Continuing with our Olympics theme, today we held our own Bobsled Race. There were lots of willing athletes in my son's stuffed animal basket.
Materials Needed: shoe box with top, aluminum foil, tape, markers (red, yellow, blue, green, black), 2010 Olympics symbol coloring page, black paper, scissors, stuffed animals or dolls, a ramp or slide (could easily be made with a couch cushion)
Directions:
1. Print off an Olympics logo coloring page. We used this one. Have your little one start coloring using the Olympic colors (red, yellow, green, blue, black).
2. While your toddler colors, cut the lid of your box in half or in thirds.
3. Put the half/third of the lid on top of the box and secure it with tape.
4. Begin covering the shoebox and lid with aluminum foil.
5. You can have your toddler decorate the foil and box with markers if they are interested. Mine only wanted to do a little bit. Secure the foil with tape if needed.
6. Once your toddler finishes coloring, cut out their logo with scissors. Older kids could cut this out on their own.
9. Use tape to stick the logo to a piece of black paper to add a border and some contrast. Cut around the logo and leave a small edge.
10. Tape the completed logo onto the foil covered shoebox. Add more black paper or designs on the inside of the shoebox to make any rough foil edges look nicer. We used double-sided tape to secure the paper.
11. Select your athletes.
12. Make your ramp. We have a slide in our playroom right now, so this was easy for us. You can also make a bobsled track using couch cushions, a piece of cardboard, or a small mattress. Put the cushion against the side of a chair, couch, or at the bottom of the stairs. If it is nice outside, take your bobsled to the park or out into your backyard. You might find that you have a much larger cheering section there.
13. On Your Marks, Get Set. Go! Let the race begin. If you go to the park and have two slides next to one another, make two bobsleds and you can have races.
With older kids I would time the different teams to see which bobsled went faster. You could also have friends over and have each child design their own bobsled and pick a country to represent. The winning teams could head over to the medals plaza for their gold, silver, or bronze medals!
Language Development:
Vocabulary words I reviewed/introduced were: bobsled, race, track, fast, push, and Vancouver (hard word, but my little guy thought it was fun to say!). We talked about the different "athletes" and described each of them. We had a white teddy bear with a red box, a talking dog, my son's bitty baby, a brown husky, a brown and white rabbit, and a little blue frog. I tried to expand my son's language as he talked about his animals.
We also read the printable ReadingAtoZ book Animals Olympics on our computer. The books on this website are leveled books and now there is a new option to make them projectable... so we can save some paper.
ReadingAtoZ is a great program that I use with my students. Not only can you find printable leveled books, you can also find vocabulary, alphabet, poetry, and assessment resources.
Another fun animal themed Olympics book I learned about this week from No Time For Flashcards was Tacky and the Winter Games.
Super cute bobsled! Love that the slide helped make the track. Thanks for sharing!