Get Set for the greatest winter sporting event of 2014!

Sochi will be hosting the Olympic Winter Games and the Paralympic Winter Games, bringing together top class athletes from all over the world to compete on the Russian ski slopes, domes and ice rinks in high-octane winter sports.

Add some winter cheer, reinvigorate your school’s commitment to the Values, and engage your pupils in the Games with these Get Set for Sochi 2014 activities and extended projects.

Keen to get involved but short of time?

If you have only very limited time you’ll find the assembly presentation especially useful. The slides provide inspirational images and basic information about Sochi 2014.

Ask the pupils to listen carefully so that at the end of the presentation they can answer the following five questions:

• When are the 2014 Winter Games being held?
  (Olympic Winter Games – 7-23 February
  Paralympic Winter Games – 7-16 March)

• Where are they being held?
  (Sochi, Russia)

• What sports will be part of these Games?
  (Olympic sports: Biathlon, Bobsleigh (2), Curling, Ice Hockey, Luge, Skating (3), Skiing (6) [Numbers in brackets represent the number of disciplines in each sport.]
  Paralympic sports: Alpine Skiing, Biathlon, Cross Country Skiing, Ice Sledge Hockey, Wheelchair Curling)

• How many nations / athletes will be competing?
  (Olympic Winter Games – approximately 80 nations and 2800 athletes
  Paralympic Winter Games – approximately 45 nations and 1650 athletes)

• Who are the mascots?
  (Olympic Winter Games: Polar Bear, Hare and Leopard
  Paralympic Winter Games: Snow Flake and Ray of Light)

Keen to take a closer look?

If you can spend a little more time finding out about Sochi 2014, perhaps during registration or tutor time, try the Bingo picture cards, which support younger/less able children in learning more about the Winter Games. As well as using the picture cards for playing the traditional Bingo game, you can also cut them up for children to play other games such as Snap/Pairs, a Sochi treasure hunt or to sequence and tell/write their own ‘story of Sochi 2014’.

With older/more able students, try the Sochi 2014 Quiz sheet, which they can complete for homework or during tutor time in groups. The quiz sheet could form the basis of a Sochi 2014 ‘mini mastermind’ contest. Can the students add five more-challenging questions and answers or create a ‘fascinating facts’ sheet to test other classes?

Looking for D&T ideas with a winter sports theme?

Inspired by Sochi 2014 sports, athletes and spectators, we have created three new Design and Technology activities, which can be tackled as one-off lessons, reinforcement for the research, plan and design processes or as an extended piece of course work. A pdf support sheet is provided for each age group:

1. 5-11 D&T resources
2. 11-14 D&T resources
3. 14-19 D&T resources

Make a special day of it!

If you are able to run a collapsed timetable day, Sochi 2014 makes for an inspired choice and provides teaching and learning opportunities across the curriculum.

Here’s a menu of options to involve the whole school:

• Get off to a flying start with the assembly presentation, which will help everyone to learn a few basic essentials about the Sochi 2014 Winter Games.

• Issue a challenge based on the quiz sheets
  OR bingo cards for younger pupils.

• As individuals, pairs, classes or teams can they find the answers to five ‘What, When, Where, Who and How?’ questions before the end of the day, or complete the quiz sheet correctly? The first to find the correct answers could be given points or an Excellence Values certificate

• Run a Sochi 2014 Design and Technology activity for different age ranges in your cohort. Alternatively, choose one of the activities and run it as a competitive team challenge. Ask the headteacher, governors or the school council to act as judges for the best new design idea and/or finished product.

1. 5-11 D&T resources
2. 11-14 D&T resources
3. 14-19 D&T resources

• Have a special lunch with a Russian or cold weather theme, e.g. borscht (or other vegetable soup) crusty/black bread, stroganoff, pelmeni and oladi (pancakes) or hvorost (deep fried pastries). You could involve a group of pupils in the preparation of the lunch, e.g. researching Russian recipes and traditional foods, foods that are warming in cold weather, writing recipes, devising menus and decorating the tables. Older or more able pupils could consider the nutritional aspects of these foods and suggest ways of making them more healthy, e.g. by baking instead of deep-fat frying. Invite some special guests, such as a local MP, the Chair of governors or the editor of your local newspaper to share the lunch.

Get active for Sochi 2014!

