In the spirit of the current Winter Olympics, Roots students participated in their own Winter Games this week!
The week kicked off with our music teacher Miss Katie leading us in ‘Music Olympics’ to review some of the musical concepts we’ve learned this year such as dynamics, tempo, and rhythm.
Miss Katie leading the Tamaracks in some rhythm sticks activities.
Miss Tara holds up the ‘f’ for forte which we have learned means loud.
We used the story Tacky and the Winter Games by Helen Lester to help set the stage for the idea of winter games. Following the spirit of the story, the 4/5’s grouped into teams based on the cardinal directions (North, East, South, and West), came up with team names, and made flags for their teams.
The 3/4’s worked together to make one flag for their class.
The Aspens showing off their flag and medals after the Olympic Games.
The Aspens flag up close.
Winter Olympics wouldn’t be complete without opening ceremonies! Students marched through the snow with instruments, ribbon rings, and flags, headed to the ‘Olympic Arena.’
The Tamarack’s Olympic parade.
The Douglas Firs’ Olympic parade.
Warming up is important before a big event so we did some ‘Action Dice’ to get our muscles ready! Students roll 1 or 2 large dice, count the dots, then choose a warm up exercise to do the number of times shown on the dice.
The Aspens warming up with a round of action dice.
Let the games begin!
In the Snowshoe Hare Hop, students did their best impression of a snowshoe hare, hopping as far as they could. Their distance was marked with a flag and then the flags were used to compare the distance of each student’s jump. We used math language to help us compare the jumps – far, farther, farthest. Some students also enjoyed estimating how many hops it would take them to get to the nearest pine tree.
In position for the Snowshoe Hare Hop!
The second event, the Pine Cone Toss, was an opportunity to take aim as the students either had to get their cones through a standing hoop or to land on the colored shape shouted out by a teacher or classmate.
Taking aim for the triangle!
Teammates cheer on this Olympic athlete!
The third and final event was the Sled Pull. The Sled Pull was a team building event laid out as a team relay in some classes and a test of cooperative skills in other classes.
Teammates in the Aspens work together to pull their sled.
Another Aspen team working together to get their sled to the finish line.
A member of a Tamarack relay team hard at work after the hand off.
We were excited to see winter weather return to McCall this week! It provided for a variety of weather conditions for our events, from sunny and frigid to snowy and windy. We embraced the weather each day, just like real Olympic athletes.
The Douglas Firs used their instruments, ribbon rings, and class flags to cheer on their teammates.
During our Olympic week, students got practice in important literacy, math, and cooperation skills. Themes like these create a great platform for hands-on learning!
This is so amazing, beautiful, creative and relevant. What an incredible opportunity for these kids. Thank you for all you do.