Collection of Info

Ancient Greece
Architecture:
Here is a good link for the different type of Greek columns: http://www.cmhpf.org/kids/dictionary/ClassicalOrders.html

Drawing the columns. http://rem.norcol.ac.uk/rem/REMWebPages/EuroStudies/GreecePack/lesson10.html

PARTHENON: DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE http://school.discovery.com/lessonplans/programs/parthenon/
Learn about the building techniques of the ancient Greeks, from the quarrying of huge blocks of marble in the mountains surrounding Athens to the intricate carvings of magnificent sculptures that once adorned the Parthenon.
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Books:
1. We are reading Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliff (a retelling of The Iliad) and Twice Freed by Patricia St. John! Rosemarie Sutcliff also wrote The Wanderings of Odysseus a retelling of "The Odyssey". Our favorite fiction for Ancient Greece is turning out to be Goddess of Yesterday by Caroline B. Cooney. It's a fantastic book that really makes the history lessons become real and 'stick'.
2. One on the Punic Wars is Young Carthaginian: A Story of the Times of Hannibal - GH Henty
3. An excellent resource for readers that go with the time frame that you are studying is the Sonlight Curriculum Catalog. They are now asking for a small fee for those that are ordering it for use as "a booklist". It is well worth the fee.
4. "A Kaleidoscope Kids Book" series. These are easy to read & offer a LOT of hands on activities. (Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and Knights and Castles) They are a great way to get younger ones involved. - Author is Avery Hart
5. For historical fiction, The Gift of Apollo or something similar to that (I already returned the book to the library, sorry) by Elizabeth Coatsworth. It has a boy as the main character and is set in Ancient Greece.
If he is an advanced reader, he may like The Children's Homer by Padriac Colum. It is also the story of the Iliad and the Odyssey but without the color illustrations and the literature is more advanced than the Sutcliff books. My 13 yo enjoyed this book so much, she is keeping it in her room on 'her' bookshelves. (quite the honor in our house!) D'Aulaire's Greek Myths illustrations are as good as the writing. As girls, they simply loved Goddess of Yesterday. I think it's the best historical fiction that we've read for Ancient Greece.
6. Here is a list of great books I found at our library for our study of Ancient Greece. Check inter-library loan if any catch your interest.
This is Greece by M. Lasek Nice pictures and easy-to-read text, interesting
Olympic Games in Ancient Greece by Shirley Glubok and Alfred Tamarin
Goofy Presents the Olympics - Walt Disney Productions Random House, 1979
Ancient Greece - A Civilization Project Book by Susan Purdy and Cass R. Sandak NICE!
Science Projects About the Human Body by Robert Gardner
The Magic Anatomy Book by Carol Donner This is in the flavor of Magic School Bus! It's an interesting, wild adventure!
Trojan Horse - The World's Greatest Adventure - Eyewitness Readers By David Clement-Davies
Magic Tree-House #16: Hour of the Olympics by Mary Pope Osborne
"See Through History�: Ancient Greece by Rowena Loverance This books has clear overlay pictures throughout that you can lift to see 'inside' Really, REALLY neat!! We used one from this series for Ancient Egypt, too!
See Inside An Ancient Greek Town by Jonathan Rutland/revised edition This is also with clear overlay pictures and we used from the same series for Ancient Egypt
Temple On a Hill - The Building of the Parthenon by Anne Rockwell Interesting story-type of book
Made in Ancient Greece by Christine Price
7. All of the required Aesop's Fables are online at the following sites:
http://www.bartleby.com/17/1/ http://www.teachnow.com/ebooks/aesop.pdf
Or
http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Aesop/Aesops_Fables/index.html
8. We found some wonderful Bible passages to go with Greece, from Diana Waring's Ancient Civilizations and the Bible; my girls got excited to see the prophecies for Alexander in the book of Daniel. You probably want to use a Bible with reference information at the bottom to get the full benefit. (By the way, she has some great activities to go with LA as well, not that we need anything else though??!!)
Daniel 7:6, 8:5-8, 11:1-4, and Acts 17(Paul on Mars Hill).
My girls also really liked Hillyer's ""A Child's History of the World"' for background info; only a few chapters here and there on each area, but very easy to read and a good overall perspective on a variety of topics, in this case, describing the Greek God names, distinguishing between each one. (It is recommended by Sonlight ).
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Maps
Try this site for an outline map of Greece:
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/brians_syllabus/maps/map2.html
http://www.nationalgeographic.org/xpeditions/atlas/index.html?Parent=europe&Mode=b&SubMode=w
or
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html?Parent=europe&Rootmap=greece&Mode=d&SubMode=w
Here is a fantastic site on Greece. http://www.countryreports.org/greece.htm it also has a map.
http://www.wellesley.mec.edu/wms/library/pages/projects/greece/#Historian's
http://geography.about.com/library/blank/blxgreece.htm
http://plato-dialogues.org/tools/mapindex.htm
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Maps/
http://www.unc.edu/awmc/downloads/awmcMap3.html
http://www2.coloradocollege.edu/Dept/HY/Ashley/HY104/images/MapKeys/MapAncientMed.htm
http://www.unc.edu/awmc/downloads/index.html#theList