Take the Get Set Winter Team Sports Challenge. The Olympic Winter Games in Sochi will feature seven different sports and the Paralympic Winter Games will be holding events in five winter sports. Here is a list of all the sporting events:

Olympic Games: Biathlon, Bobsleigh (Bobsleigh and Skeleton), Curling, Ice Hockey, Luge, Skating (Figure Skating, Short Track Speed , Skating and Speed Skating), Skiing (Alpine, Cross Country, Nordic Combined, Ski Jumping, Freestyle and Snowboard)

Paralympic Games: Biathlon, Alpine Skiing, Wheelchair Curling, Ice Sledge Hockey, Cross Country Skiing

All the events test many different skills and attributes such as speed, stamina, strength, balance, co-ordination, accuracy and control – not to mention courage as all the events take place on snow or ice!

• Pupils compete in teams of six and take on seven different modified winter sporting events (pupils may want to compete dressed in hats, scarves and gloves).
• Teams will gain an understanding of winter sports, experience the Olympic and Paralympic Values and win points for their team as they take part in each winter sporting event.
• Points could also be awarded for the best team celebratory cheer, fair play or those who have shown exceptional teamwork.
• The team with the most points at the end of the challenge wins.

You could include the following activities in your special day too:

Create, celebrate and cheer for team unity
Pupils create a team name, related to Sochi 2014, such as the mascots, different equipment used in the Winter Games or a country competing there. Here are some examples:

Team Leopard, Team Hare, Team Polar Bear, Team Snowflake, Team Ray of Light, Team Ski, Team Snowboard, Team Luge

Celebrate the Olympic and Paralympic Values
Each event will require teams to demonstrate the Olympic and Paralympic Values. You could award points for those that display them exceptionally well: Olympic Values: Respect, Excellence and Friendship; Paralympic Values: Courage, Determination, Equality and Inspiration.

Create some winter cheer
Ask pupils to create a cheer for their team and to use this as their team celebration as they take part in each event.

Finish the day in style
Hold a whole school celebration where you can praise the pupils for their efforts, award Values certificates for individuals or teams that have shown exceptional commitment to the Olympic and Paralympic Values, or even have a short closing ceremony. Why not ask young leaders, the school council or a group brought together specially for the day to plan and stage a five-minute ceremony?

Try out some of these ideas for winter sports

Go the distance!

Focusing on Sochi 2014 could be an ideal opportunity to extend your school/college links with the local community. Involve children and young people in planning and creating a presentation or an art exhibition designed to inform and excite local people about Sochi 2014 and the Olympic and Paralympic Values.

The children and young people will have ideas of their own about what to include and how they would like to present the information/exhibition, but you could encourage them to include basic information and images, models or designs to inform people about:

• The Russian climate
• The venues
• The sports
• The mascots
• Team GB and ParalympicsGB athletes hoping to perform to the top of their game
• Messages of support, inspired by the Values, for competing athletes.

You could choose to create a presentation in school and invite members of the community (including parents) in to enjoy it, or put up an art exhibition in a community space, such as the library, leisure centre or a local supermarket.

• Identify a team of young leaders from across the year groups involved who could lead the project.

• You’ll find these resources particularly useful for creating the presentation and/or exhibition content:

1. assembly presentation
2. quiz sheets
3. 5-11 D&T resources
4. 11-14 D&T resources
5. 14-19 D&T resources
6. Sochi 2014 poster

• If you are lucky enough to be near an ice rink, snow dome or other winter sport facility, then consider using this as your exhibition venue.

• Establish a time each day when the young people will be in attendance at the exhibition in the community.

• Consider adding a healthy, active lifestyles element by inviting the community to take part in a physical challenge as part of the presentation or exhibition, e.g. establish a 1-mile walk and invite young people and parents/community members to complete the total distance over the duration of the exhibition, each day showing the progress in miles from your school/college to Sochi (maybe wearing hats, scarves, ski goggles, snow boots, etc, to set the scene).

• If you have access to an exercise machine, such as a cross trainer, treadmill or skier you could include this in your presentation or exhibition and invite the audience to have a go for a set time each day. If not, try a ‘skipathon’ and invite the audience to skip for a minute or two. Keep a tally of total time spent / distance travelled by pupils and the community.

• If visits to an ice rink or snow slope are possible, record the distances completed by the young people whilst participating in the activity and invite other community members to join in – skating, skiing, snowboarding, etc – and add this to the community total (wear pedometers or estimate distances).