It's always exciting when the time for the summer or winter Olympics arrives! To watch diverse countries come together for a common goal and world-class athletic competitions is awe-inspiring to say the least. Ms. McKnight, fourth grade teacher and classroom decoration contributor at Izzyshare, capitalized on this excitement by getting her students in on the fun this year with an interactive bulletin board idea - Graphing the Winter Olympics!

Graphing Activity

Ms. McKnight and her teaching team decided to gather data on the top 8 countries in the Winter Olympics which included: Norway, U.S.A., Austria, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, and Canada. Each morning, she and her students would look up the gold medal totals for the events the evening before (two other classrooms were responsible for silver and bronze) and record them on the interactive bulletin board graph. At the end of the Olympics, students were given a sheet of totals to compare (e.g. explored fractions, percentages, etc.).

Olympics Interactive Bulletin Board

• Background: White bulletin board paper.
• Title: "Graphing the Winter Olympics"
• Border: Olympics, sports, or patriotic bulletin board trimmer.
• Decoration: 1) The Graph. Use a yardstick and permanent marker to create a grid. Title the graph "Gold Medals Won for the Top 8 Countries in the Winter Olympics", label the x-axis "Number of Gold Medals Won", and label the y-axis "Country". Be sure to create a key describing the units of measurement used (e.g. one gold medallion = one gold medal won). 2) Other Embellishments. Add Olympic fun facts, a U.S.A. flag, pictures of favorite athletes, and other appropriate, eye-catching decorations to spice up the bulletin board.

Do you have any ideas on how to incorporate the Olympics events into the classroom? We'd love to hear them!