Getting Ready for Sochi

We're taking a break from our regularly scheduled curriculum for the Winter Olympics....mostly because I want to watch them, and all that school work would really cramp my style :)

So, we're making a couple projects to get ready:

Lap books
Poster following USA medals

The lap books are going to fall into a few categories:

• History of the Olympics
• Women's Ski Jump (new this year!)
• Skiing (her favorite!)

I figure that a few lap books will be good, with attached reports.  My strategy was one big project (history), one interest I picked (ski jump), and one interest she picked (skiing).

I'm sure we'll find more interesting and fun things along the way...I'm really a go-with-the-flow kind of schooler.

Our poster is what's been on the project list today.

 Supply List:

• 100 pack manilla folders ($5.99 at Target) - you'll need these for the lap books, I also used them to make our medals
• 1 each, bronze, silver, gold acrylic paint ($1.15 each at Hobby Lobby)
• Foam brushes ($1.99 at Hobby Lobby)
• Foam poster board ($2.49 at Hobby Lobby)
• Circular punch ($15.49 on sale at Hobby Lobby)

Total cost:  $29.41 + tax

Making the medals:

Step 1:  Find an eager young painter.

Step 2:  Have her paint one side of the open manila folders so that you have gold, silver, and bronze.

Step 3:  Allow folders to dry.

Step 4:  Attempt to cut circles with the fancy new circle cutter you went out and bought SPECIFICALLY for this project.  Realize the cutter won't cut through the manilla folders, nor will it cut through a layer of aluminum foil which is, according to the package, supposed to sharpen the cutter.

Step 5:  Put the circle cutter back in the box with disgust and shattered dreams of a quick and easy solution.  Realize that now, your project total is really just $13.92 (and you'll have a ton of leftover folders for your next lap book project), so maybe it's not all bad!

Step 6:  Trace out circles on the manilla folders.

Step 7:  Find something on Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon to watch while you spend the rest of the afternoon cutting out circles...every now and then, shake your head in disgust over the circle cutter debacle.

We'll be attaching the medals to our decorated board as USA athletes win medals.  Each medal will be labeled with the name and sport (because that will allow us to do math things later like the percentage of male/female winners, winners by indoor/outdoor sport, etc).  I'll probably have to stack the medals a little to fit enough on for our super-winning and awesome athletes - go 'Merica! (We won 37 medals in 2010, including 9 gold, so even if you're really optimistic like me, you probably can make do with a couple dozen each for your supplies :)

Tomorrow, Little Bean will be decorating the board (title, flag, whatever her fancy) and we'll start preparing the lapbooks (putting the two folders together, writing out the titles, etc).

I'm so looking forward to the Olympics!!!  It is such a wonderful, special thing and I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear your ideas on celebrations for Opening Ceremonies and what you do with your kiddos to commemorate the event.

Go 'Merica!!! One more, just to get you pumped too!