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Pronunciation Key:
Having difficulty pronouncing all those Greek names? We are!! I just found this site and thought it would come in very handy!
http://www.pantheon.org/miscellaneous/pronunciations.html#O
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Body sites:
Greece - Body
http://lion.mnu.edu/~mithelem/The%20Circulatory%20System.html
http://www.lessontutor.com/bio5home.html - Human Body with blank outlines worksheets
http://www.fcps.k12.va.us/DeerParkES/kids/ancientgrks/index.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/enhanced/index.shtml
http://users.tpg.com.au/users/amcgann/body/ Cool site with worksheets.
http://biology.about.com/library/bldyknowbody.htm Did you know about the human body great for human body book.
http://vilenski.com/science/index.html Vertial trip, cartoon of body.
http://www.medtropolis.com/VBody.asp Interactive site of body cool site.
http://www.henry.k12.ga.us/cur/mybody/content.htm#instructional Great unit study on body for little ones.
http://www.geocities.com/itsshasta/anatomy/ Great site for print outs on body.
http://www.studyweb.com/links/880.html Lots of links for human body.
http://school.discovery.com/ Clip art for body book or lap book
First Aid Web - http://www.firstaidweb.com/
Great site I ran across this morning about Kid's Health. Printables plus interactive stuff- like a Food Pyramid and "movies" about systems of the body. http://kidshealth.org/kid/index.html http://www.kidshealth.org/kid/body/brain_noSW.html This site has information on parts of the body and is geared towards kids.

We used the model "Visible Woman" in a previous year. It came in handy during our Anatomy study during the Greece unit butI do remember it taking us a long time to put together. During the Greece unit, we actually used "The Body Book". It has a large paper skeleton to put together and then we added
body systems as we learned about them. This was fun and more simple. But what I especially liked about "Visible woman" is that she has interchangeable parts to show pregnancy (complete with fetus).
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Creation sites
http://www.creationism.org/library/index.htm - lending library site
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History/General Info.
Education
http://www.homeschoolunitstudies.com/TG/Philosophy/09cgreeked.htm
http://www.homeschoolunitstudies.com/TG/Philosophy/11Biblicalvsgreek.htm

