Celebrate the Olympics with a Teddy Bear Olympic Games! Here are six fun activities based on popular Olympic sports, all of which are ideal for preschoolers! My girl was even inspired to create a few new sporting activities of her own!
First up was the DISCUS! To make these we used paper plates & decorated with paint dabbers/bingo markers. (We found using a single plate worked fairly well, but later taped two paper plates together which travelled much further.)
A great activity for exploring gross motor skills, movement, & distance.
Javelin
Next up was the JAVELIN! To make our version we used a large sheet of newspaper rolled diagonally & taped around the middle. These could be decorated with pens, stickers, or wrapped in coloured paper/kitchen foil.
The javelin was great for exploring another set of movements, & again measuring the distance travelled.
Even the bears had a go!
Hurdles
After the javelin, we had the HURDLES! As you can see these were easy to construct with a few chairs & broom handles! Smaller children's chairs gave us a perfect height for younger children to climb/step over... or crawl under!
Again we explored new movements, became more aware of space around us, & this time we timed how long it took to complete the activity. Oh, how much fun a stopwatch can bring, especially when your child is timing YOU to complete the activity!
100meters
No Games would be complete without a RUNNING event. Here our teddy bears are all lined up waiting for the (almost) 100m race to start.
Maybe piggyback races could be added to the Olympics?!
Five bears made it to our finish line... the others got a little lost en route!
This activity offered a whole new set of skills to explore, fine motor moves (as we attempted to tie the starting/finishing line), problem solving (as we created ways of transporting the different sized bears), gross motor moves (as we ran), & literacy (reading signs & recognising familiar words/letters).
Basketball
Our next sporting event was BASKETBALL!
Ok, so it's not quite basketball as we know it, but here's our mini version of the sport, ideal for little arms. We used an old washing basket & a selection of different sized balls which we tried to get into the basket. We moved our starting line a few times to vary the distance the balls had to travel, which obviously made some attempts easier than others. This offered opportunities to predict & adapt our moves to reach the target which was perfect for encouraging hand-eye co-ordination.
Soon we had Wellie Basketball! In the UK we have an alternative sport (mostly found at fetes & festivals) called 'Wellie Wanging', where the winner throws their wellies the furthest distance!
And after the wellie boots... it was time for the bears to join in!
A neat way to get children to tidy their toys too!
Sailing
Our final sport was SAILING!
We made origami sailing boats with different coloured paper which we set sail (blew around) an old baby bath! (Any large container would be perfect for this.) We coloured the water with a little blue food colouring, & the boats were off!
If you're looking for an alternative sailing activity, check out our upcycled sailing boats. This is a neat way to explore design, floating/sinking, & wind power.
So there you have our super six mini Olympic Activities ideal for under 5's, & grown up kiddos too! Hope they bring you as much fun as we've had.