Getting in the theme of things

We celebrated the Olympics in a big way at our house this year.  (yes, I KNOW the Olympics have been over for full week.  But I'm just now getting to the blogpost, 'kay?)

Most of our ideas came from a lapbook / unit study I downloaded from Currclick.  I'd link to it, but #1 - I'd have to go look it up, and #2 - since the Olympics are over I doubt anyone is actually interested anymore, anyway, no? I'll just tell you we spent a lot of time studying Canada, and have a mini-lapbook to show for it.  (Well, a lapbook and the fact that Dale just maybe might know more words to the Canadian national anthem than our own.  Oops.  Note to self: teach Star Spangled Banner lyrics a.s.a.p.)
We also learned a lot about Winter Olympic history and events.  Those facts, along with other fun little projects are all represented in our completed Olympic lapbook.   


We started the week before the games and learned about the torch and torch relay:

Then we all gathered around to watch the much-anticipated opening ceremonies.  And made an Olympic-sized mess:

Because we had learned about the torch-lighting, that was the part of the ceremony Dale wanted to see most. Of course, it was last.  'Last' being way-way past bedtime.


But I'm so glad we stayed up for that part.  Because the torch-lighting turned out to be a to-be-continued incident that was concluded in a quite classy and hilarious manner at the closing ceremonies.  Please tell me you saw that?  That rectifying of the torch-lighting gone awry was one of my most favorite moments of the Olympics.  Yay Vancouver! :)


One of our biggest projects for the duration of the Olympics was our medals chart:

Every morning we checked the medal count online and added the appropriate stickers.  It was fun to see the chart fill up as the days went by.  I can imagine we will do this again.  


We watched at least a little bit of most events.  And I'm not sure any of us could pick a favorite.  Dale even got into the curling.  Which, by the way, has to be one of the least understood sports to ever be on tv.  I'm not sure what attracted Dale to it so much, but I suspect it was the yelling.  At any rate, we soaked up the Olympic experience from our living room and made the most of it.


2012, here we come!  :)