Greek Life http://members.aol.com/Donnclass/Greeklife.html This site gives descriptions of people, their personalities, houses, food, clothing and alot of other interesting things - Has tons of links to other Greek pages at the bottom of page...
Live from Ancient Olympia http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=230
Perseus Project http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/
Exploring Ancient World Cultures http://eawc.evansville.edu/index.htm
Egypt - Reformation New/Used Curriculum http://www.4HomeSchool.info/EgyptToReformation.htm
www.proteacher.com/090084.shtml This is great! I also did a search on Middle ages and it brought up all
kinds of good stuff! What a rich site!!
http://users.forthnet.gr/ath/vasard/uk2.html
http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/web/3-5.htm
http://home.freeuk.net/elloughton13/index.htm
http://home.freeuk.net/elloughton13/gcontent.htm
Thought this site might be helpful in explaining the Greco-Persian wars, even has maps to help. http://www.historyforkids.org/greekciv/war/war.htm
http://www.coreknowledge.org/CKproto2/resrcs/lessons/01_2_ConnectingGreece.pdf
http://library.thinkquest.org/10805/greece.html
http://webpages.charter.net/usmc_sgt/Mesopotamia3/greece.html
http://www.showgate.com/medea/grklink.htmlThis site has hundreds of links about Ancient Greece!!!
Egypt, Greece, Rome site! http://carlos.emory.edu/ODYSSEY/MidElem_Home.html/ journey to explore the ancient Near East, Egypt, Greece, Rome, and 19th - 20th century sub-Saharan Africa.
ANCIENT HISTORY: GREECE
http://www.macedonia.com/english/
http://www.macedonia.com/english/history/
http://www.macedonia.com/english/thessalo.html
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/environment/index.htm
http://www.historyforkids.org/crafts/greeks/playreading.htm
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/literature/greeklit.htm
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/architecture/doric.htm
http://eawc.evansville.edu/texts/grpage.htm
A Whole Page of Links!! http://eawc.evansville.edu/www/grpage.htm
Picture Links http://eawc.evansville.edu/pictures/grpage.htm
Lists a historical atlas - lots on Sparta and Athens and bios - check out resources
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/GREECE/GREECE.HTM
Western Culture and Ancient Greece http://www.westernculture.com/ancientgreeks.html A huge index of all things on ancient Greek done up in alphabetical order.
EasyFunSchool History Index http://www.easyfunschool.com/IndexHistory.html This is a really good site for any subject. Scroll down a bit for a whole Greece section
Greek studies. http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Styx/2012/links_about_history.htm
Thematic Links on Ancient Greece
http://www.in2edu.com/edulinks/themes_integrated%20units_history%20themes_thematic%20units_ancient%20greece%20themes_thematic%20units.htm
This site also has tons of free links about this subject. Note: cut and paste long URLs as necessary]
http://www.geocities.com/highland_heritage/studentbooks.htm - lapbook ideas & worksheets
http://www.westernculture.com/ancientgreeks.html#Food great site! Tons of links on EVERYTHING
Other Links for Egypt, Greece, Olympics http://www.learninghaven.com/ss/links/ancient_civilizations.htm
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/greekmyths.htm
http://www.angliacampus.com/public/pri/history/greeks/index.htm * http://www.angliacampus.com/public/pri/history/greeks/page17.htm
http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/as/education/projects/webunits/greecerome/civ.html
http://www.tlsbooks.com/mythologyworksheets.htm
Time Line of Greek History and Literature http://web.uvic.ca/grs/bowman/myth/info/timeline.html
Ancient Gods
Ancient Gods - The Family Tree (Try and keep track of how the Gods are related to each other) http://www.hol.gr/greece/godsft.htm
more god charts: http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Arena/8443/mythgods.html
http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/7371/greekgods.html
It Came from Greek Mythology http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=234
Origins of Greek Mythology http://www.messagenet.com/myths/neomyth.html

Coloring Pages & Worksheets
Here are some good coloring pages. http://www.coloring.ws/countries.htm
Coloring pages for Greek, and on left border you will see Rome http://www.coloring.ws/greek.htm
Scroll down to the general category here. http://www.dltk-kids.com/coloring.htm
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/artists/coloring/
http://www.webschooling.com/print.html
http://www.internet-at-work.com/hos_mcgrane/greece/eg_greece_intro.html
A greek puzzle to print out - http://www.guilford.k12.nc.us/webquests/greekmyths/puzzle.htm
A good review for Greece. Most likely they will be able to answer every question in this worksheet once the unit is completed.
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~ama9f/Worksheet.html
Coloring pages for Greek, and on left border you will see Rome. http://www.coloring.ws/greek.htm

Activities
http://carlos.emory.edu/ODYSSEY/Teachers/ll/llaigree.html
http://carlos.emory.edu/ODYSSEY/Teachers/ll/Greek_Lesson_Plan/Athenian_Treasury.pdf
http://carlos.emory.edu/ODYSSEY/Teachers/ll/Greek_Lesson_Plan/Caduceus_of_Hermes.pdf
http://carlos.emory.edu/ODYSSEY/Teachers/ll/Greek_Lesson_Plan/Geometric_Bronze_Horse.pdf
http://carlos.emory.edu/ODYSSEY/Teachers/ll/Greek_Lesson_Plan/Gorgon_Medusa.pdf
http://carlos.emory.edu/ODYSSEY/Teachers/ll/Greek_Lesson_Plan/Greek_coins.pdf
http://carlos.emory.edu/ODYSSEY/Teachers/ll/Greek_Lesson_Plan/Theater_Masks.pdf
http://carlos.emory.edu/ODYSSEY/Teachers/ll/Greek_Lesson_Plan/Vase_painting.pdf
http://carlos.emory.edu/ODYSSEY/Teachers/ll/Greek_Lesson_Plan/Victors_Wreaths.pdf
http://www.cesa8.k12.wi.us/it/webquests/AncientGreece/index.htm
Links page
http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/curriculum/socialstd/Bookmarks.html

My oldest daughter, a freshman in high school, did her final project for the year was a website on the Ancient Greeks. Please check it our with the link below. It has people, a timeline and several links for more info on the Ancient Greeks. Hope you enjoy it. Thanks, Julie Brooks
Subject: The Ancient Greeks --- Short bio's that remind who is who in AncientGreece
http://www.maythestarshine.com/mack/greece/
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I just found another neat site. http://www.historychannel.com/spartans/ The history channel has a page of special things about the Spartans. If you click on the crossed swords, there is a map of famous battles in ancient Greece.
Greek & Roman:
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Craft projects for Greek (LA)
We did a survey late last fall about the Greek vase and here is what we discovered: Families used a great variety of clays and some had cracking and some did not. Of those reporting in - ALL who used DAS Air-Hardening Terracotta Clay for the project over the glass experienced great success and had no cracking. (It is available through Michael's and other craft stores.) It did not seem to matter whether this clay was rolled thickly or thinly - it still worked well. Crayola Air Drying Clay was another clay that our Adventurers used with great success.

Dorian told me that many have complained that their air-drying clay cracked as it hardened. I think she said it had to do with the brand and the thickness of the clay. We are going to try one 'with' the glass underneath and one 'without' the glass, so that at least one (hopefully!) turns out

Well, funds were tight around and I couldn't locate the clay locally so I bought a glass Grecian shaped vase and some paints for glass and we decorated the vase with paint. Black background with red/orange Greek key and pictures. It turned out great and I now have the last of my roses blooming on the table. Ds is so proud of his vase.

Papier mache masks
My kids needed their masks in a hurry - they were doing a skit at the co-op. They used white paper plates, and glued strips of wool and/or construction paper for hair. They painted the faces on. They looked fine, and the skit was a huge hit. (They wrote "cheat notes" on the back of the paper plates to help them remember their lines) They are doing the paper-mache over balloons to make Greek army helmets. This is something they are more interested in spending time on, and they are likely to keep them much longer.
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Dress/Costumes
http://www.costumes.org/pages/timelinepages/ancientgreece1.htm

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Sharing Ideas:
We�re doing small bound books of fables (illustrated) for our re-writes...we're doing a shutter book on temples, featuring the types of columns...we'll be doing books on gods and goddesses, and we're doing an alphabet book...we're doing layered a shutter book on the different major systems of the human body ...and we've done a transparency booklet of a cell...we'll do a food pyramid mobile later on
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I just purchased this type of flip file first-aid magnet for the fridge. It gave me an idea for how to do the first aid booklet/folder/note cards.

We are going to take a manila folder and on the inside of it we will have note cards stacked one on top of the other (taping them to the folder). We will have one topic per note card and we are using the 5x7 note cards as you can fit more information on them.

For example today we put this on the first note card:

What to do:
Are they conscious or unconscious?
Ask: What's Wrong? Where does it hurt?
Not moving: (unconscious): Tap on shoulder and ask, "Are you okay?"
No response: 1. Look for a medic alert tag
2. Check for ABC's
A - Airway: Make sure it is open
B - Breathing: Check for breathing
C - Circulation: check for pulse

Then at the very bottom corner put the title again: What to do (that way when they flip the cards up they will be able to get to what they need immediately.

For the cards we are going to include one for: Airway, Breathing, Choking (child and infant), CPR (adult and child), bleeding, heart attack and stroke (signs and symptoms), burns, shock, fractures, poisoning, eye injuries, seizures, fainting, heat exhaustion, frostbite, insect bites, animal/snake bites, dental injuries, fever, electrocution, diabetic emergencies, cold emergencies, and contact numbers.

These cards will overlap one another, that's why at the bottom corner we will have a label and they can flip to it immediately. I think this should work nicely. If we need more space we'll add another folder.
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Has anyone come up with a fun and interesting way to cover the transition of the various Greek civilizations and various wars?
(Minoans, Mycenaeans, Early Greeks, Golden Age, Hellenistic Trojan wars, Persian wars, Peloponnesian wars, etc)
I think the children reach a point where they are tired of listening to me read from library books and looking at pictures. I was trying to come up with some sort of "hands on" project where they can get a good grasp of these things without going into too much detail.
(reply:)
Why not have them do a poster for each war. They can work on them together. One poster for each war. Cut out pictures, draw, include important facts (who fought, date, cause, outcome, etc.) as you discover them. Search on the internet for things they can print out and post.

Donna in IL
We coop with another family and do Science/Social Studies together. There are 5 children, ages 11 down to 8.
Today we had a "debate" on Athens vs. Sparta. Prior to the debate, they had completed the compare/contrast chart and written paragraphs (days 44, 45) and we had read about Athens & Sparta from many library books. So they were well prepared to "defend" their city-state.
They had a great time "debating" and the younger ones (age 8,9) learned alot about the debate process from the older ones.
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Just a note to add to the message below regarding the rice pudding and the Greek vase. We have tested the rice pudding recipe
several times, and it will always be soupy if you use instant rice or if you don't chill it after cooking it. If you don't want your
rice pudding to be soupy - use regular rice and chill it first. If you don't care if it's soupy or not, you can use regular rice (not instant)
and you can eat it warm. We tried adding more regular rice to the recipe, but it becomes too starchy after it is chilled.

Recipes:
Anatomical Heart Cookie
Cookie ingredients
3/4 c. butter, softened 1 tsp. baking powder
1-3/4 c. sugar 1/4 tsp. salt
2 eggs 2-3 Tb. ice water
4 c. flour

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter. Gradually add sugar, creaming well.
2. Add eggs and water. Blend
3. Sift flour with baking powder and salt. Add to creamed mixt. Blend thoroughly.
4. Roll dough on lighly floured surface.
5. Cut in human heart shapes.
6. Using spatula, carefully transfer hearts to ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 7-8 min. until edges are just beginning to brown.

Icing Ingredients
2 c. powdered sugar 1 tube red decorating icing
1 tsp. vanilla extract " blue " "
3 Tb. water
red food coloring

Method:
1. In med. mixing bowl, mix powdered sugar, vanilla, water and 1-2 drops
red food coloring
2. Ice cookies
3. When icing hardens draw veins with red & blue decorating icing.

Makes 30-40 cookies
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Finger Cookies
Ingredients:
1 c. butter, softened 1 tsp. baking powder
1 c. powdered sugar 1 tsp. salt
1 egg 1/2 c. sliced almonds
1 tsp. vanilla extract 2 Tb. Icing Glue (see below)
2-3/4 c. flour

Method:
1. Beat butter in large mixing bowl until smooth and creamy.
2. Add sugar, egg, and vanilla and mix well.
3. Add flour, b. powder, salt and beat until completely mixed.
4. Cover and refrigerate for 30 min.
5. Preheat over to 325 degrees.
6. Using hands roll a heaping Tb. of dough into finger shape for each cookie. If dough gets sticky & hard to work with, put back into 'frig. a little while. Place fingers on ungreased cookie sheet about 3 in. apart.
7. Use a butter knife to make knuckle marks on fingers (cookies). Slightly flatten front of finger to create a nail.
8. Bake 20-25 min. until fingers slightly golden. Remove from oven and
cool. Prepare Icing Glue.

Icing Glue:
1/4 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp. water
Mix to consistency of paste.

9. Attach almond slice fingernails to tips of finger with Icing Glue. Let
dry about 30 min.
Makes about 50 cookies/fingers.
Eyeball Snacks
1 doz. eggs
pitted black olives, sliced in quarters
salt & pepper

1. Cover eggs in pot with cold water. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low
and cook for 12 min.
2. Remove from stove and run cold water over eggs.
3. Peal eggs and slice in 1/2.
4. Place on olive slice on each egg "iris". Salt and pepper to taste (or
provide when serving).
Makes 12 pairs of eyes.
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Concerning Myths:
I was so grateful to have found this program at the last minute... and the funny thing is the fact that mythology was tackled head on by the program is what DREW me to it.
I completely respect others who disagree, and thankfully, the flexibility of the program does as well. But I did want to perhaps share the voice of one who had mythology left out of her education for "Godly" reasons, and definitely regrets that fact. I was raised in a very conservative Christian family/school where we would never have been allowed to read the assigned book in this unit. Consequently, through my college years and in adult social situations, I was completely in the dark on many cultural ideas and vocabulary that was simply common knowledge to those around me. I did not want my children to experience this same ignorance and am so grateful for the way Dorian handles the myths.
My 12 & 10-year-old daughters have learned a great deal about vocabulary and culture through this study, and my husband (who somehow knew these stories) begged me to wait until he was around to do the reading! : ) It's AMAZING how many of the myths reminded the girls of stories in the Bible, and we had fun shaking our heads and wondering how much easier life would have been had they all just followed the One True God. We didn't get to finish the unit, as it was important to me to start Rome in December, but we'll go back to it in the summer.
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Greek Olympics
http://members.aol.com/MrDonnUnits/GreekOlympics.html
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/cgi-bin/uncgi/search?key=award for awards and certificates
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Olympics/ for links to Ancient Olympics
Here's a site that explains what the rings mean, what the Olympic creed, Olympic motto, Olympic oath, etc. are. It also has the order of the opening ceremony and closing ceremony. I think there is even a link to an Olympic flag to color.
http://www.southcom.com.au/~jennifert/Games/rings.html
http://www.upenn.edu/museum/Olympics/olympicintro.html
THE FIRST OLYMPIC GAMES -- 1896: http://www.forthnet.gr/olympics/athens1896/
THE OLYMPICS THROUGH TIME: http://www.fhw.gr/projects/olympics/
WHAT IS THE HISTORY AND MEANING OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES: http://www.greece.org/olympics/why.html
THE OLYMPIC GAMES: http://library.thinkquest.org/27528/main.htm
ANCIENT OLYMPIC EVENTS: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Olympics/sports.html
ANCIENT GREECE: http://www.ancientgreece.com/
OLYMPICS RESOURCES: http://www.boardman.k12.oh.us/bdms/golubic/olympicideas.htm
ANCIENT OLYMPICS FAQ'S: http://www.upenn.edu/museum/Olympics/olympicorigins.html
OLYMPIAKA: http://www.olympiaka.com/history/summer/1896Athens/
OLYMPIC GLORY:http://www.discoverlearning.com/learnonline/webjourney/olympic/
SUMMER GAMES: http://www.museum.olympic.org/e/gallery/permanent/sum_torch_berlin_e.html
http://www.scholastic.com/olympicgames/olympic_history/part1/index.asp
WINTER GAMES: http://www.museum.olympic.org/e/gallery/permanent/win_torch_e.html
WINTER OLYMPIC EVENTS: http://www2.lhric.org/pocantico/olympics/winterolympics2.htm
THE OLYMPIC MUSEUM: http://www.museum.olympic.org/e/gallery/gallery_e.html
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The archives are filled with great ideas on this - but for one all-inclusive "Olympic Ideas" message - check out the LA archives for a message with the subject "Olympics Fun and Games" on July 21, 2001. Melanie shared a WONDERFUL group of ideas on that day - there were so many good ideas in that one message that you couldn't possibly use them all!!
http://www.first-school.ws/activities/firststeps/olympics.htm (some of the same info as below - young kids and can be adapted for older ones)
Indoor Olympics:
1) Javelin = Use straws.
2) Shot Put = Use a cotton ball.
3) Discus = Use a paper plate.
4) Low Low Hurdles = Pile up a few books and have runners sprint back and forth 10 times, jumping the hurdle each time while some one times them.
5) High Jump = Use a pile of books.
6) Standing Long Jump = use a yardstick to measure distance jumped. Other events may be added to the program. Establish a rotation system and have each player participate in some or all of the events. This could be used as a weeklong activity. You could challenge another class to a dual indoor track meet.

Outdoor Olympics
1) Shot-put = Each team member tosses a water filled balloon. Take the measure where the balloon lands or breaks. Total distance and record.
2) 25 yard dash = Mark off 25 yards (or whatever distance you wish) . All teams will do a crawling relay. The first member of each team crawls to a designated point then crawls back to the team. The next member does the same, and so on until all team members finish. Record the times for each team.
3) Low Hurdles = Make a simple obstacle course of "low hurdles"- a card table, three foot high rope between two trees, pole on two chairs. Teams take turns going under the low hurdles, one team member on the course at a time. Record times.
4) Closing Ceremony = After competition, total the scores. Play patriotic music and announce gold, silver and bronze finishers. Award all participants medals-a foil covered chocolate coin glued to a cardboard circle and hung on a ribbon (or the art idea I give after this). Award small American flags and flag stickers.
5) The Olympic Feast = Salute the countries that participate in your Olympics by planning an ethnic feast. Have each family prepare a dish of their ancestors' country. Have some families bring salad and bread; ask others to bring main dishes and a third to supply desserts. Ask the cooks to supply the recipes, and after the party put together a souvenir booklet of the Olympic feast specialties to hand out.
6) Day is Done = End the day with a Sing Along. Try to see how many songs from or about other lands you can sing. "Frere Jacques", "Waltzing Matilda", "La Cucaracha", and "Edelweiss" are a few ideas; look in the library for the words.

OLYMPIC ART IDEAS
Sport Collage Mural
Materials: Large sheet of paper, magazines with pictures of sports, scissors, glue
Directions: Cut and paste sports pictures onto the large paper.

TORCH
Materials: Paper towel tube, silver foil, and orange/yellow paper
Directions: Cover the tube with foil. Add construction paper flames to the top.

OLYMPIC FLAG
Have the children design a flag to use during your opening ceremonies.

GOLD MEDALS
Materials: Gold paint, small paper plates, red/ white/ and blue streamers Directions: Have the children paint the paper plates gold (or you can ahead of time) Add a piece of streamer to go around the child�s neck. Glue to the back of the plate. On the front you can write".............went for the Gold".
or
Make "Olympic" medals out of large chocolate chip cookies (wrapped in plastic wrap) with a paperclip inserted in the edge as the holder. These hung from red, white, and blue striped neck ribbons. Very cute and deliciously edible!
Olympic Medals can easily be made by using canning lids. They are already gold! But can be spray-painted any color. A label on the back can be used to mark what event and the child's time, distance, etc. Punch a whole near the top to put the ribbon through for placing around child's neck.
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1. Make giant scorecards for the judges (8 x 10 with a # on it)
2. Have a stopwatch on hand
3. Think about music: for national anthems, medal ceremonies, rhythmic gymnastics
4. Designate a referee & judge
5. Make finish lines out of crepe paper or chalk on pavement
6. Have someone play "photographer" or "videographer and/or newscaster & interview athletes on triumphs & defeats
7. Make edible medals using: red/white/blue ribbon, 2" sugar cookie -- wrap cookie in plastic wrap, then cover with gold or silver wrapping paper. Wrap cookie and place a 1 3/4 " long paper clip over cookie, leaving 1/4 " of clip peeking out -- tape in place -- thread ribbon through paper clip loop and knot ribbon ends together
8. Some game events listed:
a) discus: draw a chalk circle in driveway or put a rope circle down. Athlete stays in circle when throwing a Frisbee. Longest throw wins
b) high jump: Slip a small bag of candy on a rope, hanging over a tree branch. If you touch the prize, you win. Adjust height for each child and let them have a few tries until each one "wins" the prize
c) triathlon: Combine 3 races like running, skipping & crab walking. Or set up a relay where players run all 3 legs of the race, but change an outer layer of
clothes between each
d) Greco-roman thumb wrestling: set up card table, two chairs and let the wrestling begin

Olympic cake. Just frost a simple 9 x 13 sheet cake and decorate with M&Ms in the shape and color of the Olympic rings. Some games others played were:
beanie baby toss, sandbox hunt, soccer goal shoot-out
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My kids and I did a unit study on the Olympics, ancient Greece, and Australia during the summer Olympics in Sydney. We had a blast with this, though I would hesitate to add as much as we did to what you are already doing with LA. But here goes the highlights:

First, we studied up on as much as we could about Sydney and Australia. We made a map of Australia and labeled certain places, and then we looked up the pop of Sydney and compared it to the pop of Oxford/Anniston where we live and then found a city in the United States that is comparable in size to Sydney to "get our bearings." We looked up the climate for Sydney at the time of the Olympics (temp. rainfall) and then looked up sites for Sydney to make a list of interesting places to see and visit.

Then, as a writing assignment that continued throughout the three weeks of our unit, I gave them this assignment:

"You have just been informed by your parents that you are going to go to Sydney for the 2000 Summer Olympics. Write how this came about, how you feel about this trip, who will accompany you (is your whole family going or just a few members of the family? friends? etc.) Write what you want to do while in
Australia, how long will you stay in Australia, where you will stay and how you will get about. Remember, this is entirely fictional, so money is no object. You may write it as a journal entry or as a letter to a friend or in any other forms you wish. There is no limit to words or pages. Just have fun with it!" Four of my children did this and I had four very different kinds of accounts! (And, yes, I did my own!)

We copied the flag of Australia, learned the national anthem, learned "Waltzing Matilda," (and were able to sing it with them during the opening ceremonies). We learned the money, language (Australian phrases like billabong--sorry, Jenny, if I spelled it wrong!), and holidays. I looked up the Sydney Opera House and found out what operas were going to be showing during the Olympics and we "went" to an opera. We "visited" the Taronga Zoo and looked up animals indigenous to Australia and "hopped over" to the Botanical Gardens and learned about plants indigenous to Australia.

I found a website with Australian recipes and we made an Australian meal--pretending, of course, that we were at an Australian restaurant.

We watched the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics--which prompted more writing assignments and watched a lot of the games, rooting for whomever
we wanted to if the United States wasn't a strong favorite! (Usually we rooted for the Australians if the U.S. wasn't doing well, but our guys and gals surprised us in several events by winning when they weren't expected to!) In between events, a lot of info about Australia was given which was very educational and all in all, I think I learned more about that beautiful land than I ever knew.

We also read about the ancient Olympics and compared them with the modern Olympics and checked the websites daily to "play around."

One "fun" lang. arts assignment that we did was to do a Mad Lib with my first writing assignment on our trip to Sydney. For those who do not know what a Mad Lib is, you can write something--a letter, a description of something, a very short story, and then leave out key words, putting in their place what
kind of word they were (noun, verb, adj. time period, geographical location, etc.) Then you go around the room of people (in our case, my kids) and ask them to provide you with a noun, verb, whatever you need next. You write that down and when you have your list, you read what you have written replacing your words with their words. When we finished, I had tears rolling down my face it was so hilarious. One of our replacement words had us staying in a mausoleum as our sleeping place. And, don't tell the children, but it is a great way to review parts of speech.