For cycling, we sit on the floor or chairs, lift our feet, and pedal. For swimming, we chant the word “la natation“ in unison as we do the “swim”, getting faster and faster and faster until we reach that Olympic finish line.
The only challenge for me was “la gymnastique“. My child (of course, it would be my child) decided to do a couple of somersaults when I showed the gymnastics picture. That fun idea resulted in a roomful of Olympic somersault-ers. Oh la la! I’m trying to encourage pretend balance beams, which should be a bit safer as long as my little guy doesn’t try a full-twist or some kind of crowd-pleasing, death-defying dismount.
Competition: Play sports charades, sports concentration, and sports pictionary. Play the “Olympic Ring Toss Game”—kids toss a ring onto a picture of a sport, then say whether or not they like it. Older kids can conduct interviews and polls.
Medal Ceremony: Everyone’s a winner! Make up an Olympics cheer and congratulate all of the participants. My little ones just clap and cheer “Les Olympiques sont fantastiques!” Or why not stand and play your country’s national anthem?
To get ideas for summer Olympic sports vocabulary in English, Spanish, French, and Chinese, visit the official website of the Beijing Olympics. (You can change the language in the upper right corner of the page.)
Photo Credit: by manuere at http://morguefile.com/archive/?display=220441&
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment